~    FROM GORY TO GLORY    ~

An anonymous writer penned, "Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into Glory.."  One definition of Glory is "astounding beauty."  Our world has embarked upon a very "gory" era, a time involving much bloodshed.

The Nations are fighting from within to obtain the freedoms they see "without."  They suddenly realize there is a world outside their deprived existence, which is worth the fight to obtain.  From where they stand, America appears to be a place of beauty, at least formidably speaking, regarding freedom.  People are bleeding and dying in the streets for something we happen to be "losing" every day in America, Freedom, and it's slipping away before our very eyes.

We perceive that the government, or those in political office are taking away our freedoms, but that's not the case in its entirety.  The Bible says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder..."  Isaiah 9:6.  Everything occurring before us today is preordained by Almighty God, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  We need only to read the books of Ezekiel, Matthew, Revelation, and others as confirmation. 

This generation will see the coming of the Lord, the Rapture of the church, I Corinthians 15:52 along with I Thessalonians 4:16.  But, what must the Bride endure before that day comes?  Will the church doors be locked?  Will Americans take to the streets in rioting and fighting for freedom?  Will Christians die?  Will America no longer be America, but suddenly under a European rule?  Will we fight from within for something that never existed without, but that WE lost?  That could never happen in America, you say.  It is even at our doorstep.

Who is orchestrating all of this chaos?  It is a fulfillment of prophecy.  The government is on "His" shoulder, our Lord Jesus Christ; God sets up and tears down (Psalm 75:7); nothing occurs unless God allows it.  It is the Lord's desire to see all men saved and come to repentance, I Timothy 2:4.  Many do not turn to God until they have nowhere else to turn, and this is what God is counting on.  It has always been His desire that men live peaceably, but even from the beginning that has not been so; the wills of men tend to delay and deter the will of Almighty God. 

"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into Glory..."  A beautiful statement, isn't it?  How can blood, terror, war, and hate become Glory?  It becomes an honorable precious thing when the Gory metamorphically becomes Glory.  It's called from a soul to a "saint."

                                                                                By Sheryl Fowler

(Visit promiselandchurch.net.  PromiseLand Church, Austin, Tx)