God realizes His people need protection from the pains and heartaches of the world.

Many people find spiritual growth possible only when times are hard; prosperity tends to promote complacency.

Believers should be more concerned for God's opinion of them than for what human opponents might do to their bodies.

The worship practices of the people of God are to be marked by devotion to Him and compassion to the needy.

Courage is the most fundamental of all virtues.

There is no substitute for a firsthand encounter with the Word of God.

Compassion for victims is sometimes forgotten in a misapplied concern for their oppressors and murderers.