Dr. W.A. Criswell gave the following story from October 1954 to illustrate Romans 8:28 …On How God Can Bring Good Out of Bad! Here he illustrates Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Then sometimes things overwhelm us because the Lord is trying us, molding us and making us. Simon Peter begins his letter and when James begins his letter: both of them start it alike. James says: “Count it all joy” – gladness – “when you fall into trial” [James 1:2]. Simon Peter starts the same thing: “The trial of your faith is precious, though it be tried by fire” [from 1 Peter 1:7]. The vine has to be pruned to bear fruit [John 15:2].No such thing as a Christian with great character brought up at ease and in comfort, but the Lord tries His children. We are a shapeless mass of clay until God molds us. It’s from the hands of the Lord, and it is for our good. Whatever it is, it’s for our good.
There was a father who had a boy. When this child was born his foot was deformed and he would be handicap all the days of his life. When the child was 8 years old, the finest surgeons in the land operated on that foot and in despair said, “He’s to be a cripple all of his life. We cannot help.” But that father, loving that child, studied that foot and he studied ligaments, and bones, and muscles. He finally, called on a surgeon and instructed where he was to cut. And then the father made the funniest kind of a box. And in that box, he put iron screws and iron bolts and felt taps. And he took that lad and after the operation put his foot in that strange looking box, tightened the screws and tightened the bolts.
The little boy for weeks and for months cried piteously because his foot hurt in the box. The father would come home, the little boy would cry, “Dad, I don’t mind being a cripple. I can’t bear the pain all the day and the pain all the night!” The father would pick up his boy and tighten the screw and tighten the bolt. And the boy would cry, and the father mingled his tears with his boy as he tightened the screw and as he tightened the bolt.
But one glorious day, the father untightened the bolts and untightened the screw, took off the box, and said, “Son, son, stand up! Stand up! Stand up.” And for the first time in the little boy’s life, he stood up, and his foot was whole and well and straight. That boy is now an old grey-headed man and that father is in Glory. And I read this week that that old grey-headed man makes his regular pilgrimage to the grave of his father and there waters the ground with his tears in gratitude for what his father had done for him when he tightened the bolt and tightened the screw and kept his foot in the box.
That’s what Paul meant when he wrote Romans 8:28. We know, out of the deep, everlasting and eternal persuasions in God, we know that all things work together for good to them that look to God, that trust in God, that love God, to them who are in the purpose of His infinite and all-wise plan. Dear people, that’s one reason why I’m glad I’m a Christian. Don’t understand and don’t propose but in the infinite plan of God it reaches out and up and on to an infinite purpose, and it’s enough that He knows what it is. His will be done [Luke 22:42]. (The Late Pastor W.A. Criswell)
Anne Leonard’s Passing!
Our Hearts goes out to the Leonard Family in the passing of Anne Leonard. Anne would always light up the room with her smile and personality. She has been with Country Fellowship since the beginning. Oh! How she will be missed. We are praying for Leonard and all the family. Prayers also for the Carter Creek Pickers. This was a great loss for George, Robbie and Dave.
Sundays @ Country Fellowship: Sunday School @ 9:00 a.m.; Worship at 10:30 a.m.
Fridays @ 10:00 a.m. Online & Onsite A Study on the Book of Philippians . This week Phil. 4: 8-9 “You are what you think!” Pastor Charles/ 972-983-7968/pastorcountryfellowship@gmail.com