Revelation 2:8-10 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“8To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the First and the Last, who died and returned to life. 9I know your affliction and your poverty—though you are rich! And I am aware of the slander of those who falsely claim to be Jews, but are in fact a synagogue of Satan.

“10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Setting the Stage

Now, what I am going to share here I have shared multiple times before, so this will not be new information to most of you. But it is necessary in order to illustrate the message I believe the Lord is leading me to share with you this evening. I believed in Jesus at age 7. I am now 76.5 years old. I walked with the Lord, in fellowship with him, and in obedience to his commands most all my life, not perfectly, but consistently and persistently in my desire to know him, to live for him, and to please him in doing his will for my life.

But I did go through a period of time, in the middle there somewhere, where I was led astray to sin against the Lord, at times, in ways I never thought I would ever do. But the Lord did not give up on me, and eventually he brought me back around. And after a few years he called me to this ministry of writing down what I am learning from him from my times spent with him in his word, and then to post these writings on the internet. I have been doing that for about 22 years now, nearly daily for the past 20 years.

God’s Calling

When I answered God’s call on my life, he was using dreams and visions as parables to help me to understand what he wanted me to learn from his word, as applied to our world today, much like Jesus spoke in parables when he lived on the earth. And he was putting the names of people and places and things I never heard of before, or I knew little about, in my mind. And so I was doing a lot of internet searches at a time when the internet was still pretty wide open and you could find information that is not easy to find now.

And then God began teaching me about the Bilderbergs, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, NATO, the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve, Freemasons, Zionism, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, the deep state, the WHO, Big Pharma, the WEF, the powerful elite, the New World Order, the All-Seeing Eye (national symbol), international law, the UN Bill of Rights, the shadow government, and Washington, D.C. history, etc. And all of this was absolutely new and foreign to me. But I needed to know about these. I needed my eyes opened.

Trials and Tribulations

But the more the Lord was teaching me about what was going on within my own nation (the USA), and within the world, so much of which I had no clue about before, and the more that I was learning about what the Scriptures teach, in the correct biblical context, things I did not have a clear picture of before, and the more that I was sharing this on the internet, and with some people in person, what all I was learning, the more that some people were distancing themselves from me, or they thought I was “off my rocker.”

Over the years, as I have written on topics taught in the Scriptures, or of a biblical nature resulting in having to expose the lies and to proclaim the truth of God’s word, the more some people have backed away and distanced themselves from me, for they thought I was too weird, or too radical, or too honest. And I have had people try to get me to back down, to soften the truth to make it friendlier or to avoid certain topics. But God has called me to expose the lies for what they are and to proclaim the truth of his Word.

The Feel Good Stuff

So many people today are craving the “feel good stuff,” and they are staying away from the “hard truths” which need to be taught. And it appears that not many people today want to read anything that can’t be read in a couple of sentences or in one paragraph only. The shorter, the better, I think for most people today, from what I can tell. But if you make it too short, it can sometimes lose the truth of what needs to be said, or it can be easily misunderstood without a good explanation of what is actually being taught.

So, if you are someone like me who is following the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is leading you to teach on what the Bible teaches on topics that are not the “feel good stuff,” and which have to confront unbiblical teachings, and which call out the lies for what they are, and which teach the hard and necessary truths of the Scriptures, most likely you will be opposed by those who disagree with you, and you may be falsely accused of wrong, and you may be stomped on or blocked or “unfollowed” or whatever.

God Knows

But the comforting thing in all of this is that God knows your affliction. He is fully aware of the slander against you. And he knew all this was going to take place. And you might recall that he warned you about this in advance. He prepared you for it so you would not be surprised by it (see Jeremiah 1). So don’t let it get to you. Don’t let it defeat you. Do not fear what you are suffering and what you are about to suffer. For God called you to be his messenger in getting out the truth of his word to the people. So persevere!

For, things are not going to get better. They are going to get much worse. The devil is on a rampage against you because you speak the truth of God’s word that he doesn’t want the people to hear. And we are living in the last days before the return of our Lord, and things are getting worse by the day. Lies and deception and false gospels and coddling people in their sins are all over the place. So be faithful to the death, and God will give you a crown of life. Do not let how other people treat you get you down. Rest in the Lord!

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Romans 5:3-5; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 3:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5; Hebrews 12:3-12; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7; 1 Peter 4:12-17; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

Do Not Fear Suffering
An Original Work / July 19, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Forever with Us

Based off Psalm 46
An Original Work / February 5, 2016
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Be still and know God is over all things.
Throughout the earth, He’ll be honored as King.
The Lord Almighty, forever with us.
He is our refuge when we’re in distress.

Therefore, we have not a reason to fear.
Trials will come, but our God is still near.
He is our helper, so we do not fall.
Mountains will quake, but on Jesus we call.

Joy to the Church, even if sorrow comes.
Enemies rage, but our faith marches on.
God’s Holy Spirit, now living within,
Gives peace and comfort, and grace without end.