‘Suffering Loss or Securing Rewards’
The
Judgment Seat of Christ might not be what we presently expect it to be when we
get there, for it is the place where we will find out how much we have lost,
for all of eternity, in the way of rewards. There will be those of us whose
spiritual vision will be totally cleared to see just how we were actually
hindrances to the Gospel and the winning of souls by our erratic conduct in the
presence of those who are lost.
And,
there will be those who will learn that much of their physical suffering was
caused by their refusal to be moved by the Word of God to obey God’s efforts to
conform His children to the image of Christ. Let’s face it now, all of us, that
is God’s goal…if you are truly born-again according to the Scriptures, God has
taken the position in your life of a loving Father who is working through His
Word, by His Spirit and the authorities He has placed over us to make us just
like Jesus!
Why?,
because, being just like Jesus will not
only give us real love, joy and peace, but it will also make us the most
effective tool for bringing others into the kingdom to enjoy the same benefits
of becoming just like Jesus! Did your father, mother, grandmother get saved
before they entered eternity? Are you effective in seeing those God has put in
your pathway come to Him through your praying and witnessing to them?
Does God
give you the privilege of ministering to those He has divinely appointed for
you to reap the blessings of His working? Just how is your life structured
anyway? Is it based on praying/communing with Christ and looking for
opportunities to share His Gospel Message, or is it mainly based on I, Me, My
and …you know the rest.
YOU see, YOU are becoming more like YOU or
more like Jesus! Which is it for YOU, where do you fit on the scale of 1-10
when it comes to Christlikeness? What is God doing to get your attention today?
Are you being easily molded into the image of Christ through digesting His
Word, the feeding and leading of the Holy Spirit?
Are you listening for His voice to direct
your thoughts? Do you take your calling as a priest unto God serious? Or, does
God have to get your attention by bringing catastrophes to pass in your way,
sickness, pain, suffering, tragedy, trauma, tribulations, etc. in order to get
your attention?
We as
children of God have a choice, yes, we can be disciples of the Savior or
disciples of Self or disciples of Satan! What? Satan??? Yes, he is able to have
his way in the life of any Christian that is willing to refuse to do the
revealed will of God! Just ask Peter what the Lord meant when He said ‘Get thee behind me Satan’.
Peter
made the choice to go directly against what the Lord had just revealed
concerning His suffering and resurrection. The Lord continued telling Peter
that he was ‘An offence unto Me: for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.’ (Matthew
16:21-23)
Satan
himself, the adversary, the deceiver, the accuser of the brethen, the one who
continually opposes the Truth and is against all God-ordained authority can in
fact control the child of God to ‘savor
the things that be of men.’ Jesus Himself pointed to the source in this
case, it was not simply a selfish impulse, no, it was a Satanically induced
comment, he the father of lies was at the root of it all, causing Peter to
literally ‘set his mind on’, which is the literal meaning of ‘savourest’,
on the opposite of the Lord’s Word! He was opposing the Truth and the Lord
immediately put His finger on the source!
And, by
this we can observe that where the Lord is most powerful in presence so is
Satan. He is striking with great intensity those whose desire is to serve the
Lord, and have been put into positions of leadership thereby having great
opportunity for good, but also having great vulnerability for Satan’s
opposition and interference!
He will
use whatever he can to bring down the ministry of the one who has decided to
follow Jesus! It might be your best friend, it might be your son, your
daughter, your wife…whatever it takes the devil will be exerting the maximum
force on the servant of God who has chosen to be like Christ!
Therefore
preachers, elders, deacons, all ministers of the Word and witnesses for Christ,
anyone who has made a conscious decision to follow Christ and be like Him will
be the target of the devils schemes. His focus will be on the weakest link in
the person’s family and usually the children of the man of God are first in
line. How many rebellious children of godly leaders have been the cause for a
good man and wife to be taken out of the firing line for Christ?
A preacher friend of mine, who pastored
for seventeen years, recently left the ministry when his rebellious daughter
married a Catholic. In another case a son of a Pastor was thrown out of a
Christian school when he was caught drinking…and the horror stories are
multiplied…the devil is on the loose…and it’s going to get worse!
The
closer we come to the end of the age and the Coming of Christ, his power will
be increased until he eventually is ‘cast
out into the earth’ (Revelation 12:9)…but, praise God ‘where sin abounded, grace did much more abound’ (Romans 5:20). Yes,
Christ has won the victory, He has given us the ability through His Spirit by
His Word to ‘stand against the wiles of
the devil’.
However, this ability to stand only comes through
submission to His will…but, the rebellious child of God will suffer, not only
physically and spiritually while here on earth but, there will also be
suffering loss instead of securing eternal reward at the Judgment Seat of
Christ!
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