Pastor Sam Storms brought a message tonight starting with this quote from the great reformer in a letter to a woman struggling with physical illness:Afflictions should serve as medicine to purge us, to remove what is superfluous…We ought to learn from our physical afflictions, in whatever form they may come, to live every day with one foot raised, ready for our departure into the presence of God.
The list of Calvin’s afflictions read like a medical journal. Headaches. Fevers. Gout. Colic. Hemorrhoids. Arthritis. Acute chronic inflammation of the kidneys. Gall stones. Violent fits of coughing that ruptured blood vessels in his lungs.
I never realized the man suffered from so many physical ailments. He managed to view them as momentary light afflictions (2 Cor. 4:16-18) by looking upon the invisible and contemplating the incomparably great weight of eternal glory that awaited him upon his death.
May all who name the name of Jesus do the same in good health and bad.
I learned about them at the Holiness of God conference. I'm such a pansy....
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