Suffering Leads to Glory

        Most of the people that are presently in the United States have grown up with a flourishing culture and economy and we have not been hard pressed for a lot of things. We seem to get by with the problems that do exist and progress is slowly being made in many areas. The question sometimes comes to us however, of how we will fare under persecution? In the latter part of the 20^th century, missionary Stan Smith was in Viet Nam during the time of the upheaval of that country. Christians were being persecuted openly and often. Stan remarked about a scene where a group of Vietnamese believers were running across a field singing, “It is Well With My Soul” in Vietnamese. At the same time there were being gunned down for their faith in a hail of machine gun fire. I have often remarked how that there were more believers martyred in 1995 than in the whole book of Foxes Book of Martyrs. While we read of the accounts of the deaths of early believers, we sometimes ask ourselves, how we would face such a trial in our own lives. First Peter 1:7-8 says, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 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:”

         In a study of the Book of First Peter while in school, the theme kept popping up time and time again and that theme is, “Suffering Leads to Glory.” We can write about it and recall stories about it in other lands, but we have been blessed in that we have not had the personal experience of it in this land. Missionaries are always prepared to die for the people they are serving. Such was the case when five missionaries perished in the jungles of Ecuador at the hands of the Auca Indians. The five missionaries had a rifle in the plane but had agreed not to use it as a defense should they be attacked. We know the story and how it ends and now we can say of that account, “Suffering Leads to Glory.” We also know the end of the story as far as the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. Truly, suffering does lead to glory. For the believer, everything leads to glory. The end of this life is glory. The end of pain and suffering is glory. Poverty, injustice and disease also end in glory. It ends in glory that is, for the believer. This thought should spur your desire to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with as many people as you can because we are all surrounded by people who do not know this Precious Savior. The conditions In the world today should also spur every believer to draw closer to the Lord than ever before. That means that we should spend more time in the Scriptures and in prayer than ever before. The comfort for the believer is not found on Facebook or the evening news or the government or in a host of F-15s or the largest Air Craft Carriers but is found in the Book that is probably within eyesight now, or on your phone or on your computer, the Word of God itself. It is often brought our attention that the word for “witness” in Acts 1:8 is “martoos” from which we get the word,”martyr.” Praise God for the Glory that is and will be when we stand face to face with our Savior.