Richard Sibbes says,
“…there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us…it is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell.”
The Bruised Reed, p. 47
Suffering & Evil
We distinguish between our sufferings in general and evil or wickedness. The persecution of the believer is constituted ‘sufferings.’ The killing of many people in Las Vegas is evil. It is the evil of man . It has always been so. We recognize the difficulty in saying that God knew of such an evil and did nothing to prevent it. We do not know, first of all, how much God did actually prevent, so it is pointless to speculate. We must acknowledge that God is on control of all things, even the evil of man. If God did not then he is not God. To say that God does not care or God did nothing is to seriously misrepresent all that Scripture reveals about God. [Read more…]
Grieving Over Sin
So long as we bewail sin, seek remission of sin, strive after perfection, and endeavor to keep close and sensitive to his commandments, though a naughty heart will carry us aside sometimes, we keep the testimony of the Lord in a gospel sense, and can be included in the compass of David’s blessed man.
Thomas Manton, Psalm 119, 1:14, 15
The Reason for being Humbled
God humbles us so that we might know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deut. 8:3)