countless deliverances from countless troubles "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all," Ps 34:19. (A message preached at a Young People's Fellowship meeting) The Lord has never sought to deceive us or conceal from us the rough path the believer must travel through this world. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," John 16:33. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you . . . If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you," John 15:19-20. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," 2 Timothy 3:12. The temptation we face is to act so as to avoid suffering by avoiding Christlikeness Our troubles we are told are many in number, vexing in nature, heavy in measure, yet God's mercies are more numerous, his wisdom more wondrous, his power more miraculous. He will deliver us out of all. Like Elisha and John, we can say there is One with us stronger than all against us.