posted by Pastor

“Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones com-ing out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Rev. 7:13-14

November begins with the observation and celebration of All Saints day. The question posed in the above lesson is indeed a pertinent one. It is a question answered in this excellent devotional from the book “Streams in the Desert.”

These were people who “had asked for a repentant heart and had surrendered themselves with a willingness to pay any price for it, and God sent them sorrow. They had asked for purity, and He sent them sudden anguish. They had asked for meekness, and He had broken their hearts. They had asked to be dead to the world and He had killed all their living hopes. They had asked to be made like Him, so He placed them in the fir ‘as the refiner and purifier of silver (Mal. 3:3) until they could reflect His image. They had asked to help carry His cross, yet when He held it out to them, it cut and tore their hands.”

The description does not end there but continues, “(In the past) they found it easier to obey than to suffer, to work than to give up, and to carry the cross than to hang upon it. But now they could not turn back, for they had come too close to the unseen cross of the spiritual life, and its virtues had pierced them too deeply. And the Lord was fulfilling this promise of His to them: “’I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’ (John 12:32). Now at last their opportunity had come. Earlier they and only heard of the mystery, but now they felt it. He had fastened His eyes of love on them, as He had on Mary and Peter, so they could only choose to follow Him. And little by little, from time to time, with quick glim-mers of light, ,the mystery of His cross shone upon them. They saw Him ‘lifted up from the earth,’ and gazed on the glory that radiated from the wounds of His holy suffering. As they looked upon Him, they approached Him and were changed into His likeness, His name then shone out through them, for He lived within them. Their life from that moment on was one of inexpressible fellowship solely with Him above. They were wiling to live without possessions that others owned and that they could have had, in order to be unlike others so they would be more like Him. If they had chosen selfishly for themselves or if their friends had chosen for them, they would have made other choices. Their lives would have shone more brightly here on earth but less gloriously in His kingdom. . . God strengthened them and protected them, even from themselves. Often, in His mercy He held them up when they otherwise would have slipped and fallen. And even in this life, they knew that all He did was done well. They knew it was good to suffer in this life so they would reign in the one to come; to bear the cross below, to wear a crown above. . . “

By the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, may this be a description of each of us.