Suffering Archives – Fraglen Inkwell Diaries

Great Pressure

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers,
about the hardships we suffered in the province
of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond
our ability to endure,so that we despaired even
of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence
of death. But this happened that we might not rely on
ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

2 Corinthians 1:8,9

The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life
is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning,
and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God
and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and
fits us to help and sympathize with them…

Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace
fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston,drives
the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of
the winds and waves.

-A.B. Simpson (1843-1919)

“Out of the presses of pain,
Cometh the soul’s best wine;
And the eyes that
have shed no rain,
Can shed but little shine.”

Streams in the Desert Volume One – May 18

by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

The Sound of Certain Victory

April 2, 2021 testadmin

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.”

Amos 8:9

The darkness shrouded our Lord, and at the moment when He suffered
the most extreme agony, His suffering was hidden from all human eyes.
The impenetrable secrecy of those last hours is what enables us to
imagine and appreciate the inconceivable suffering He endured. In
His previous hours of suffering, He had been exposed to view. But
human eyes were never intended to see Him in His supreme anguish.
There is no way we could ever do justice in describing that horrible
time, so God hid it from us.
If Jesus’ experience as the Sinbearer revealed itself on His face,
as Isaiah seems to indicate in his fifty-third chapter, and if it
affected His appearance that men should take no notice of Him, then
those last hours in which His sufferings climaxed must have impressed
themselves on Him in unequaled severity.

Gethsemane is described for us in Scripture, but we read nothing about
the last half of Calvary. Peter,James, and John were given an audience
to His private suffering in Gethsemane, but at Calvary, God drew the
drapes of darkness around Him to hide Him from human eyes.

Oh, the mysteries of that suffering! No man’s eyes should ever see them.
All that man was permitted to know of His suffering was to hear the terrible
cry of incomprehensible pain and torment. Yet in that cry was the sound of
certain victory, for the mournful cry, “Why have you forsaken me?” follows
only upon the heels of the confident shout, “My God,my God.”

from The Six Miracles of Calvary by William R. Nicholson. Pages 24,25

How Long?

February 15, 2020 jakin7

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
Psalm 13:1a

“So doth God with his saints, and with those that be
in league with him; he withdraweth himself oft, and
keeps aloof oft for a long time together to try what
they will do, and what courses they will take when
God seemeth to break with them and to leave them in the suds,
as we say; amist many difficulties much perplexed, as
it was with David at this time. “
-Thomas Gataker (1574-1654)

How long will you hide your face from me?
Psalm 13:1b

“Though it be proper to know our own hearts, for the purposes
of conviction, yet, if we expect consolation from this quarter,
we shall find ourselves sadly disappointed. Such, for a time, appears
to have been the case of David. He seems to have been in great
distress; and as is common in such cases, his thoughts turned
inward, casting in his mind what he should do, and what would be the end of things. While thus exercised, he had sorrow in his
heart daily; but, betaking himself to God for relief, he succeeded,
trusting in his mercy, his heart rejoiced in his salvation. There
are many persons, who, when in trouble, imitate David in the former part of this experience: I wish we may imitate him in the latter.”
Andrew Fuller (1754-1815)

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and every day have sorrow in my heart? Psalm 13:2a

How long will my enemy triumph over me? Psalm13: 2b

Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; Psalm 13:3

my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall. Psalm13:4

But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation. Psalm 13: 5

I will sing to the Lord,
for he has been good to me. Psalm 13:6

“Faith keeps the soul from sinking under heavy trials, by bringing
in former experiences of the power, mercy, and faithfulness of God to the afflicted soul. Hereby was the Psalmist supported in distress.
Oh, saith faith, remember what God hath done both for thy outward and
inward man: he hath not only delivered thy body when in trouble, but
he hath done great things for thy soul; he hath brought thee out of
a state of black nature, entered into a covenant relation with thee,
made his goodness pass before thee; he hath helped thee to pray, and
many times hath heard thy prayers and thy tears. Hath he not formerly
brought thee out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and
put a new song in thy mouth, and made thee to resolve never to give way to such unbelieving thoughts and fears again? and how unbecoming is it for thee now to sink in trouble?
John Willison (1680-1750)

In The Dark

September 24, 2019 jakin7

Faith may be in the dark about guidance, but it is never in the dark about God.

What God is doing may be mystery, but who God is is not. …

Oswald Chambers explains: “When I am going on with God in His path, I do not understand, but God does; therefore I understand God, not His path.”…

…trust God and wait in the dark. …

As Oswald Chambers says,”are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will talk in the wrong mood: darkness is the time to listen.”…

That is when we can say with Augustine, “You are guiding me as a helmsman steers a ship, but the course you steered was beyond my understanding.”…

Suffering is the most acute trial that faith can face, and the questions it raises are the sharpest, the most insistent, and the most damaging that faith will meet. …

Faith must reach deep into its reserves of courage and endurance if the rising panic of incomprehensible pain is not to be overwhelming. …

God in the Dark (The Assurance of Faith Beyond a Shadow of Doubt) by Os Guinness pp. 176-179

It Is Finished

April 19, 2019 jakin7

It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: The King Of The Jews. Mark 15:25-26

“There could be no mistake about the fact of who was really nailed to the cross, for he was crucified in broad daylight. We are fully assured that it was Jesus of Nazareth, for both friends and foes were eyewitnesses of his agonies. For three long hours the Jews sat down and watched him on the cross, making jest of his miseries. I feel thankful for those three hours of light or else the enemies of our faith would have questioned whether in very deed the blessed body of our Master was nailed to the tree” (preached on April 18th, 1886 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London). Charles H. Spurgeon

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. Luke 23: 45a

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Matthew 27:51a

The earth shook and the rocks split. Matthew 27:51b

The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died where raised to life. Matthew 27:52

They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:53

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:54

Can You Thank Me?

December 31, 2018 jakin7

“Why Does a God of Love Allow Suffering ” – Dr. Helen Roseveare –

“And then He gave me these words: ‘Can you thank Me for trusting you with this experience, even if I never tell you why’ “? Dr. Helen Roseveare (1925-2016)

Time of Testing

December 31, 2016 jakin7

The time of testing that marks and mightily enriches a soul’s spiritual career is no ordinary one,
but a period when all hell seems to let loose, a period when we realize our souls are brought into a net,
when we know that God is permitting us to be in the devil’s hand. Alpha White

From Streams in the Desert Volume 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Stones

December 13, 2016 jakin7

Stones are not broken except by an earnest
use of the hammer, and the stone-breaker usually
goes down on his knees…
…You can force your way through anything
with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and
reasoning may be like the steel wedges that
may open a way into truth, but prayer is the
lever, the crowbar that forces open the iron
chest of sacred mysteries so that we may get
the treasures hidden in it for those who can
force their way to reach it. “Until now the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent take it by force. ” (Matt 11:12).
Take care that you work with the mighty
implement of prayer, and nothing can stand
against you.
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Category: Suffering