ADVERSITY IS ESSENTIAL FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN There is no development of Christ-likeness in a person's life apart from some degree of suffering and brokenness. Difficulties are necessary occurrences in the growth and development of our Christian lives. Christians are not exempt from experiencing trials, problems, and suffering. God not only allows adversity, but he even brings it upon us, at times. He does not do so because we lack faith or because of our spiritual disobedience, but the Lord also uses adversity to increase our faith. It is God's training ground for spiritual growth and maturity. Divine Disciplines examines the how and why of God's discipline. Among the divine disciplines covered in the book are darkness, delay, differences, difficulty, disappointment, disturbance, and drudgery. This book by no means exhausts the various ways by which God disciplines us, but it will be an encouragement and an enlightenment to you as you see some of the experiences of your life through the various divine disciplines. Bobby Mullins, the Author of Divine Disciplines has been in the ministry since 1981 and has served as a senior pastor at churches in Tennessee and Mississippi since 1991. He received a B.S. in education from the University of Tennessee, and Master of Divinity (1990) and Doctor of Ministry (1999) degrees from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Mullins founded Back to the Basics Ministries in 2009, which features A Fresh Start TV Program that airs several time a week in Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee. He and his wife, Wanda, were married in 1980 and have three children, a daughter-in-law, two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren.