Sometime people are under the impression as soon as we die and go to Heaven our troubles are over. I am not so sure this is true. There is no Scripture to the effect that death will save us from our troubles. In fact, it may be true that to die and pass into the spirit world will prove to be "out of the frying pan and into the fire" for many of today's lukewarm believers.

Actually the promises of the Scriptures that have to do with our emergence from tribulation and fear are given to those whom God has brought through the fire, not with every professor of Christ who has died. Our safety and deliverance are in Christ and are effective independently of whether we are on earth or in Heaven. There is no Scripture that tells us we will be safe in Heaven. If anything the opposite may be true. Heaven is where sin began.

Our only safety is in the everlasting arms of Jesus.

If you want to be sure of a happy future, get right with Jesus; don't count on dying to bring you to peace and joy. How do you feel about this?

Isaiah proceeds to tell about the adornments of the new Jerusalem, the adornments that will be ours after our barrenness has accomplished its eternal work in us.

O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. (Isaiah 54:11,12—NIV)

I think the new Jerusalem is both literal and symbolic. Precious stones are created by heat and pressure. Pearls, from which the gates are formed, are constructed as an oyster responds to an irritation under its shell.

So it is true that during our "barrenness" we are subjected to heat and pressure. We respond, sometimes over many years, to a constant irritation by building a pearl of prayer, faith, and trust in God. The precious stones and pearls reveal to us the refinement of personality of those who compose the new Jerusalem.

Precious stones are beautiful and hard. Today's Christians are too soft. Many have complained that the Gospel we preach is "too hard." They are not sure whether it is scriptural, it is just "too hard."

Let me respond by saying the barrenness to which we are subjected for long periods of time is not a "soft" way. It can be very hard at times, almost unbearable. In order to survive we must have a hardness in us that is determined to stay with God. There can be no compromise whatever. We obey God faithfully to our dying breath and we do so without complaining.

If you find this to be too hard it is because you are a soft American believer. The Scripture advises you to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, to arm yourself with a mind to suffer.

To be continued.