Many Hardships

We must go through many hardships to enter the
kingdom of God. Acts 14:22

The best things in life are the result of being wounded.
Wheat must be crushed before becoming bread, and
incense must be burned by fire before its fragrance is
set free. The earth must be broken with a sharp plow
before being ready to receive life. And it is a broken
heart that pleases God.

Yes, the sweetest joys of life are the fruits of sorrow. Hu-
man nature seems to need suffering to make it fit to be 
a blessing to the world.

If you aspirate be a person of consolation, if you want to 
share the priestly gift of sympathy, if you desire to go be-
yond giving commonplace comfort to a heart that is temp-
ted, and if you long to go through the daily exchanges of 
life with the kind of tact that never inflicts pain, then you
must be prepared to pay the price for a costly education--
for like Christ, you must suffer.
Frederick William Robertson

Reader--Ouch! This is certainly not popular in the over-
fed, over-entertained western church...