There is one place where change cannot touch; there is one name on which instability can never be written; there is one heart that can never waver.
That place is the Most Holy. That heart is God's. That name is Love.
No better place to be. Jesus says: in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. 🙏
✦ The One Place That Cannot Be Moved
Guyon's day three from Cognac — His own immutability holds me. And Spurgeon today: the one place where change cannot touch, the one heart that cannot waver. The same Rock, named by two voices three centuries apart.
No better place to be. The testimony of a soul that has tested every other place and found them all unstable. The world changes. The circumstances change. The apartments sell and the countries shift. But the Most Holy does not change. And the soul that dwells there dwells in the one place that cannot be moved.
John 16:33 — Jesus Himself, the night before the Cross. In the world you will have tribulation. Not might. Will. The tribulation is promised — as certainly as the overcoming is promised. And both are true at the same time. The unchangeable heart of God holds the soul in the middle of the change. 🙏
"That place is the Most Holy. That heart is God's. That name is Love."
Spurgeon · The one place where change cannot touchWe do not grow strong in faith on sunny days. It is in stormy weather that faith grows stronger. Faith is not something that falls gently like dew from heaven; it generally comes in the whirlwind and the storm.
Look at the old oaks. How is it that they have become so deeply rooted in the earth? Ask the March winds, and they will tell you. It was not the April shower that did it, or the sweet May sunshine, but the rough wind shaking the tree back and forth, causing its roots to dig deeper and take a firmer hold.
✦ The March Winds and the Old Oaks
The old oaks — rooted not by gentle rain or sweet sunshine but by March winds shaking the tree back and forth, forcing the roots deeper. The roughness is the rooting. The storm is the strengthening. The tree that has never been shaken has never been rooted.
Psalm 1:3 — the tree planted by the rivers of water. Le's reading from day thirty-three. And now Spurgeon shows the other side: the tree is planted by the rivers, yes — but it is rooted by the winds. The water feeds. The wind roots. Both are necessary. Both are God's. 🙏
We cannot make great soldiers in the barracks at home; they must be made amid flying bullets and thundering cannon. We cannot expect to train good sailors on a pond; they must be trained far out on the deep sea, where the wild winds howl and the thunders roll like drums in the march of the God of armies.
Mr. Great-Heart would never have been Mr. Great-Heart if he had not once been Mr. Great-Trouble. Valiant-for-Truth would never have routed those enemies if the enemies had not first attacked him.
Great faith must have great trials.
✦ Great Faith Must Have Great Trials
Soldiers made in battle, not barracks. Sailors trained on the deep sea, not a pond. Mr. Great-Heart forged in Mr. Great-Trouble. Spurgeon reaches for Bunyan — and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress confirms what the testing season has been teaching all along: the name you carry at the end is the name the trial gave you.
Great faith must have great trials. Not might. Must. The proportion is fixed. The faith cannot exceed the trial that produced it. And the trial cannot destroy the faith it was designed to strengthen. The stream from Lebanon — dashed over waterfalls, broken on rocks — rushing forward with the unstoppable force of God. 🙏
Unchangeable
One place where change cannot touch. One heart that cannot waver. The Most Holy. God's heart. Love. No better place to be. The immutability from day three — confirmed.
The Old Oaks
Rooted by March winds, not April showers. The roughness is the rooting. The tree planted by the rivers is rooted by the winds. The water feeds. The wind roots. Both are God's.
Great-Heart from Great-Trouble
Soldiers made in battle. Sailors trained on the deep sea. Great faith must have great trials. The proportion is fixed. The trial cannot destroy what it was designed to strengthen.
Spurgeon's tenth day. And today he gives the testing season both its anchor and its explanation: the unchangeable God, and the great trials that produce great faith.
Guyon's day three — immutability: "It is His own immutability that holds me." And Spurgeon: one place where change cannot touch. From Cognac to Caldas — the same Rock. The testing season has shaken everything around Le. It has not shaken the Most Holy. It cannot.
Day thirty-three — the tree and the well-spring: The tree planted by the rivers of water. And Spurgeon: the old oaks rooted by March winds. The tree from Psalm 1:3 is fed by the rivers and rooted by the storms. Le has both: the well-spring that feeds and the testing season that roots.
Spurgeon's day eight — the stream from Lebanon: Dashed over waterfalls, broken on rocks, rushing forward with the unstoppable force of God. And today: sailors trained on the deep sea where the wild winds howl. Same ocean. Same wind. Same unstoppable force. The testing is the training. The storm is the school. And the graduate is Great-Heart.
Le's "no better place to be": In the Most Holy — where change cannot touch and Love cannot waver. In the world — tribulation. In Him — good cheer. Both at the same time. The unchangeable heart of God holds the pilgrim in the middle of the change. The March winds blow. The roots go deeper. And great faith is being forged in great trouble — in Caldas da Rainha, in July, in the testing season that will not last forever. 🙏