What Can Be Said 004

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering.

People who have known pain are able to reach out to others who hurt. That word, “pain” is not exclusive to physical pain. Those who have had emotional pain, family pain, the pain of loss, these are all viable types of pain. But this also includes the suffering from temptation and testing, leading to obedience.

If you have suffered and have pushed through it, by the grace of God, The Lord tend to use that healing experience and even the low points of those times to show you how you can reach out to others that are going through similar things. Understand that someone who hasn’t gone through great suffering will have a hard time comforting those who are currently experiencing pain.

2 Corinthians 1:4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God


Let us not neglect that pain or suffering have benefits as well. 1Peter 2:21 (Christ is our example) For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in His steps.

Romans 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. (ESV) As harsh as some may perceive this passage to be, it is as it is. If you want to learn to be obedient to God you need to be prepared to go through some suffering.



As time began to pass the Lord Jesus Christ became more prevalent in my life. He began to change the way I viewed the world and how important it was to interact with the world but not to be part of it. Such things as praying for the salvation of those in the world, passing out Bible Tracks and how important it was to be obedient to my parents. (Quite a task in it self)!

After dad left home there were some responsibilities that were passed to my older brother and I. Mom had to leave her job to take care of the house and the younger kids, as well as to help guide the older of us. Beside the regular chores that had to be continued daily, Fred (my older brother) and I began to farm the White Cedar trees and cut them into fence post and deliver them to a cedar mill five miles away. We had an old Dodge one ton work truck with a wooden truck bed which we used to haul the cedar to the mill. We also found out we could work well together when we needed to. He would cut down the thirty to forty foot trees and cut the limb off, cut them into twelve, ten, and eight foot logs and I would carry them to the truck still out in the field and load them up. This lasted only a few months before the little mill stopped taking anymore cedar. I remember the day the owner told us he wasn’t taking anymore posts. Looking into the eyes of those then fifteen and sixteen year old boys. He let us continue to bring a few more loads down. He told us we always bought him the best cedar he had to work with. I still remember the feeling I would get when he would hand us our money for each load. In 1979, $35.00 was a lot for two teens. We always brought the money back to mom and she always did her best with it.

Like most teens, Fred was no exception. After we could no longer haul cedar there wasn’t much to be seen of Fred, he had found himself a girl friend. She lived several counties away and Fred would stay there for several days at a time. There was one particular afternoon Fred and I had a pretty heated argument, he was getting ready to leave again and he wanted to take with him the shotgun we were using to hunt larger game with. After that argument Fred came home less and less. Yes, it was his gun after all, but we had a much greater need for it at that time. Did the ends justify the means? Probably not. But then, what fifteen year old who was now the oldest male in the house would'nt make mistakes?

So again there was my routine. I would get up early, make bread for the day, haul water from the well, chop wood for the cook stove, ride my bike the five miles to town when needed, hunt in the early evening so there would be meat for dinner, and read my bible by lantern before bed.

Toward the end of our time on the farm we were eating mostly oatmeal for breakfast and onions and potatoes for dinner. Those were things we bought by the fifty pound bags.

I remember the local Potato farmer letting us go behind the big mechanical pickers and bag up any potatoes that we could find after the picker went through. Praise God we always had potatoes! Continued…