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Unfailing love!
From Spurgeon's, "God's People in the Furnace"
"I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction."
God's love to his people is immutable--
I chose you before you were here; yes, I chose you before
you had a being, and when all creatures lay before me in the
pure mass of creatureship, and I could create or not create as
I pleased, I chose and created you a vessel of mercy
appointed unto eternal life.
And when you in common with the whole race, had fallen,
though I might have crushed you with them, and sent you
down to hell, I chose you in your fallen condition, and I
provided for your redemption.
In the fullness of time I sent my Son to die for you.
I chose you at your birth, when as a helpless infant
you slept upon your mother's breast.
I chose you when you grew up in childhood with all your
follies and your sins. Determined to save you, I watched over
your path when, as Satan's blind slave, you did sport with death.
I chose you when, in manhood, you sinned against me with a high hand;
when your unbridled lusts dashed you on madly towards hell.
I chose you, then, when you were a blasphemer
and a swearer, and very far from me.
I chose you, then, even when you were dead in trespasses and sins.
I loved you, and still your name was kept in my book.
The appointed hour came-- I redeemed you from your sin;
I made you love me; I spoke to you, and made you leave
your sins and become my child; and I chose you then again.
Since that hour how often have you forgotten me!
but I have never forgotten you.
You have wandered from me; you have rebelled against me;
yes, your words have been exceeding hot against me,
and you have robbed me of my honor;
but I chose you even then.
And now that I put you into the furnace,
do you think that my love is changed?
Am I a summer friend fleeing from you in the winter?
Am I one who loves you in prosperity and then cast you off in
adversity? No; hearken to these my words, you furnace-tried one;
"I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction."
Do not think, then, when you are in trouble
that God has cast you off.
O blessed reflection! let it comfort us:
his love does not change;
it cannot be made to alter;
the furnace cannot scorch us,
but not a single hair of our head can perish.
We are as safe in the fire, as we are out of it.
He loves us as much in the depths of tribulation
as he does in the heights of our joy and exultation.
Rejoice then, O Christian, in that God's love does not fail in
the furnace, but is as hot as the furnace, and hotter still.
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