I don’t know if you were paying close attention to some of the news when talk began about blood moons, the sign of the woman and the dragon in stars, the 70th anniversary of the reestablishment of Israel, and those kind of things. I was. I eat that stuff up. Sure, “no man knows the day nor the hour”, but we can watch for signs of Jesus’ second coming, and I do.

We’re all supposed to be living the kind of life that is ready for Jesus’ return any time, but – I don’t know – and maybe it says something terrible about me, but living like you have years ahead of you and living like tomorrow won’t be there are two different things. If you have no tomorrow, you make a will today and you preach to everyone who will listen. If you have years ahead of you, you might put the will off (I’m not saying you should. I’m saying you might.) and take a gentler approach to the man on the street.

Of course, the more signs appear, the more imminent everything seems, or maybe I should say is. But an end is coming sometime, and as it does, the more I just want to be there. I don’t care if I have a mansion or a little one room cabin. In fact, I’d rather be a doorkeeper than not there!

As Christians sometimes we get pretty comfortable in the thought that Jesus has saved us from the just result of our sins.[1] Yes, He is our righteousness. Yes, He is our home. However, his sacrifice doesn’t add to our own good works or lack of them when we wait to see what reward we’re given. As much as our current culture twists the thought of judging in all sorts of directions to reach a distorted goal, the Bible tells us we, who have accepted Christ as our Savior, will still be judged, not to decide our eternal destiny, but to examine our lives in order to determine gradation of reward. Is that news to you? We don’t talk about that much anymore because we’re concerned people will think what they do, their works, will get them into heaven. They don’t. Jesus does. But seriously, you can’t believe that God doesn’t care a whit about what we’ve done with our time here on earth. He cares very much.[2] God’s mercy doesn’t erase our responsibility.

That responsibility is a gift. Even if you cannot identify what we often call a “gift” in yourself, you must understand that gifts come in the form of both talents and opportunities. Someone might have a talent you don’t have. You might have an opportunity they don’t have. And when those gifts, in whatever form they take, whether talent or opportunity or something else altogether, are in our lives, they present to us the excitement of challenge, the learning that comes from failure, and the satisfaction of success. They open doors to working with people and getting to know them in new ways. They stretch us and help us to grow. They encourage us to become better, maybe even a little more like Jesus. Oh yes. “Works” has become a four-letter word these days, but understood rightly, it is actually a five-letter word. That word is bless. (Where’s a smiley face emoticon when you need one?) Understood rightly, works shouldn’t be a burden. They should be a blessing. So let’s look a little closer. If you find yourself forgetting about the main thing – God’s love – just recall that His love covers not only a multitude of sins, but your inadequacy, as well.

There will be no selfie sticks at the judgment seat of God. No one will be able to change the lighting or background. Photoshop will be prohibited. There will be no edits or revisions. There will be no fudging the facts or little white lies or . . . statistics. Excuses – all of them – will be thrown in a receptacle where they dissolve on contact. We will be alarmed to note the clothes we were so proud of now look like rags. We won’t have that impressive resume nor any title any longer. Our victim status will be revoked. Everything we were so proud of will seem very small. In fact, all externals will be stripped away, leaving only the real person. When we’re standing in that multitude not so long from now, how will we measure up?

to be continued . . .

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[1] Jesus stands ready to stand with us before the judgment seat of God. He’s the one whose blood covers our sins. Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5-6

[2] Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.

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