07.23.08

(Update of a devotional from 1998)

No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him. - Luke 8:16-18.

In the time in which we live, we can understand how God is able to keep a record of our lives. Camcorders have made it possible to record in color with sound many of the events of our lives. There are millions of cell phones that also contain cameras and digital cameras that all may be used to record the events around us. We know that whatever our capabilities may be that God’s abilities to record our lives are far superior to ours.

For those who do not have salvation through Jesus Christ, they will one day be at the Great White Throne judgment which is spoken of in Revelation 20:11-12, "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books."

Those of us who know Jesus as our Savior will one day stand before a different judgment. This judgment is known as the Judgment Seat of Christ. It is spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:10-11, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences."

Someday if we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we will stand before him face to face. His fiery eyes will examine our lives. He will see everything we have ever said, done or thought. The apostle Paul is speaking of this event in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

Revelation 1:14 gives this description of the Alpha and Omega, "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire." One day those burning eyes of fire shall examine our lives. All the junk, the sinful things, the wasteful things, all of that will be burned away and only those things fit for Heaven will be left. Some, as Paul indicates, will arrive in Heaven only with the smell of smoke upon them and nothing else. However, the apostle also assures us in Romans 8:1 that, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

As current world events are now unfolding it is possible to see that the end times are near if we are not already in them. The time remaining to do the work of the Lord is not limitless. Let us be about our Father’s business, see where He is working and join Him in that work because judgment is coming soon.