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Whether it is the wound of abuse or the disappointment of believing for but not yet receiving a physical healing, suffering puts humanity on a level playing field and points us to the one pain that is common to us all—our need for God to break into our lives and make the wrong things right. At its most basic level, every pain we experience reveals a longing within us to encounter God’s beauty, or the essence of who He is. SHELLEY HUNDLEY

I just finished reading J C Ryle 'Prepared to Stand Alone' by Iain H Murray. This is first biography I have read on  J C Ryle. I enjoyed reading J C Ryle's book 'Holiness' so I thought I should read a bit more about the man himself. Here are seven things I took away from the book. 1. When Ryle was young, his father owned a bank which eventually collapsed and made the family bankrupt leading to some hardship. In his own words, "the immediate consequences were bitter and painful in the extreme, and humiliating to the utmost degree. The creditors naturally, rightly and justly, seized everything and we children were left with nothing but our own personal property and our clothes" 2 . Ryle became a clergyman more out of forced circumstances than a deliberate choice. He says, "I could not see nothing whatever before me but to become a clergyman because that brought me in some income at once... " Elsewhere, Ryle says, "I became a clerg...

The gate of Mercy is opened, and over the door it is written, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Between that word “save” and the next word “sinners,” there is no adjective. It does not say, “penitent sinners,” “awakened sinners,” “sensible sinners,” “grieving sinners,” or “alarmed sinners.” No, it only says, “sinners.” And I know this, that when I come, I come to Christ today . . . I dare not come as a conscious sinner or an awakened sinner, but I have to come still as a sinner with nothing in my hands . CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON