Suffering

Jesus Is Scourged

Pilate tried a new approach: sympathy. If Jesus was scourged (beaten with a whip, knotted and weighted with pieces of metal or bone) perhaps they would be satisfied. Certainly, the sight of Jesus, scourged and humiliated, would arouse some pity in their hearts. He ordered that Jesus be …

IllustrationAmerican pastor and author James H. Brookes told of visiting a frien …

American pastor and author James H. Brookes told of visiting a friend’s house and hearing the music of a bird singing. It was not the ordinary sound of chirping; instead it resembled the strains of a lovely melody. At first Brookes didn’t know where it was coming from; but when h …

IllustrationThe Way to The Crown is by The Cross

Every one that gets to the throne must put their foot upon the thorn. The way to the crown is by the cross. We must taste the fall, if we are to taste the glory. When justified by faith, God brought Israel through the Red Sea, He led them into the wilderness. So when God saves a …

IllustrationPresent Difficulty May Bring Future Happiness

The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small uninhabited island. He cried out to God to save him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted …

IllustrationA Little Piece of Wood That Complained

A little piece of wood once complained bitterly because it owner kept whittling away at it, cutting and filling it with holes, but the one who was cutting it so remorselessly paid no attention to it complaining. He was making a flute out of that piece of ebony, and he was too wis …

IllustrationThe Unsympathetic Wife

A woman took her husband to the doctor’s office. After his checkup, the doctor said, “Your husband is suffering from a very serious infection.” The husband, who was hard of hearing said, “What did he say?” His wife said, “He says your sick". The doct …

IllustrationRanger Shoots The Horse

Driving through Texas, a New Yorker collided with a truck carrying a horse. A few months later he tried to collect damages for his injuries. “How can you now claim to have all these injuries?” …

IllustrationGrief Stricken Couple in Pakistan

While my husband Frank and I were living in Pakistan many years ago, our six-month-old baby died. An old Punjabi who heard of our grief came to comfort us. “A tragedy like this is similar to being plunged into boiling water,” he explained. “If you are an egg, …

IllustrationButterfly Takes a Struggle to Survive

Bruce Waltke, one of my mentors in my student days at Dallas Seminary, tells a marvelous story about the day that he and his daughter were walking in the forest. They came upon something you rarely see. It was an almost -born butterfly. The little cocoon was spinning and spin …

IllustrationDrugs Don’t Treat The Main Problem

Mother Teresea said, “We have drugs for people with diseases like leprosy. But these drugs do not treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted. That’s what my sisters hope to provide. The sick and poor suffer even more from rejection than material want. Loneli …