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  NOW NO CHASTENING FOR THE PRESENT SEEMETH TO BE JOYOUS
  by A.B. Simpson
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Summary: A.B. Simpson's sermon explores how God uses paradoxes and
pressure to generate spiritual power in our lives.

Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Embracing Trials"
Scripture References: Hebrews 12:11, James 1:2

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DESCRIPTION
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A.B. Simpson emphasizes the paradoxical nature of God's work,
illustrating how pain and pressure can lead to spiritual power and
transformation. He compares the process of generating electricity
through friction to the way God uses life's challenges to produce
strength in believers. Simpson encourages those facing difficulties to
embrace the pressure as a means of growth, urging them to be still and
allow God to shape their lives according to His will.

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CONTENT
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God seems to love to work by paradoxes and contradictions. In the
transformations of grace, the bitter is the base of the sweet, night is
the mother of day and death is the gate of life. Many people want to
have power. But, how is power produced? The other day I passed the large
powerhouse where the trolley engines are supplied with electricity. I
heard the hum and roar of countless wheels, and I asked my friend, "How
do they make the power?" "Why," he said, "Just by the revolution of
those wheels and the magnetic friction they produce. The friction
creates the electric current." In this same manner, when God wants to
bring more power into our lives, He brings more pressure. He is
generating spiritual force by friction. Some of us do not like it.

Some of us do not understand.

We try to run away from the pressure instead of getting the power and
using it to rise above the painful cause. O troubled soul, beneath the
rod Thy Father speaks-be still, be still; Learn to be silent unto God,
And let Him mold thee to His will.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/ab-simpson/now-no-chastening-for-the-present-seemeth-to-be-joyous/
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