In Christ Alone 

History is full of people who experienced God on a deep and personal level. Samuel Rutherford was one of those. He was a Scottish minister who was born about 1600. He was put in prison for non-conformity. He survived and went on to write the Westminster Confession. His faith remained strong, even when he was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death. He suffered physically, yet he did not waver in his faith. And even though the conditions were surely awful, Samuel Rutherford, was totally absorbed with Christ. It is said that “He went to sleep with Christ as his pillow; he awoke in Christ”

John Piper wrote, "There in prison he made a great discovery about the source of enduring happiness. He expressed it in these stunning words: If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my unusual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose.

And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps, and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven"

That's why, my friends, we can be thankful for difficult, painful, yuk times. They make us long for God. We experience His love in a way we wouldn't if everything was sunshine lollipops and rainbows everywhere. Joni Erickson Tada wrote: When an accident sent a broken neck my way, God blew out the lamps in my life that made the here and now so captivating. The despair of total and permanent paralysis that followed wasn't much fun, but it sure made heaven come alive. One day, when our Bridegroom comes back, there's not a doubt I'll be more excited and ready for it than if I were on my feet.

You and I don't have to have broken necks or be imprisoned. There are plenty of times when life is hard. When someone we love dies and there is a gaping hole in our heart. When we feel the pain of rejection. When our children wander away from their faith in God. When our hopes of success don't materialize, we long for the day when the heartache will be gone. It is in Christ alone, that we will find strength, comfort, peace, unfailing love.

Everyone has a story. We know that because everyone needs Jesus. If we could do it on our own, we wouldn't need Him...but we do.

O how I pray that when God, in mercy, begins to blow out our lamps, we will not curse the wind!

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