“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15 NASB1995)
Understanding The Last Days
I am no Bible scholar. I am just a woman of God who loves
the Lord, and who walks in his ways, and who follows his leading, and who shares
with others what I am getting out of the Scriptures each day as I spend time
with the Lord in his word, and as I listen to his instructions and I follow
them to the best of my understanding. So, there are things taught in the
Scriptures about these last days which I do not fully comprehend, but I am
learning.
And what I understand is that, in these last days before the
return of Christ, there will be, and may currently be in process, a time of
tribulation that will be worse than any this world has ever known before. And a
“beast” will rule the earth, and the majority of the people of the earth will
take the mark of the beast. But a remnant of those who are of genuine faith in
Jesus Christ will refuse this mark and suffer persecution for our faith in the
Lord Jesus.
After this time of great tribulation there is supposed to be
a thousand year period of time in which Satan is bound and the saints of God
who were beheaded during the tribulation, for their testimony for Jesus Christ,
will reign with Christ for a thousand years. And once the thousand years are
completed, Satan is to be let loose for a short period of time, and he will
deceive the nations, but at the end the devil will be in torment forever.
Understanding The Gospel of Christ
I do not understand all of that (above), and I know there
are many different viewpoints on what that means. But me understanding all that
is not critical to my walk of faith in the Lord Jesus and to me sharing the
truth of the gospel of our salvation, which is a life and death situation. For
one day we are all going to stand before the Lord, and he is going to judge
each one of us according to our works. And lip service only is not going to do
it.
For no outward professions of faith in Jesus Christ are
going to assure us salvation from sin and eternal life with God in heaven. What
matters is what we do in love and heart response to God, to Jesus Christ, in
denying self, dying with him to sin, and walking in his ways in walks of
obedience to his commands in holy living, by the grace of God, and empowered by
God. For that is what faith, which saves, looks like. It is shown by our deeds.
And this is critical that we understand what this is saying,
for the masses today, at least here in American (USA), are buying into a
cheapened and altered gospel message which makes no requirements of God for us
to deny self, die with him to sin (not just once, but daily), and walk in
obedience to his commands. They are teaching that a mere profession of faith
assures them of forgiveness of all sins, and heaven, but regardless of how they
live.
Now, does this mean that we have to live absolutely perfect
lives or we are not saved, and heaven is not promised us? No! (1 John 2:1-2) But
we must not be those who make sin our practice, and not obedience to God, who
are still living to please the flesh, and for selfish desires, who ignore God
and the teachings of the Scriptures, and who chart our own course without
consulting the Lord, and who do what we want instead of what God wants.
For this does matter for eternity that we get this. We may
not comprehend everything that is taught in the book of Revelation or in other
books of the Bible where they talk about the last days, and the things which
will take place, but what we need to understand and believe is that God is
going to judge us all by our deeds, by how we live, and by the things that we
do with regard to what his word teaches should be our action response to God.
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if
we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity.
But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience
to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with
God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew
7:21-23).
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn
10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co
6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph
2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb
12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Musical Instrumentation by Mark
Bradley
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you
who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and
eat what’s good today,
And your soul will
delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and
you will live.
I have made an
eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of
the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while
He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked
forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the
Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons
him.
“For My thoughts are
not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My
ways,”
declares the Lord,
our God.
“My word that goes
out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return
to Me unfulfilled.
My word will
accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal
I intend.
You will go in joy
and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will
burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees
clap their hands.”
By What We Do
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