Kingdom Come - The Final Victory by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins Page B

mean. Often we debrief late in the afternoon, and workers tell of children who saw their need for the Lord.”
    “Well, I’ve sure told them about Jesus. I mean, that’s what we do. Whether any have actually prayed with me or in front of me, I couldn’t say. Some people are better at that than others, you know.”
    “I know.”
    “But a lot of the kids I’ve worked with became believers, and a whole bunch of ’em are fellow workers now.”
    “That’s something,” Zaki said, and Raymie gave him a look.
    “Tell me about your own faith,” Raymie said.
    “My own?”
    Is there an echo in here?
“How did you come to Christ?”
    Qasim shrugged and pursed his lips. “I hardly remember; it’s been so long. I mean, I don’t recall my life at all before I was a believer. You know, with Jesus being here and in charge and all that since I was a baby, that made it easy.”
    “But at some point you had to have—”
    “Seen my need, as my dad calls it? Sure. Born in sin. Separated from God. Needed a bridge. Prayed the prayer. Got saved.”
    That sure seemed to Raymie a passionless recitation of the steps to reconciliation with almighty God. “I’m going to have to pray about this, Qasim,” he said. “And the rest of us will discuss it. We’ll get back to you.”
    “Great! Because I’d love to become part of your little band and find out what those French guys are up to.”
----
    At COT later in the morning, Chloe told Cameron what her mother had told her of the royal invitation. Cameron sought out his mother-in-law.
    “So I guess there
is
sin in the kingdom,” he said, “even among us glorified ones. I have to confess, I’m feeling left out. Jealousy? Almost. I mean, I’m thrilled for Rayford and the others, especially Chaim and Tsion. But I’d give anything to be there.”
    “Now
I
need to confess,” Irene said. “I just realized why the priest told Rayford not to tell anyone else. Clearly that had to go for me, too. But listen, Cam, this has to have something to do with the Lord putting some mission on your father-in-law’s heart the last several days. And you already have your calling. You’re not losing your enthusiasm for COT , are you?”
    “Never. But one of these days I’m going to take a day off and talk to some of my Old Testament heroes.”
----
    Rayford was so excited he could barely contain himself. When he and Bruce and Mac met Chaim and Tsion on the Highway of Holiness, they chattered like classmates at a milestone reunion. And yet Rayford kept finding himself striding far ahead of his comrades.
    Presently Yerik appeared and walked with them. “Foreigner,” the priest said, “I beg you to match my pace, and we will arrive at the appointed hour.”
    “Foreigner!” Mac said, laughing, making Chaim and Tsion smile.
    “Indeed,” Tsion said. “And yet it is this Gentile’s coattails we ride merely to sit in on the conversation.”
    The majestic towers on three sides of the foursquare Temple Mount loomed on the horizon, and soon the outside walls came into view. Yerik held up a hand and stopped just before the fifty cubits of open space between the causeway and the northern gateway to the outer court. “I know you have been here before,” he said, “but indulge me as I rehearse the requirements for entrance. I have brought you to the northern gate because, as the Scriptures tell us, ‘the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east . . . and the earth shone with His glory.’ The eastern gate ‘shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it. As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord,’ but even then ‘he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.’
    “Now, whoever enters by way of this north gate shall go out by way of the south gate, just as whoever enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the