Yes, as my title above states...I've been learning more and more that Christianity isn't just about smooth riding, peaceful meadows, and sunny skies! (So much for sweet childhood day dreams and romantic fantasies of a peaceful journey through life where evil never stepped her foot!) Nope!!! Whoever wrote "Row row your boat gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream...."' didn't know much about true life!!! At least not about the life of someone seeking to live wholly for Christ!!

"True Christianity" is all about, as I'm discovering in a new and fresh way the more time goes by, learning to be "Victorious in Christ" even when the road gets bumpy, the fields turn to thistles, and the skies turn cloudy and gray!!! In fact, so much more beyond that.... "True Christianity" is learning to trust God and be faithful...even when your world is turned completely upside down, you seem to be losing everything you hold dear, you're bankrupt, broken, alone, and the waves of destruction seem about to take your very life. It is then...like with Job...that "True Christianity" is displayed!!

In Isaiah 24 we find some pretty sobering verses...verses that speak of the Lord turning the earth upside down, verses that speak of everything being made waste. Basically straight and to the point, we see the results of disobedience, and the results of sin.

"The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant, therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein are desolate...and few men are left." vs 4-6

Pretty sobering texts....yet further down we see the simple exhortation:

"Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires..." Isa 24:15

Wow...we're looking at destruction and chaos and complete upheaval...to our lives, our world and everything in it...yet God says, "glorify me in the fire!" What does this mean?

As I walk through the "fires of trials," and as I watch others walk through sometimes seemingly overwhelming difficulties and pain....God has been speaking to my heart in an even more emphatic way lately...

"Let me refine you and grow you through this trial, Mel! Hold tight to me! This is for your good...this is to purify your soul! You can glorify me EVEN IN THIS!!!!"

An April 3rd quote from my all-time favorite "Streams in the Desert" brings this interesting insight in regards to trials.

"A man has as much religion as he can show in times of trouble. The men who were cast in the fiery furnace came out as they went in - except their bonds. How often in some furnace of affliction God strikes them off. Their bodies were unhurt - their skin was not even blistered. Their hair was unsinged, their garments not scorched, and even the smell of fire had not passed upon them. And that is the way Christians should come out of furnace trials - liberated from their bonds, but untouched by the flames." - Margaret Bottome

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes." Ps 119:71

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Rom 8:18

And several other quotes from the pen of inspiration that have blessed me recently...

"It requires the testing time to reveal the pure gold of love and faith in the character. When trials and perplexities come upon the church, then the steadfast zeal and warm affections of Christ's true followers are developed. . . . The humble in heart, who have daily felt the importance of riveting their souls to the eternal Rock, will stand unmoved amid the tempests of trial, because they trusted not to themselves. . . . (From the chapter "Testing Times reveal Faith and Love" - book Reflecting Christ page 83)

"Our sea will not always be smooth. We shall have storm and tempest. But we are not to look upon these as something strange. Meeting difficulties is a part of our education, and is necessary to the formation of a strong, symmetrical character. And through trials we are to be purified and our faith strengthened.

So James says, "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." We do not always understand the meaning of our trials and difficulties; but in the future life we shall understand things that here greatly perplex us. We shall also realize how strong a helper we had, and how angels were commissioned to guard us as we followed the counsel of the Word of God." (The Watchman - April 28, 1908 par. 9)

So...Praise the Lord for trials!!! And Praise the Lord that He doesn't abandon us in them, but walks through them with us. (Like the three worthies in the fiery furnace!)

Yet, if like Job, we don't always FEEL His presence beside us, may we still be faithful! May "I" still be faithful!!!!

"I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Ps 16:8

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him. But I will maintain my own ways before him." Job 13:15

"But He knoweth the way that I take...when He hath tried me...I shall come forth as GOLD..." Job 23:10