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<p><strong>It is necessary to pass through <em>many troubles</em></strong><br>
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      "<strong>It is necessary to pass through <em>many troubles</em></strong> on our way into the kingdom of God." Acts 14:22<br>
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      God's people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when He chose His people, that they should be an <em>untried </em>people. They were chosen in the <em>furnace of affliction</em>; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy.<br><br> Freedom from the sicknesses and pains of mortality, was never promised them; but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, He included chastisements among the things to which they should inevitably be heirs. Trials are a part of our lot; they were predestined for us in Christ's last legacy, "In this world you will have trouble." John 16:33.<br><br> So surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits fixed by Him—so surely are our trials allotted to us! He has ordained their <em>season </em>and their <em>place</em>, their <em>intensity </em>and the <em>effect </em>they shall have upon us. <br><br>
      Godly men must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them. Note well the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs—and you shall discover that none of those whom God made <em>vessels of mercy</em>—who were not made to pass through the <em>fire of affliction</em>.<br><br> It is ordained of old, that the<em> cross of trouble</em> should be engraved on every <em>vessel of mercy</em>—as the royal mark whereby the King's vessels of honor are distinguished. <br>
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      Though tribulation is thus the path of God's children, they have Christ's presence and sympathy to cheer them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure. And when they reach "the kingdom of Heaven," it will more than make amends for the "much tribulation" through which they passed to enter it.
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