Tag Archive for judgment day

The Judgment

2019-01-25 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A reflection on Revelation 20:11-15

Each of us will face Jesus Christ personally, and
He will judge us.
He knows what it is to be human.
He knows our temptations.
He knows the cost of our salvation and
what it provides.
He knows and understands each of us
in every detail,
with nothing hidden.

He will judge from His great white throne in
absolute authority and
absolute rightness.
His judgment will be final and
without appeal.

He will judge us according to our deeds.
We are saved by faith,
but our daily lives are the
indisputable evidence of our faith.
We will each be judged by our
living,
active
relationship with Jesus Christ.

Those found in Him will go on to an
even higher life.
Those separated from Him will be cast into an
even deeper death.

Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ.
Trust Him.
Follow Him.
Live as He lived.
Love as He loved.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: When I Face You, Lord
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Now Is the Time

2018-10-26 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A reflection on Revelation 16,
the pouring out of the bowls of wrath

As the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you…You shall find no rest…the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. (Deuteronomy 28:63-65, NASB)

We live in a day of grace.
The Father is patient,
tirelessly reaching out,
eager to draw everyone back to Himself.
Believers and unbelievers alike live in a world where,
even in its corrupt state,
we are bathed in God’s
power,
wisdom, and
ever-present goodness.

But this day of grace will not last forever.
Soon all these gifts and graces that we
ungratefully, arrogantly take for granted
will be gone.
When that day arrives,
the unrepentant will be stubbornly blocking God’s path to the
the pure and beautiful world He has promised.
They will be standing between
the God of fierce love and
the eternal welfare of His children.
They will have sealed their own fate.
By ignoring God, they will have sided with His enemy,
the one who hates God and
all who are His,
the one God has sworn to destroy.

The day of mercy will have passed.
The day of judgment will have come.
God will do what He must do:
He will show Himself holy.
He will show Himself just.
He will keep His promise to purify His world.
Those who have clung to their sin,
who have distanced themselves from Him,
will be given what they have freely chosen.
They will be left outside,
away from the only Source of all
light and
love and
goodness.
All that will be left for them is
pain,
darkness,
gnawing hatred, and
deep, complete, unrelenting need.

Now is the time for repentance.
Now is the day of salvation.
Now is the time to
choose Him. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Mighty Day
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Mighty Day

2018-09-19 Hymns No comments

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When the heavens roll and tremble,
When the moon has turned to blood,
When music has fallen silent, Lord,
And fear comes like a flood,

Refrain:
Won’t it be a mighty day!
Won’t it be a solemn day!
Won’t it be a joyful, endless morning, Lord,
When we see You face to face!

Can you hear the peoples wailing,
Can you hear the shouts of praise
When everyone sees eternal truth
Too late to change their ways?

Keep your heart all tuned and ready!
O be faithful to the end!
Your Father will smile and speak your name:
”Well done! Come enter in!”

Judgment Day

2016-07-17 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Since the very beginning, since the garden, God has promised to rid His creation of all evil. In a world where He has given His creatures free will, this complete cleansing will necessarily involve God’s direct intervention. In the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the death of an entire generation of Israelites in the wilderness, this unchanging God showed Himself ready to take decisive steps to fulfill His purpose.

Through the prophets, God spoke of The Day of the Lord, a time when God Himself would come to His world and bring justice, with both reward and punishment.

And God has come, in Jesus Christ. He came to bring justice, not through condemnation but through mercy and the free offer of salvation. But Jesus also spoke repeatedly of a coming judgment day. He is the only person who has seen both this world and the next, and He persistently warned of this coming judgment in the strongest and most graphic terms, urging us to live every hour and make every decision in the light of that coming day.

The Spirit of Christ also spoke of that day through His disciple, John.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. (Revelation 1:7, NASB)

Imagine the scene on that day. And later John wrote:

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 if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-12, 15, NASB)

From this Being earth and heaven themselves will flee away, yet each of us will face Him personally. He Himself, by His very presence, will bring the burning, overwhelming reality of holiness and truth to our world. That is why this merciful God has sent us out ahead of Him, to prepare people for that day:

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20, NASB)

No one knows the day or hour of His coming, so the only way to be ready is to get ready now and stay ready. If we do, that day will bring unspeakable joy. If not, unspeakable terror.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Mighty Day
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