Tested by fire: The Fruit Of Affliction In The Lives Of John Bunyan, William Cowper And David Brainerd - Softcover

Piper, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0851115535 ISBN 13: 9780851115535

Publisher: IVP, 2007

Synopsis

<p>Great privilege. Great pain. This is God's way: to take the privilege of faith and strengthen it with real trials so that we worship and witness with a greater passion for God.<br>There is a certain irony to the fruit of affliction; John Bunyan's confinement taught him the pilgrim path of Christian freedom; William Cowper's mental illness yielded sweet music of the mind for troubled souls; David Brainerd's smouldering misery of isolation and disease exploded in global mission beyond all imagination.<br>Irony and disproportion are all God's way. We think we know how to do something big, and God makes it little. We think that all we have is weak and small, and God makes it big. Barren Sarah gives birth to the child of promise. Gideon's three hundred men defeat a hundred thousand Midianites. A slingshot in the hand of a shepherd boy brings the giant down. A virgin bears the Son of God. A boy's five loaves feeds thousands. A breach of justice, grovelling political expediency, and criminal torture on a gruesome cross become the salvation of the world.</p>

About this title

From the Back Cover

Great privilege. Great pain. This is God's way: to take the
privilege of faith and strengthen it with real trials so that we worship
and witness with a greater passion for God.

There is a certain irony to the fruit of affliction.
John Bunyan's confinement taught him the pilgrim path of Christian
freedom.

William Cowper's mental illness yielded sweet music of the mind for
troubled souls.

David Brainerd's smouldering misery of isolation and disease exploded in
global mission beyond all imagination.
Irony and disproportion are all God's way. We think we know how to do
something big, and God makes it little. We think that all we have is weak
and small, and God makes it big. Barren Sarah gives birth to the child of
promise. Gideon's three hundred men defeat a hundred thousand Midianites.
A slingshot in the hand of a shepherd boy brings the giant down. A virgin
bears the Son of God. A boy's five loaves feeds thousands. A breach of
justice, grovelling political expediency, and criminal torture on a
gruesome cross become the salvation of the world.

John Piper

Reviews:

This is one of the best books published this year. It is readable,
challenging and should enlighten any reader.
...Should be read by any young or new Christian for two reasons. One, it is
good biography and two, if it emblazes upon any mind the link between
suffering and grace, it will achieve much.

Presbyterian Herald:

Here is an inspiring book which provides a rich antidote to the
superficiality of our age.

Derek Tidball; Baptist Times

Edition details

• Publisher: IVP
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0851115535
• ISBN 13: 9780851115535
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192