Before Jesus leads His disciples into suffering, humiliation, disgrace, and disdain, He summons them and shows Himself to them as the Lord in God's glory.

The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies

It is only because he became like us that we can become like him.

The Lord confers great honor on his servants when he brings them suffering.

Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.

There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.

If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering .