"Delightful Stones" - 2

 "I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work." (Ecclesiastes 3:17 KJV)

  "While we live in these bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these earthly bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body." (2 Corinthians 5:4-10 NLT)

 You know, this might be one of the most important messages I have ever encountered; not because it is about judgment, or about time; but because it shows the difference between what takes place here, in the "there," and what takes place in Heaven! Right off the bat, we must understand what judgment we will face, standing before Christ! 

 Will we be judged for our sins? No! Jesus took the penalty for sin on the cross, if our names are written in the Book of Life, then that means all the other books don't matter, no matter what they might say about us, if they did. Personally, I don't think that they will, because our names will be taken out; stricken is the word that's used, to represent the act, as if they won't even be mentioned. 

 Those who might have known us, being judged for their sin, even if we were a part of that, they might say, "What about him?" or "What about her?"; to which God will answer, "They are not mentioned, because their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life!" That is what it means to be saved! You have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ; washed and cleaned, just as if you have never sinned! 

 Let me put it another way. If you have your home under the sun, meaning that this is your home, then you will be judged for sin, because you have not been born again and your new home is not heaven. But, if heaven is your home, because now you are a child of God, having been redeemed by the blood of God's One and Only Son, then you no longer have any sin to be judged for, not even one! 

 There is a great difference between those living under the sun, and those that live under the Son! To which, I must tell you about a message I heard Sunday morning on my way to church. It was by Paster Jeff, who said, "Our faith doesn't save us: it is God's grace that saves us!" 

 Yes, we struggle with doubt, hoping and waiting for this all just to somehow seem more real, day by day; but that is because we are not yet living in our new glorified bodies! These bodies we are in, they are dying day by day, getting closer and closer to the ground from which they came; but we, that would be the New We, are drawing closer and closer to Heaven, whether we can believe it or not, it is going to happen! 

 Again, I will quote a brother who said: "The only question I believe Jesus will ask us, is, "Did you believe that I loved you?"" Crazy as this might seem, Jesus knows the answer, before you can even reply: He is asking it for your benefit, not His...

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance - and inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change or decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see." (1 Peter 1:3-5 NLT)