If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same suffering that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
1 Corinthians 1:7
I would not trouble you with our torment unto death at Caesar Philippi, but rather edify you to your own good purpose; rejoice furthermore as we live to contest again for the cause of Christ, and the message of the power of Christ crucified. For we glory in tribulation, and as we know of these things, its a narrow turn-around time so often, such that we must go forward boldly, and with the crowing of the cocks and the milking of the cows.
Lamented our very lives in Caesar Philippi, we did, but it was for the cause of Christ, and a case for mercy.
As ever, the Kingdom is at hand--God's glory as nigh in our minds as our senses, and in our hearts, we sit near the throne and plead the cause Kingdom and ongoing mercy.
The cause of Christ is what some call the "constant regeneration" or the constant "generation" of Christ, Christ being manifested within us through our attitudes, our prayers, our own plea of mercy and the hands we extend to the cause of peace.
Forget not the parakleton, the helper sent by Christ: the Holy Spirit; let love abound. Indeed, with such a peace and joy in our hearts, we could fret only for the cause of the peace and joy of those in the diaspora. If they knew this love, peace and joy would manifest within them, and so much, if the world were not obviously better, it would be at least quieter, and happier.
