If someone doesn't know their Old Testament, they don't know right doctrine, right correction, and they can't be equipped for good works.
Commandments and covenants of God are like navigational instructions from celestial heights and will lead us safely to our eternal destination. It is one of beauty and glory beyond understanding. It is worth the effort. It is worth making decisive corrections now and then staying on course.
Because we are continually growing in the Lord, preachers and lay people alike must be open to the Lord's correction.
He has afflicted you from every direction in order to pull you back to the directionless.
Everything is wrong until Jesus sets it right.
Sometimes, if you're like me, [God] will brace or reprove in a highly personal process not understood or appreciated by those outside the context.
God permits war in order that men may bear the consequences of their sins as punishment. How clearly this is shown time and time again in the story of the children of Israel!
God's arrows of affliction are sharp and painful so He can get our attention. He won't let His beloved children get away with sin because He knows it robs us of blessings, opportunities, and even character refinement.
Do you know who the upright of heart are? They are those who wish what God wishes. Therefore, do not try to twist God's will to you own but correct your will to that of God. The will of God is a rule of conduct. By it you have the means of being converted and of correcting your evil ways.
The heavens will not be filled with those who never made mistakes but with those who recognized that they were off course and who corrected their ways to get back in the light of gospel truth.
The Church, therefore, has two constant needs; instruction in the truths by which it must live, and correction of the shortcomings by which its life is marred.
