"To and Through"

"Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou laidst affliction upon our loins." (Psalms 66:11) Proverbs 27:6 says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend"; and truth be told, we have no greater friend than Jesus! If you came to Jesus expecting your life to be filled with happiness and comfort, you were not given the proper directions to the path that has been laid before you; and if you are a little discouraged by the results, it's not God's fault, it is your own for wanting this life to be a bed of roses. A bed of roses is not what we have been called into; we have been called into the fight, the fight for the Armies of God, and to represent the King of Heaven. I guess one way you could look at this, is that of a draft, because in reality, you never really had a choice, even though a choice was given you. I guess that is what causes the so called 'Calvinist' to think that there is no need to evangelize people, because if you're meant to be in the Kingdom, then that's where you will end up. But in the reality of what is the difference between heaven and earth, the earth is catching up with heaven, not the other way around! As far as God is concerned, it's all been written and done; we are just here waiting on this earth to get to that final chapter, which by the way, is already waiting for us. Another way that you could look at this, is that God has chosen you to choose Him, but not until you choose Him will you realize that you have been chosen. We must also realize something else, in that, we don't bring ourselves "into the net", it is God that brings us into the net! Don't try to figure it out, just be happy that you have been caught, and know that there is no safer place to be, even if the journey becomes ruff and ugly, this net is already in heaven. The NLT version of this verse goes like this: "You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs." Which, if you stop to think about it, a Good Master is the safest place for a good slave to be....
"When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:20-23) NLT