Pastor's Blog

Will you just notice this in passing: “In all their affliction, he was afflicted.” This is God now, the Father in His loving kindness. Those of us who are afflicted have the comfort of the fact that the Lord is afflicted with our affliction.

When a child is sick, parents that love the child are afflicted in their hearts by the affliction of their child. They say, “Oh honey, I feel so badly. I feel so sorry for you. It hurts me to see that you are sick.” Well, God is afflicted when we are afflicted. That’s only in passing. “But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit.”

The Spirit of God is a person, and because He is a person, He has characteristics of personality; one of them is that He has sensibility or emotion, feeling. The Holy Spirit feels. That is why it is written:

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.” When I was a young preacher, I was quite legalistic. That’s the German, you know. It took God a long time to get the German out of the German. Now I have some characteristics, but I am speaking about this legalism.

One night, I gave the assembly that I pastured a terrible whipping. Ooh! Did I let them have it! I laid down the law and you better believe it. After I got done, they were all still. Nobody, as we say in German, “nouxed.” They were all still, and I felt so hurt in my spirit. I congratulated myself by saying, “You know Beuttler, you’re all right. You can whip God’s people and feel bad about it. That’s a good sign.” So, I even complimented myself on top of it all.