In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story about a friend who was hesitant to surrender her life to Jesus because she feared losing her husband. However, the Heavenly Father had a plan to bring her up and prepare her for heaven. The speaker emphasizes that God loves us as a good father loves his children and is willing to go through any pain and effort to help us grow. The sermon encourages gratitude for God's discipline and teaching, acknowledging that suffering and distress are part of the pathway to blessings.

God lives and works today. He shows himself as a father who loves his children. A good father, however, doesn't spare any pains that something might become of his child. Today's meditation, a testimony from the life of Basileus Schlenk, will tell us what God has on his heart for each one of us, for he loves us as no earthly father ever can. Meditation Every parent and teacher knows how much effort and pain is involved in bringing up children. I think about the many spiritual daughters Mother Materi and I have to bring up. With some it is easier, with others harder, and with some it costs much effort and many tears. But when God our Father brings us up, he plans for each one of us quite personally how he will train and educate us, so that one day we will become something good and beautiful. I could share with you many examples from my life, but perhaps I will tell you just one story, about a friend of mine. I remember a friend whom I told about Jesus again and again, but she never responded. Later she told me, You know, when you used to tell me about Jesus and how I should give my life over to him, there was always one thought in my heart, the Lord Jesus might take away my husband. Her husband was her entire happiness, and that was why she didn't want to surrender her life to Jesus. But what did the Heavenly Father do, who loved my friend and wanted to bring her up as a good father would, preparing her for heaven and an eternal goal? Her husband was taken away from her in an instant through a car accident. In her great despair and sadness, she came to visit me, and she found Jesus, giving him her entire life. Now she witnesses to everyone, I've become the happiest person there is, yes, a thousand times happier than before, when I still had my husband. Isn't that the incomprehensible love of the Heavenly Father? He knew that taking away his child's husband was the only way to help her to find the great, true happiness of her life. Let's thank God in this hour for all the ways in which he disciplines and teaches us, saying, My Father, I thank you that you chasten me, for in this way you show your greatest love for me. Father, I thank you for guiding my way. Father, I thank you for care every day. Father, I thank you for all I can see. Father, I thank you for thinking of me. Father, your goodness fills each of your deeds. Father, your chastening is what my soul needs. Ways full of suffering, pain and distress, these are sure, Father, my pathway to bliss. I will abide by whatever you do, dying and suffering, accepting anew. I kiss the hand that is chastening me, for it is training and healing I see. That's God Lives and Works Today, 9849 North 40th Street, Phoenix, Arizona, 85028-4099. God bless you.