"The Prisoner in the Third Cell" by Gene Edwards
-"Your God has not lived up to your expectations." [Mary, Jesus, John and Jesus' disciples after hearing the news of John the Baptist's death]
-"Yes I have been to you, as to all others, a Lord not fully understood, a God who rarely makes clear exactly what He is doing in the life of one of His children."
-"Many were healed. But not all. 'And blessed is he who is not offended with me.' "
-[God 'says' to John the Baptist just before his beheading:] "When I called you, John, and told you that you would announce the coming of the Messiah, you assumed that because you were going to prepare the way for me, you would have the joy of seeing that wonderful day of my coming in glory. But today you have met a God you do not understand. Such is the mystery of my sovereignty. Such are my ways in every generation. No man has ever understood me, not fully. No man ever will. I will always be something other than what men expect me to be. I will work out my will in ways different from what men forsee...'And blessed are you, if you are not offended with me.' "
-"A day like that which awaited John awaits us all. It is unavoidable because every believer imagines his God to be a certain way, and is quite sure his Lord will do certain things under certain conditions. But your Lord is never quite what you imagined Him to be.
You have now come face to face with a God whom you do not fully understand. You have met a God who has not lived up to your expectations. Every believer must come to grips with a God who did not do things quite the way it was expected.
You are going to get to know your Lord by faith or you will not know Him at all. Faith in Him, trust that is in Him...not in His ways."
-"The question is not, 'Why is God doing this? Why is He like this?' The question is not, 'Why does he not answer me?' The question is not, 'I need Him desperately, why does He not come rescue me?' The question is not, 'Why did God allow this tragedy to happen to me, to my children, to my wife, to my husband, to my family?' Nor is it, 'Why does God allow injustices?'
The question before this house is this: 'Will you follow a God you do not understand? Will you follow a God who does not live up to your expectations?'"
"Exquisite Agony..." by Gene Edwards
-"If you accept that nightmarish ordeal as a sovereign work of God, if you acquiesce to His will, then does He begin to have his will. Suddenly it becomes not only a crucifixion but a holy work of God. Things needing destruction begin to be destroyed. Things He desires live on...live on in victory.
...But take heart. Even now it is not too late to allow that event to be taken as wholly from the hand of God. Receive it as being from Him for your good. For you transformation. For destruction of the dark side of your person. For resurrection."
-"Be aware that many Christians choose not to be fully restored. Some believers actually prefer being wounded...permanently. You have but two choices, recovery and healing, or your present state.
Be warned, if you are healed, that means you cannot resent anymore. Some believers cannot handle such a thought; they need to go on resenting, arguing and remembering. Shall this be your lot?
It would not be untypical for you to choose to hate rather than to be healed."
-"You...were...crucified by plan, by permission and by preference. You were crucified by the will of God.
He alone is the one you make peace with.
Forgiving God is not easy. Seeing no evident reason for all this and, yet, accepting it. Seeing the unseen is not easy...only necessary."
