"Now it came to pass, afterward, that [Jesus] went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him."
I wonder if we believers sometimes forget that the gospel of Christ's kingdom is one of "glad tidings." We bear our crosses, endure suffer-
ings and afflictions, and go through the furnace of purification (re-
pentance)--and this does not seem to be such a happy prospect.
But, indeed, these things *are* part and parcel of the gladness of soul and body that Jesus brings to His church. Renewed cleansing, and fo-
cused determination lead to a great degree of divine joy--unknown by and unparalleled by anything in the world.
[Puritan quote of the day: "God has made man's emptiness and misery, his low, lost, and ruined state into which he sank by the fall, an oc-
casion of the greater advancement of His own glory." --Jonathan Ed-
wards, in his sermon, "God Glorified in Man's Dependence"]
