To begin the program of salvation we must tell God that we trust Him to forgive our sins through Christ. Until we do this God will not hear us. We are cut off from His Presence because of our guilt.

Next we are to be baptized in water, declaring we have been crucified with Christ, have risen with Him, and have ascended with Him to the right hand of God in the highest Heaven.

When we come out of the water we should be filled with the Spirit of God, the "oil on the blood." It doesn't always happen this way but it ought to.

Now we are dead. Now we have risen with Christ to walk in newness of life. Now we have the authority to enter the Kingdom and also the power to do so through the Holy Spirit.

At this point the work of salvation begins in earnest. The Spirit of God begins to judge the worldliness, lust, and self-will found in our personality. We go through many fiery trials as God saves us from Satan by removing the graveclothes of sin, so to speak.

Even the righteous are saved with difficulty. God has removed us from Satan. Now He is removing Satan from us.

We will not be prepared to meet Jesus when He comes, and participate in the attack of Armageddon, unless we previously have gone through the program of judgment and deliverance. Of what use would a worldly, sinful, self-willed believer be in the attack of Armageddon or the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth—which is the purpose of the next coming of Christ?

There is another issue in the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles. It is the exchanging of our life for the Life of Christ.

If we are to appear with Jesus He must have become our Life.

Now, how does this work?

It works as we choose either to grasp our joy or else to give our joy to Christ.

We must lose our life that we may save it, and losing our life means trusting our joy to Christ.

There may be something we desire terribly. Or we may be in a prison of circumstances we detest.

What are we going to do about it? Are we going to lose our life in Christ or are we going to grasp our joy and save our adamic life? Perhaps you are at this very point of decision right now.

If you choose to grasp your joy and save your life you will not appear with Christ. You will be fortunate if you do not lose your place in the Kingdom altogether. If you are saved it will be by fiery punishments and perhaps total loss of inheritance. Make no mistake, Christ can be very severe!

If you choose to turn your joy over to Christ and lose your life in Him, the future may appear bleak. But there always will be enough joy and motivation to enable you to keep pressing forward each day.

When you do not have the ability to proceed any further, this is the opportunity for the Life of Jesus to take over. You are being crucified but Christ is raising you up. Death, and life! Death, and life! You have the sentence of death in yourself so that you will not trust in yourself but in Christ who raises the dead.

To be continued.