PORTERVILLE POST | The "RIGHT" Word © ~ with Brother Scott

| “THE CROSS BEFORE THE CROWN” {#2}

The Right Word^© - Jul 19, 2026
with Brother Scott : scott@portervillepost.com

If you somehow knew that some life-changing event would befall you in the near-future, say in the next one to three years or four, wouldn’t you make preparations for the consequences of it?
Listen :

What Kinds of “LIFE-CHANGING” Things, You Ask?

I suppose the two most serious ones would be either the loss of your major household income or that you (or your spouse) is diagnosed with a disabling or even an untreatable terminal disease.
Knowing in advance of the very unavoidable and real happening of such an event should cause anyone that is responsible to do what can be done in order for all the individuals of a household to be able to persevere through such a great trouble.
To fail to do all that is possible to be ready for such a serious turn of events is at least foolish and would cause tremendous pain and suffering at some level to you or your family.
Our bibles exhort us to look ahead and where possible try to prepare for life’s setbacks or dramatic and compromising changes.
That is why there are proactive health steps against heart attacks and strokes or serious mental health declines, [why there is] insurance for life, disability, auto, and property, retirement plans, trust accounts for the children, a living will set to paper, and even the storing of food, water and other needful things urged in our homes.

We are to look ahead & decide what we should prepare for & take the steps needed to be ready if & when very negative things come upon us.

No, today’s discussion is not about being a prepper in the natural realm but is headed in the direction of Christians being spiritual preppers ahead of what the Bible calls temptations and tribulation specifically warned of in our time that will be life-changing.

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† Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. . .
† Proverbs 30:25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.
† 1 Timothy 4:8 [As to our natural families] But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

In part one , I talked about how in a fashion and as Jesus had, we also have a thorny crown pressed down upon our heads from time-to-time, which represented our disquieted mind due to our troubles or recurring personal and shameful sin or the things of the world that weigh us down and hold us back in our race according to († Hebrews 12:1-4).
By that metaphor, I connected the crown of thorns to the various “sufferings” we will experience as Christians.
However , few Christians today have been made aware of this by having their own conscientious Bible devotions or by the admonitions of their Christian teachers and preachers. Most believers simply do not know what the Word teaches us about the inevitability of Suffering for followers of Jesus Christ.

A person becoming a true Christian has enrolled themselves in
a lifelong school of suffering when we become is true followers.

It is not usually a continual suffering but are things that arise in our lives that should over time result in spiritual growth-changes that contribute to how knowledgeable and strong we are as Christians.

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† 1 Corinthians 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
† Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
† 2 Timothy 3:10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, 11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
† James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. . . 10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction (hardship), and of patience ([not perseverance in this instance but] longanimity [calmness in the face of suffering and adversity], longsuffering). 11 Behold, we count them happy (blessed, fortunate) which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
† Job 2:9 [as a result of his terrible losses of children, livestock wealth, and his health] Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Suffering for the follower of Jesus Christ has value for us and by the help of God can be used for good and not for misery and evil. It usually involves the normal issues of life, some we bring on by our own mistakes, and sometimes it is brought on by others with or without their intention to, and at other times “things just happen”.
Still other times, our suffering comes by an event that is life-changing in our physical bodies or lifestyle or by the proactive choices we make that cause difficulties in our hearts and minds or changes in our relationships.
And then there are those times where God desires to build up our faith and trust in Him through a period of Suffering that He approves of and also times where He is testing us as to the reliability of how strong we think we are in our faith and our willingness to walk in obedience [remember Abraham about to offer Isaac].

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† 1 Peter 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations (peirasmos: adversity, for the putting to the proof, by the experience of evil): 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire [think of Job’s terrible losses and Abraham’s being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac], might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
† Acts 9:13 [After Saul having been struck blind on his way to Damascus, Ananias is commanded to go pray for him:] Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: 14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. 15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer (experience something usually painful, be vexed) for my name's sake (on behalf of, for the sake of My Name) [these things can happen to us also].

In recent times I have heard more than one trusted source use the phrase “the wrath of Satan”; specifically with regard to what the last few years before Jesus returns consist of.
You can connect the vengeance of the devil to the “time of sorrows” and then much of the 3½ years of “great tribulation” that Jesus warned us at († Matthew 24) are to come. The wrath of Satan comes first and then the wrath of God (seen at † Rom. 1, Rev. 14, 15, 16, 19).

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† Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Now always but especially during his “wrath”, the chief agenda of the devil and his evil host is to destroy unbelieving mankind before they come to faith in Jesus while working to turn the true followers of Jesus Christ away from their faith.
Temptations to sin or wrongdoing can originate within the man himself but can also be the devil’s work and not God’s, for God never uses evil temptations on man.

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† James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted (enticed), I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man [with evil]: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
† Luke 4:1 [If the devil tried to get Jesus to sin, he’ll repeatedly tempt you and I also.] And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted (tested, enticed) of the devil [with 3 temptations]. . . 11 [“Throw yourself down”] And in their hands they [the angels] shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt (ekpeirazo: test thoroughly [put God to the test]) the Lord thy God. 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation (peirasmos: adversity, for the putting to the proof, by the experience of evil), he departed from him for a season.
† 1 Corinthians 7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt (entice) you not for your incontinency.
† 1 Thessalonians 3:4 For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation (thlibo: to crowd, afflict, trouble); even as it came to pass, and ye know. 5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted (enticed) you, and our labour be in vain. [Jesus used the same word here:]
† Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait (obstructed) gate. . . 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow (thlibo: crowd, afflict, trouble) is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. [Jesus is telling us that “the Way” is fraught with “tribulations” upon all believers.]

In 6 points, what I have been sharing with you in these two parts so far is that:
1. Followers of Jesus are commanded to stop sinning by the help of the Holy Spirit, knowing the Word of God, and our needed visits to the cross where the ways and desires of our flesh must be crucified and left there to die (the historical and factual death of our sin nature becoming actual in our lives). We participate in this needed process by having the “want to”, asking for the power of the cross to put to death our unclean desires (temptations, enticements), then denying ourselves the sinful thoughts and actions of our sinning, carrying the cross as a chaperone against failing, all the while we do not falter in following Jesus—by and hour-by-hour awareness of these needed steps, if necessary.
2. By the work of the cross we get free of sin and its source, the old man (sinful nature) and we are told that such a life brings wonderful things for us after this life; thus we have the saying by CS Lewis, “The crown before the cross”. Yet, we must not forget this warning: “No cross? No crown!”
3. A trigger that alerts us to the need to get to the cross for the death of the sinful nature and our sinning, [the trigger] is the crown of thorns that we discover is pressed upon our mind. This happens when things arise in our lives that cause us the suffering of the mind and heart or our physical bodies, and even in relationships or finances. Another phrase that I’ve introduced to you is this: “The crown of thorns must be worn first and in this life—before the crown of glory is bestowed by God in the next life.”
4. Our suffering is a great help to us if we are dedicated to participating with the Lord in His plan for our individual lives through our suffering (when respected and used as a trigger for our improvement), where our suffering sends us to the Lord and His Word for understanding and often for another trip to the foot of the cross for deliverance from our carnal ways.
5. Suffering comes as a result of the issues of life that we do-not-like, which the Word of God lets us know are usually caused by things that challenge us, hurt us in some way, reveal our critical weaknesses, or cause us to fail at a spiritual virtue that we thought we were strong with—or we don’t fail but successfully pass through the issue as a test (like Abraham and the obedience in sacrificing Isaac on the altar).
6. Temptations to evil are always our own invention or something we are thrown into by the devil to cause us to weaken and fall away. For those temptations that God foresees value in for our sake, He will permit for our edification in some way. The value to us can be looked upon as part of the spiritual refining process of getting more sin out of our lives, a catalyst to move us forward in righteousness unto holiness, and for a greater relationship with God, to name a few noteworthy benefits of the suffering and actions brought on by the crown of our sufferings.

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† James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (peirasmos: adversity, used for the putting to the proof, by the experience of evil)*; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. . . 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation*: for when he is tried [and endures], he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
† Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation (peirasmos) fall away. 14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

As I opened today’s discussion I asked: “If you somehow knew that some life-changing event would befall you in the near-future, say in the next one to three or four years, wouldn’t you make preparations for the consequences of it?”
The six summary steps I just presented to you are the foundation for what I hope you will hear-and-heed in parts three and four—because you and I have not yet known the pains of a thorny crown like we shall in our tomorrows.
The Lord sees all this in advance and works to prepare us know what to do with the crown of thorns for His purposes in order that one day He can present those that do so with an eternal crown of glory.

I am asking the Lord to prepare your hearts for what I must share with you in the next 2 weeks of this series called The Cross before the Crown.