For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
The rapture of the church is in our future. And, it may not be too far away. In a millisecond of time, you will be involved with something here and then suddenly you will be in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Today, as everyday should be, is preparation day for our meeting with the Son of God. The fire in His eyes will try our works. All that we have done since making Jesus Lord of my life will come under the scrutiny of His gaze. The results will be gold, silver, precious jewels, or wood, hay, and straw added to our personal heavenly rewards.
Gold, silver, and precious jewels are what is being stored in our account with God in heaven when we do what we do to glorify God, and help other people. We want a lot of this. When the fire in Jesus’ eyes looks upon us when we are before Him, the gold, the silver, and the precious jewels are refined and gleam brighter.
Wood, hay, and straw is what is being stored in our account with God in heaven right now when we do what we do without a thought of God or Jesus, and what they think about it. And Wood, hay and straw is what is being added to our account with God in heaven when we do what we do selfishly and without the thought of how it affects others. Fire turns wood into smoke.
I wonder myself how much gleaming of gold, silver, and precious jewels will remain around me when Jesus is finished looking at and talking to me! And I wonder how much smoke will be around me when the wood, the hay, and the straw burn! We all have a mixture of both! The goal is to have more gleaming than smoke!
I’m going to leave you with these challenging scriptures to ponder today. The philosopher stated millennia ago that the unexamined life is not worth living. Keep short accounts with Jesus. His coming is soon. Let’s together make it our daily goal to be pleasing to Him, and to make necessary adjustments when He deals with an area of life that is lacking.
For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing] (2 Corinthians 5:10- Amplified).
But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us shall give account of himself to God (Romans 14:10-12).
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).