Words to Ponder
While growing up in Texas, I enjoyed my mother's buttermilk biscuits made from 'scratch' every morning for breakfast. But there was not a single ingredient in those biscuits that I would have enjoyed by itself. And even after they were mixed together, I would not have cared for the raw biscuit dough. Only after they were mixed together in the right proportions by my mother's skilful hands and then subjected to the fire of the oven were they ready to be enjoyed for breakfast. The 'things' of Romans 8:28 are like the ingredients of the biscuit dough. By themselves they are not tasteful to us. We shun them. And we certainly shun the heat of the oven. But when God in His infinite skill has blended them all together and cooked them properly in the oven of adversity, we shall one day say, it is good. - Jerry Bridges (20th century)