Speaker: Joshua Earl Quotes: Donald Guthrie: The principle laid down here is that the relationship determines the purpose of the discipline. A father who neglects to discipline a son is deficient in his capacity as father, and a son who escapes all discipline is losing out on his sonship…It is small wonder that those brought up in such an atmosphere find genuine difficulty in understanding the discipline of God. CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain: "I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contented condition, when suddenly a stab of pain threatens serious disease, or a newspaper headline threatens us all with destruction. At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happiness look like broken toys. And perhaps, by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but 48 hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe the sword for a minute, and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over—I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulation cannot cease until God sees us remade." Charles Spurgeon: “Many believers are deeply grieved, because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions. Well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree which you have planted but a week ago. Only little children put their seeds into their flower-garden, and then expect to see them grow into plants in an hour.”