Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
Hymns: RHC 95 My Savior’s Love, 253 Standing on the Promises, 284 Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus Job 11:13-20 13If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; 14If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let …
2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
The Apostle Paul was given to experience the unutterable blessings of paradise, the abundance of the revelation of the third heaven in the presence of God. What privilege! And yet, he was to suffer such acute pain as having, as it were, a thorn in the flesh. Such a life of patient enduring he was to live day by day. As he perhaps cringed from pain, he remembered his unfinished mission for his Lord and the rest that was to follow in God’s paradise!
MacDonald observed well, “The apostle describes the thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan to buffet him. In one sense it represented an effort on Satan’s part to hinder Paul in the work of the Lord. But God is greater than Satan, and He used the thorn to further the work of the Lord by keeping Paul humble.”
The hymn “Day by Day” written by Lina Sandell Berg who accompanied his father who was the pastor of a parish church in Sweden on a ship when tragedy struck. The ship gave a sudden lurch and Lina’s father fell overboard and drowned before the eyes of his devoted daughter.