Chastening Love

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

                             "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Revelation 3:19


There is an eternal purpose back of all that befalls a Christian. The chastening of the Lord may take different forms. Sometimes it is a stern visitation because of our sin; at other times it can be a tender pruning by the nail-scarred Hand especially laid upon us because we are a promising vine. In either case, chastening is a mark of God's divine love and concern for us. In other words, chastening does not necessarily mean that you are the worst sinner in town; rather it may mean that you are the most promising saint; for the Scripture says, "every branch....that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2). Lives that have been the most afflicted are usually the most effective. As the tender hand of the Divine Gardener trims away the excess foliage of earthly joys and contentment, the spiritual nourishment from the vine of God is channeled to the productive buds of the branches. With hindrances, weights, and carnality cut away, we bring forth "more fruit." God's purpose in regard to our suffering, therefore, is to refine in us the gold of holiness. The Divine Sculptor employs His chisel often upon the marble from which He seeks to create a masterpiece.

A Christian mother lay dying. Beside her a loving daughter stood weeping silently. Conscious of the agony that caused the great tears to fall, the mother looked Heavenward and whispered, "Patience, darling; it is only the chiseling." Alas, the Master Sculptor sees many deformities in His children which must be chiseled off before they can find a place of honor in His divine gallery of Heaven. How good to know that the chisel of trial is held in the never erring, skillful hand of God's love.

"Bread For Each Day"

The Need Of Pruning

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

                    " . . . every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it . . . "   John  15:2

     I have several grapevines in my garden and each year I cut out loads and loads of long spindly vines, because I know that unless I remove these, they will take all the strength that should go into fruit.  So also our precious Lord prunes His children.  The knife is sharp and it hurts, but the Father knows best.  No vine can be fully fruitful without "pruning."

     The richest, the fullest, the most fruitful lives are those that have been in the crucible of testing, that have been broken upon the wheel of tribulation.  We have no right to believe that God will do anything with our lives until He has broken us.  There are in this world few entirely unbroken lives that are useful to God. There are few men and women who can fulfill their own hopes and plans without interruptions and disappointments all along the way.  But man's disappointments are ever God's appointments; and what we believe are tragedies are only blessings in disguise, and the very opportunities through which God wishes to exhibit His love and grace.

     There are some lives in which human plans are so completely thwarted that they seem pathetic as we look at them from a merely human standpoint.  Yet if we but study these lives carefully, we see that the lives which have been afflicted are most effective.  Are you, my friend, being broken today?  Has the dearest in life been torn from you?  Have all your dreams faded?  Have all your hopes failed?  Then remember that if you could see the purpose of these thorns in your life from the standpoint of God's wisdom and of eternity, if you could interpret these trials in this aggregate of life's blessings, you would be able to dry your tears and praise the Lord for them all.  He will not withhold any good thing "from them that walk uprightly."

"Bread For Each Day"