Thread: "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
Posted : 30 Aug, 2011 06:08 AM
There is often a severity in the chastisements of our covenant God. It is important to the end for which they were sent not to overlook this grievousness. He who sent the chastisement appointed its character. He intended that it should be felt.
There is much danger in underrating the chastisements of God. It is not uncommon to hear some of God's saints remark, in the very midst of his dealings with them, "I feel it to be no cross at all. I do not feel it an affliction. I am not conscious of any peculiar burden." Is it not painful to hear such expressions from the lips of a dear child of God? It betrays a lack of spiritual sensitivity. It reveals a deficiency of that keen, tender feeling which ever ought to belong to those who profess to rest on Jesus.
Now we solemnly believe that it is the Lord's holy will that his redeemed child should feel the chastisement to be grievous. You should feel the smartings of the rod! Moses, Jacob, Job, David, Paul�each were made to exclaim, "The LORD has chastened me severely" (Ps. 118:18).
When you remember that your chastisements often grow out of your sin�that God sends the rod to subdue some strong indwelling corruption, or to correct for some outward departure�this should ever humble your soul. This should ever cause you rightly to view the rebuke. If it were not for some strong indwelling corruption, or some step taken in departure from God, then God would have withheld this affliction. Oh, how every stroke of the rod should lay your soul in the dust before God! "If God had not seen sin in my heart and in my conduct, then he would not have dealt so heavily with me in this way." And if you do not feel the grievousness of the chastisement, then should that not make you suspect that you have not discovered and mourned over the cause of the chastisement?
Consider as well that the stroke comes from the Father who loves you. He loves you so much that he gave his only begotten Son for you. You are dear to him as the apple of his eye. Would he inflict those strokes, if there were not an absolute necessity for them? "What? Is it the Father who loves me that now afflicts me? Does this stroke come from his heart? What? Does my Father see the need for this grievous chastening? Does he discover in me so much evil, so much perverseness, so much that he hates and that grieves him, that he sends this severe discipline?" Oh how this thought�that the chastisement proceeds from your Father who loves you�imparts a keenness to the stroke!
Moreover, there is often something in the very nature of the chastisement itself that causes its grievousness to be felt. The wound may be in the tenderest part. The rebuke may come through some idol of the heart. God may convert some of your choicest blessings into sources of the keenest sorrow. How often he, in the wisdom and sovereignty of his dealings, adopts this method! Abraham's most valued blessing became the cause of his acutest sorrow. The chastisement may come through the beloved Isaac. The very mercy you clasp so fondly to your warm heart may be God's voice to you, speaking in the tone of severe yet tender rebuke. Samuel, dear to the heart of Eli, was God's solemn voice to his erring yet beloved servant.
Let no afflicted believer, then, think lightly of his chastisements. It is the Lord's will that you should feel them. He sent them for this purpose. If you did not feel the cross, if you were not conscious of the burden, if the wound were not painful, then you would never take it to the mercy-seat, there to seek all needed grace, support, and strength. You must first feel the burden before you cast it upon the Lord. You must feel the chastisement to be grievous before you will seek the tenderness and sympathy of Jesus.
At the same time, remember that there is equal danger of overrating your afflictions. If you allow them too deeply to absorb you in grief, if they render you unfit for duty, if they keep you from walking in the path God has marked out for you, if they hold you back from prayer and from the means of grace, if they lead you to think harshly and speak severely of God, then you overrate God's chastisements, and so prevent the good he so kindly sent them to convey.
by Octavius Winslow, 1856
In the hour of trial, Jesus, plead for me;
lest by base denial I depart from thee;
when thou seest me waver, with a look recall,
nor for fear or favor suffer me to fall.
With its witching pleasures would this vain world charm,
or its sordid treasures spread to work me harm,
bring to my remembrance sad Gethsemane,
or, in darker semblance, cross-crowned Calvary.
If with sore affliction thou in love chastise,
pour thy benediction on the sacrifice;
then, upon thine altar freely offered up,
though the flesh may falter, faith shall drink the cup.
When in dust and ashes to the grave I sink,
while heav'n's glory flashes o'er the shelving brink,
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
Posted : 30 Aug, 2011 06:15 AM
This indivdual of little if any knowledge of the lord he always talks out of his soul, which is at enmity with the lord, it would be best if you love the lord to refrain from his unbelief.
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
Posted : 30 Aug, 2011 06:18 AM
When we stubborn, unregenerate, measly, non repentant, and sinful humans believe we who have violated God�s Moral laws have the right, and a free will, to override God and choose Him and grant ourselves salvation, we make ourselves a God, because we believe we can checkmate God and that He doesn�t have the power to do anything about it. Nor would He be Sovereign with the power to choose whom He wants to save. When one believes he or she can checkmate God they are on VERY dangerous ground.
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
Posted : 30 Aug, 2011 06:22 AM
That will not fly with me or Jesus as we are one you can not speak of spiritual things, without the spirit, if you believe his writings are right then you are missing something the holy spirit would not agree with this post or your response. It is not of love to post such unbelief.
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
Posted : 30 Aug, 2011 01:32 PM
Love Hebrews...No one knows who actually wrote Hebrews...its All good though...and better than reading someone elses interpretation of a verse within it...xo
Hebrews 12 ~
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye ba$tards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
