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Amazing Facts

Trials

Joe Crews

Trials Part 2

It has long been known that certain fruits will ripen only after the first touch of frost.

Now it has been determined that many people require a measure of affliction and struggle in order to develop mature characters.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about the necessity of human suffering.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

Today I want to read a passage of scripture that has brought hope and consolation to thousands through the years, and yet when it's really needed it's the most difficult to believe.

We find that text in the book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 28.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Now friends, we all pass through some experiences that are hard to bear and hard to understand.

When some contrary wind blows in our lives, we wonder if God really has forsaken us.

Should we not say instead, I don't understand this, but I'm sure someday I will, for the promise of God is all things do work together for good to those that love him.

In other words, friends, why should we doubt that whatever is coming to us is not really for our best good if we truly believe that promise of God?

I repeat, it is at the time that we need this passage most that we find it the most difficult to believe it.

Rain, wind, storm, and the crash of thunder, they come into everybody's lives.

And the poet said, into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary.

But you know, friends, rain can be a blessing.

In this world there are places of perpetual sunshine.

I've seen those regions of constant sunshine, and all that 1 can see there is drifting sand and the bleaching bones of some creatures unfortunate enough to have become lost in those great wastes.

While crossing 1 of those, the great sand desert, I looked in every direction and could see nothing but shimmering sunshine, bright and dazzling over the vast expanse.

Nothing but brightness, sunshine and sand, sand and sunshine, everywhere with intense heat until it was almost maddening.

Such are the places of perpetual sunshine in this old earth, friends.

The greatest desert of life is in that of a person who has never experienced adversity, in whose life no storm has ever broken, no rain ever fallen.

Storms and wind and rain are God's agent in our world by which He makes it fit for human habitation.

When copious showers are interspersed with sunshine, vegetation is green and luxurious, and flowers bloom in beauty.

And there the earth yields its abundance, and it may be made like unto the garden of the Lord.

But with everlasting sunshine the earth is parched.

It gets to be very hard, and there is no green growth, or growth of any kind, in fact.

The most beautiful lives are those over which much rain has fallen, and many storms have broken, lives that have been beaten by wind and waves.

So let's beware lest we blame God when the storms blow and the rains fall, and when the lightning splits the sky and thunder rolls over our hills.

By these things God is trying to make our lives more rich and fragrant.

You know there are certain fruits that ripen only after the first touch of frost, and it has been determined, of course, that many people require a measure of affliction and struggle in order to develop mature characters.

We might call the role of the men and women who have made this world better because they have lived here, and we'd find that they all have been creatures of storm and wind.

Can any life compare with that of Job, the servant of God?

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and 1 that feared God and eschewed evil.

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elder brother's house, and there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabians fell upon them and took them away.

Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there also came another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them.

And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out 3 bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away.

Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.

And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the 4 corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." Job 1.13-19.

Calamity after calamity with progressive pain fell on Job, and 1 day, until all his earthly possessions were wiped out, and he lost all his sons in that same day.

His only response was, "'Naked came out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither.

The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1.21.

Soon he was visited with a loathsome disease, until he was covered with boils from head to foot, and he sat down among the ash heaps.

He replied, Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and not evil?

And then Job's friends came to comfort him.

But when they saw him, they sat in silence for 7 days and 7 nights.

Then they thought they would reason with him.

They said, Job, repent of your evil, for this does not come upon you for naught.

You see, they didn't know, nor did Job know, that God in heaven had said of Job, A perfect and upright man, 1 that feareth God, and is sheweth evil." Why these calamities, then, if Job was so perfect?

Although Job didn't know it, God was using him to prove to angels, to Satan, and to man that man can serve God and do good for no other reason than just doing good, with no ulterior or selfish motive, not for material rewards, not because 1 believes that by serving God the way will be easier.

Destruction upon destruction wasted his substance, robbed him of his famine, and afflicted his body.

The storm that blew upon him only drove his roots deeper into the soil.

He was perfect before God, the Bible says.

Of course, Satan brought them, but God permitted them for a reason.

When Satan had gone as far as he could and Job still stood firm through everything, even though his earthly goods were all taken away, his family was taken.

And Job began to pray for his enemies, his so-called friends, and when he did this, the blessing he asked for others was bestowed upon him manifold.

Then God could bless him abundantly, and he gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Now friends, this is an interesting experience.

It's given to teach us that wind and storm and rain and the like do God's bidding for man.

Job didn't suffer for his own sins, for God had said he was a perfect and upright man, but he suffered for the sake of others.

Satan, you see, had challenged God, saying, Job serves you only for the material benefits you give to him.

He doesn't do right because he loves you, but because you are just protecting him.

And God accepted that challenge, and He answered, Well, let's see about that.

And Satan took over with the result that never, except in His encounter with Jesus Christ on this earth was he ever so disastrously defeated.

Afterward, Job would see that his suffering was for a purpose, that it was really a blessing in disguise.

You know, 1 of the most unusual monuments in the world is in Enterprise, Alabama, because it honors a pest, the Mexican boll weevil.

In 1915, when the pest first made its appearance in Coffee County, Alabama, the annual yield of 35, 000 bales of cotton was cut by 40 percent.

The ravages of the boll weevil spread throughout the entire cotton belt from Texas to Georgia.

And threatened by bankruptcy, the farmers turned to diversified farming and began the successful growing of potatoes, corn, and peanuts, but mostly peanuts.

In 1919, when the country's peanut crop was yielding more than a million bushels every year, a monumental fountain was put up in Enterprise, Alabama, with an inscription on it.

And This is what the inscription said, in profound appreciation of the boevil and what it's done as the herald of prosperity, this monument was erected by the citizens of Enterprise, Coffee County, Alabama.

So really, tragedies sometimes turn out to be great blessings in disguise.

It takes a certain degree of struggle for people to develop their spiritual lives.

We think also of the patriarch Jacob, who suffered much and long.

And unlike Job, who suffered for others, Job suffered for his own failures and mistakes.

Remember now, in spite of his weaknesses, Jacob really loved God.

The hand of misfortune touched him very often.

He had been cheated in marriage, you remember, he was cheated in his wages.

Trouble pursued him for more than 20 years while he was living with that crafty, cheating uncle.

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