One time I told God I would go anywhere He said and do anything He requested. I pictured myself being sent to Tibet wearing only a sweater; or staggering over the last hill in Vietnam and falling on my face in a rice paddy, burned out for Christ. (This is the kind of thing I heard the students say in Bible school.)

God's only response was, "I love you."

It isn't that hard. If we will just do what God has said He will put a vision of joy before us. We are not to then go out and try to fulfill the vision. We are to turn back to the One who gave the vision in the first place and follow Him step by step to a glorious fulfillment.

The patriarchs, the heroes of faith of days gone by, are examples to us of suffering, of affliction patiently endured. They had a vision of a city that has foundations and that vision lifted them from every depressing circumstance and carried them forward.

By faith we know that Abraham, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist, the Apostles of the Lamb, are living in unspeakable glory in the Paradise of God. They were true to the end. They kept their eyes on the heavenly goal, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as it were.

Could they speak to us poor animals trying to climb out of the moral cesspool we are in they would tell us of the peace, the love, the joy, the beauty, the fantastic splendor that is theirs now and forever. They would encourage us to consider the heavens, the works of God's hands, and refuse to yield to the slimy hands that reach up from the swamp and try to pull us down and drown us in the lusts of the flesh.

They would point to the Lord's regiments even now on parade in the heavens on the white war stallions, ready to descend with the trumpet of God and drive all wickedness from the creation. Then the children will dance and sing for joy in perfect safety while the older people enjoy the fullness of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

How about you? Will you embrace the timeless vision that uniquely is yours and walk patiently with the Lord until perfect fulfillment has arrived? Or will you grasp and wrench what you want, trying to make a paradise out of a sin-cursed earth, betraying your family, your friends, and your God as you do so?

We don't have many days left. The siren call sounds in America. Eat, drink, and be merry. The economy is hot. The cold war is over. The unemployment figures are at an all-time low. There is plenty for everyone.

Little do we understand the dark forces gathering even now in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. While we Americans dream on in our arrogant simplicity, deceived by master deceivers, those who hate our God and country are plotting our destruction. Rich, proud America has forgotten her God and has turned to her politicians and educators for security and the pursuit of happiness, to the wood, hay, and straw of the flesh.

Unless we of the churches repent and begin to keep God's commandments, the haters of God and His Christ will fall on us like wolves upon the fold, to use a phrase from a famous poem.

You will be protected even in that day if you will keep God's commandments and hold fast the word of His patience.

The beginning of the end is here.