Those who have read Ernest Gordon’s book Through the Valley of the Kwai, and Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, thrill at the Christian heroism expressed by believers in WWII death camps. Whether on the River Kwai, or in Ravensbruck, believers lived on two levels, replicating Paul’s teaching in II Corinthians 4:16-18. Veterans of the Viet Nam conflict tell similar stories, less powerful by being isolated from other believers, not those shared by the believing community.
On the physical level they dealt with sickness, disease, brutality. On the spiritual, their spirit SOARED as their bodies SLOWED. All suffered; many died. Neither mattered. The Holy Spirit encouraged LAY Christians to rise above the terror and GRACE the name of Jesus. Betsy ten Boom died of typhus. That didn’t matter either. We all die of something! Death took her, but didn’t conquer her. God simply transferred her from HERE to HIM! Let us learn from these blogs: Right here. Right now. As we experience life with its sickness, disease, aging, loneliness and despair—all the corruptions a dying world can impose—GOD is a Greater Power than our burden is Heavy. He always equips us with POWER to carry our LOAD. Power equal to, and far beyond, any problem faced, sickness experienced or weakness felt. We bear it all by being at REST now in God’s Overcoming Grace. Even now Romans 8:31-39 empowers us. What becomes of us in life has been eclipsed by what has already COME to us in Christ. May these examples of REST, now symbolized, suffuse our spirits, raise our expectations and, surface the PROMISE of what’s AHEAD for God’s people in Heaven. For that, dear Christians, begins the REST that never ends. Fini
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