"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"I am bound to speak well of my Physician — He treats me with great tenderness, and bids me in due time to expect a perfect cure. I know too much of Him (though I know but little) to doubt either His skill or His promise. It is true, I have suffered sad relapses since I have been under His care. Yet I confess that the fault has not been His — but my own! I am a perverse and unruly patient! When I have brought myself very low — He has still helped me. Blessed be His name — I am yet kept alive only by means of His perfect care. Though His medicines are all beneficial — they are not all pleasant. Now and then He gives me a pleasant cordial; but I have many severe disorders, in which there is a needs-be for my frequently taking His bitter and unpalatable medicines! We sometimes publish in the newspapers, acknowledgments of cures received. Methinks, if I were to publish my own case, that it would run something like this: "I, John Newton, have long labored under a multitu...

“ It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn T hy statutes.” - PSALM 119:71 [KJV] Have you ever noticed how believers who have been SEVERELY tried under the hand of God become more CAUTIOUS and HUMBLE? They do not speak quite so fast as they used to speak; they do not have a ready solution for every problem; they do not boast of what they HAVE done, WILL do, or WOULD do under certain circumstances; they are not quite so critical of others who fail; they have little to say about their own doings and much to say about the wonderful grace of our Lord. Afflictions and trials have a way of MELLOWING believers and creating a certain character which cannot be mistaken or imitated. David wrote in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn …” - Gospel report by preacher Henry T. Mahan  

"Persecuted, but not forsaken." - II CORINTHIANS 4:9 [KJV] Whatever injury persecutors may do or attempt to do to a Christian, they cannot rob him of his God. They may destroy his body; they cannot destroy his soul. They may wound his reputation; but they cannot wound his conscience. They may strip him of all his earthly goods; but they cannot lay their unhallowed hands upon the treasure which God has lodged in his breast. Yea, all may forsake him as they forsook his divine Master; but God has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Why, then, need we dread persecution for righteousness' sake? If the Lord be on our side, whom need we fear? And who can harm us if we be followers of that which is good? But bear in mind that it must be persecution for righteousness' sake. Do not call it persecution if you are buffeted for your faults. Do not think yourselves persecuted if by your inconsistencies you have brought upon yourselve...