Transfigured to Serve

Chapter 1

I walked up a slight hill that was parched, and I noticed the grass crunching underfoot as I walked, and as I was reaching the hill’s crest I looked into the sky. It was dusk, dark with blood red clouds, with wisps of red-orange and purple. My eyes scanned down to view a huge valley plain littered with burning objects, hulking masses of twisted metal and millions of smaller masses strewn about. As my eyes continued their scan down to a few yards before me, I saw that the smaller masses were mangled people, blood and shredded and burning fragments of what were human bodies were everywhere. The smell of diesel and burning flesh contaminated the air, creating an awful stench. As I turned my head in disgust I heard a grunting and the creaking of metal, like a broken truck door opening. I quickly looked back to see a uniformed man sliding off a truck seat and staggering toward me in the dark, with only the flaming wreckage and last faint glimmers of dusk illuminating the scene. He was a wounded soldier, blood oozing from his shoulder where his arm had been severed; his face was grimaced, with pallor from shock and blood loss. As I watched in horror he staggered up and fell face first at my feet. I reached down to check to see if he was alive, and he grabbed my arm and screamed! “Kill me! Please kill me!”

I awoke from my nightmare and leapt from my bed, my heart pounding, my breaths heaving, and I was dripping with sweat! I hadn’t moved that fast in years! I sat down on the edge of my bed and wiped the sweat from my brow and face. I vividly remembered the scene in my nightmare and knew in an instant that it had been a picture of the prophesied battle of Armageddon and the valley plain I viewed was the plain of Megiddo. What a horrible way to wake up! I wasn’t sure what the Lord was trying to show me, but I knew he had His reasons. I looked over at the alarm clock and noticed that it was 6:35 a.m., so I decided to go ahead and get up and get ready for the day.

My name is Samuel Gideon, but people just call me Sam. I am a retired business executive, who retired about 5 years ago. My beautiful wife of 42 years succumbed to ovarian cancer just 2 years ago. On my birthday next month, I’ll be 67 years old. I’ve had a good life, marriage and career. I still share my time in service to my church as a Deacon, Sunday school teacher and as part of the Finance Committee, and in my community as a part of The Gideons International, providing Gideon reports that share what God is doing through our ministry throughout the world. Yep, it’s been a good life and I’m still going strong. My children are also doing well. I have two sons that have careers that have taken them to cities far from home, but they visit on holidays and keep in touch by phone and e-mail. I’m alone, but not lonely, because I have my church family and my Gideon ministry friends. Yes, I’m a Gideon with the surname Gideon…just a coincidence.

We had a Testament distribution at the local University a few days ago distributing 3,225 Testaments. It was a beautiful fall day with temperatures in the low to mid 70’s, without a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day for a distribution. The students were pretty receptive too. You always get the occasional student or professor that just ignores you or looks at you like you’re doing something wrong, but that’s okay as long as the seed of God’s Word is being spread. We were done just before noon, and I stopped off to get a burger afterword for lunch. We have a hotel distribution next month, if the Lord tarries. I really look forward to the distribution, sharing God’s Word and getting to work with my Gideon friends again.

Today I’m just going to putter around the house, get some housework done, wash some clothes and watch a few TV shows. I also have a Sunday school lesson to study and prepare for. I like to read over it several times and do my own research too. I think it adds to the lesson and improves my students’ knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, but it also builds my knowledge and understanding. You can never know too much about what the Lord is sharing through Scripture, and the day you think you know everything is the day that pride takes over and you stop learning and growing your faith. I pray that never happens to me, and I keep growing my knowledge and faith until the Lord returns or I die, being “…absent from the body and …present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8) Either way, I’m ready.