Monday, I considered the relationship between knowledge of the revealed Word of God and faith through trials... how gazing ahead to the eternal glory of Christ allows believers to view the challenges of today with peace. The view is both far and near, and may require bifocals.

Tuesday, I found an amazing sermon from someone I have read some of, but had never heard speak, Martin Lloyd-Jones. There is an MLJ Recordings Trust (thanks CO for finding this), which sells audio and books, as well as offers a daily broadcasts (streaming only) of Lloyd-Jones' sermons.

On the site is one free sermon: "Meeting Trials and Temptations" preached just two years before Lloyd-Jones' death in 1981. So I downloaded it, and threw it on my iPod (thanks honey).

Wednesday morning I listened to the sermon on the way in to work, and was pleased to find that it was on a passage which I had been meditating on for the last several months, 1 Pet 1:13-25.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:13)

We have been facing many trials in our personal lives, and in our church body ...Two weeks ago, my wife was briefly admitted to the hospital because her bronchitis had lead to bronchial spasms that prevented her from breathing. Praise God she is doing much better, after several breathing treatments. steroids, and anti-biotics for the tonsilitis which followed. My mom is recovering from a painful knee replacement surgery. One friend from work shared of a family members' battle with cancer, while another told me she was worried of a pending biopsy. Untold numbers in our church fellowship are suffering from illness, injury and serious diseases and the loss of those who have moved on.

How comforting then, hearing the word of God spoken to me through this recording of this bold saint. But I didn't know the full extent of what I was being prepared for.

Later that day I found out one of the dearest brother's in Christ in our fellowship had been diagnosed with colon cancer just that afternoon. Where was he the night he found out about his cancer? Was he fretting about the surgery scheduled for the week following? Was he depressed and frustrated and asking God why? No. He was praying aloud at the regular prayer meeting scheduled in his home which he did not cancel. Both he and his wife peacefully prayed, reminding our body of the anchor that is the word of God, which causes us to look ahead to the glory of Christ and face the day with full confidence and joy. They were thanking God for His grace in providing men who unabashedly preached the full counsel of God, and men and women over the years who had taught them how to study the Bible so that they would be grounded in the hope and peace of Christ.

When our hope starts to wander, we gird up the loins of our mind to remember who we are in Christ. Unshakable faith is grounded in the Spirit-lead knowledge of the word of Christ which brings us into such a relationship with Our Creator God that we have no other option but to believe and hope in our eternal future with Him.

Please pray for my dear brother Chick as he faces this trial, and pray for all the rest of us that we would be as unshakable as he is, "so that the proof of our faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 1:7).