Series — Refined by Fire: Walking Through Suffering with Christ — Post 11 How God Teaches His Children Through Adversity When Our Understanding Reaches a Cliff One of the great transitions of the Christian life is the transfer of trust — from self to God. But no man abandons his own understanding while it still works for him….
Series — Refined by Fire: Walking Through Suffering with Christ — Post 9 Why the Furnace Is God’s Workshop “But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”— Job 23:10 The Furnace of Affliction Is Not an Accident The trial you’re in didn’t surprise God. It’s not a…
Series — Refined by Fire: Walking Through Suffering with Christ — Post 8 Where Grace Meets Suffering The Broken Path — Where Grace Meets Suffering The Christian walk is not a paved highway. It is a narrow, broken path that leads through valleys, storms, setbacks, and crushing trials. But it is precisely on this path that grace is…
Series: Hard Questions, Holy Answers — Post 7 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. — 1 Peter 4:12 Introduction No one walks the narrow way without encountering trials. They are not interruptions in the Christian life — they are part of it….
(Job 6–7 | Chapter VI of Jessie Penn-Lewis’s *The Story of Job*) “To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend…” —Job 6:14 (KJV) Job begins to speak. Not to debate, but to bleed. Eliphaz’s words have pierced deeper than the sores on Job’s skin. Instead of comfort, he has received condemnation….
God’s refining tools often come in the form of people who rub us the wrong way. Introduction Sometimes the people who irritate us most are the ones God uses to refine us. They mock, accuse, and provoke — yet they are part of God’s process. Scripture shows us that the flesh persecutes the spirit (Gal….
(Job 2:1–13 | Chapter III of Jessie Penn-Lewis’s *The Story of Job*) “But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” —Job 2:10 (KJV) He does not call her foolish—only says she is speaking…
“Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they refine it.”—Job 28:1 (KJV) There are few voices that speak to the sufferer with as much spiritual clarity and depth as Jessie Penn-Lewis. Her 1902 work, *The Story of Job: A Glimpse into the Mystery of Suffering*, is not a…
A Voice from the Ash Heap: Jessie Penn-Lewis and the Spiritual Message of JobIntroducing a Series on Suffering, Refinement, and Victory Jessie Penn-Lewis is one of the Christian writers I most treasure for her depth and spiritual discernment.I first read her book The Story of Job more than 35 years ago—and to this day, I…