Then there was Joseph. The marvelous thing about Joseph was that though he was imprisoned he never became a prisoner in personality. The moment the Lord released him he was ready to govern Egypt.

"Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."

As we have stated, God is the Head of Christ who is the Head of the Church which is the heir of God's creation.

However, each one of us Christians has many relationships, things, and circumstances that stand between us and Christ. They govern us. They are our god and idols. They are chains that keep us in torment.

We do not know what they are. So God permits Satan, as He did in the case of Job, to put us in the fire of suffering, in some form of prison. We are shut up and cannot come forth. All of the older saints understand exactly what I am talking about.

As soon as we are imprisoned, the gods that stand between Christ and us begin to act up. We then have a choice. We can pray for deliverance and remain faithful to God, or we can force an escape from our painful, frustrating circumstances. When we do this we may break God's laws and we may obtain our own happiness at the expense of the happiness of someone who trusts us or is dependent on us. This the Lord will not accept and will send torment on us.

We hear Christians plead, "God wants me to be happy." Tell that to the Coptic Christians in Egypt or the Christians in Sudan, or China, or Peru who are being tortured and killed for their faith. God did not put us in this world to be happy but to be tested and to learn to trust Him. Our happiness will come later if we are faithful. But if we are not faithful to what we know to be God's will in the present life we will receive torment in the next. And grace and mercy will not save us from this no matter what the preachers of today are claiming.

The Christian man or woman who leaves his or her partner to live with another in order to be "happy" will soon realize he or she went from the frying pan into the fire.

The purpose of the fiery trial the saints endure is to free us from the gods that would rule us, to remove all of the forces and things that stand between us and the headship of Christ and put them beneath our feet. At times this is a very painful process. We love and worship our gods and want to serve them. To have them wrenched away from their position in our personality and crucified tears at our soul. But we can receive nothing from God of eternal worth until first it has been crucified with Christ and then resurrected with Him.

To be continued.