HOW TO FACE JUDGEMENT WITH JOY

1Jo 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Regardless of our eschatological positions, we all have to believe that (a) Jesus is coming and(b) we must give an accounting of our stewardship (Rom.14:12 ).

The fact that we must give account of ourselves to God seems to have thrown cold water on many a believer's longing for the return of Christ. The reason for this guilt induced coolness is that we know that we have not been obedient and faithful with the time, treasures, and talents with which we have been entrusted.

This is sad, brethren, because our Lord never intended it to be this way. He never intended that His people dread His coming. For this reason He has given us His Word, His Spirit, and His Church to guide us so that we might be able to greet His coming with confidence and not with shame.

The purpose of this post is to help God's people to so order their lives that they will be able to look forward to the review of their works (whenever and however that may take place [Insert your time table here.]) with joy. I'm not on an ego trip here. I really can tell you how you can not only endure the review of your life as a Christian, but how you can do it with joy.

# 1. Desire to honor Him more than you desire to be honored.
Make His glory your passion.
In every decision and in every deed, ask yourself: How can I most glorify my Heavenly Father
in this?

# 2. Desire to be holy more than you desire to be happy.
Sadly, we make most of our decisions based on what will make us happy. If we make
holiness our goal, we might not always be happy, but we will experience a Spirit wrought
joy and peace that passes understanding.

# 3. Desire to rob hell more than you desire to reach heaven.
This is a tough one. It will take some major restructuring of our priorities by the Holy
Spirit. This was the sacrificial spirit of Christ who left heaven to effectually redeem His
people. It was the sacrificial spirit that was reproduced in Paul who wrote:
9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Of course, it's impossible for us to give up our salvation so that someone else can be saved.
However, if we had that kind of passion for the lost, we would be able to give up a meal or
two in order to pray for them.
We would be able to give up a little of our time in order to go give them the Good News.
We would be able to give up some of our money to missionary projects.

All said, this is simply Christ-likeness. It is the image of Christ reflected in a human life. I think God would be pleased with that.

Sure. There's probably more to it than that, but while we try to come up with more, let's start on these.

OBEDIENCE IS WORTH IT ALL

During most of the year of 1991, I was preparing to go to Old Mexico as a missionary. As an Independent Baptist, I had to go on "deputation". This means that, since there was no single Independent Baptist agency that sanctions and supports missionaries, I had to go to churches and seek their individual support. Basically, if they liked me and were convinced that I was sincere in my calling, they would promise to contribute a certain amount of money each month toward my financial support. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to this method.

Often, as I was speaking with the pastor or one of the members, either before or after the service, this assertion would be made: "Bro. Weaver, if you spend your whole life in Mexico and just one soul gets saved, it will be worth it all." Now, nobody would want to disagree with a statement like that, least of all a missionary seeking financial support. However, this was always my response: "Since I am going to Mexico in obedience to the call of God, and since the power to save is not mine anyway( I can only deliver a message. Only God can call and covert my hearers), and since it is all for His glory; if I spend my whole life there in obedience to my Lord and no one gets saved, it will still be worth it all. "

How's that for a long and controversial sentence?

Feel free to question it, comment on it, or criticize it.

Thank God, some were saved! It certainly wasn't because of me, though. God, in His great mercy, quickened the hearts and ears of some to hear and understand a gringo preaching in Spanish with a Tennessee hillbilly accent, the Gospel of Christ. One of those eventually became my daughter- in- law(Jeremy's wife, Magaly).

It really is "Worth it all".

WHAT WE BELIEVE REALLY DOES MATTER

Has anyone ever said this about you ?"He doesn't practice what he preaches"? I suppose we all have been accused of that at one time or another. The thing that is so troubling about this
particular accusation is that it's true. We may be accused of 1001 things that are completely untrue. But this is not one of them. It is true. We don't always practice what we preach. The Bible that we preach is a revelation of a perfect God in whom is" no darkness at all"(1Jn.1:5). The effects of the fall have left us incapable (in this life at least) of perfect obedience to the perfect precepts and commands of Holy Scripture. Our problem in this regard is that although our fallen natures have not been irradicated by the new birth, we are called upon to declare glorious truths and lofty concepts. And since there is little or no impediment to our talking better than we live, we become guilty as charged.

Though we don't always practice what we preach, we do always practice what we believe. What we really believe always comes through in our actions. A correct understanding of God and His attributes will cause me to live in a way that is consistent with that understanding. Likewise, a faulty conception of God will allow me to live far below the Scriptural standard.

This is why the study of theology is so important. Wrong thinking leads to wrong living and wrong living leads to a confrontation with a holy God.

This is also why we, as pastors should be as passionate about the preparation of our sermons as we desire to be in their delivery. We must expound the scriptures to our people tirelessly so that they may think rightly about God. Paul's words to Timothy were "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."(2Tim.4:2)

Preach the Word, brethren. It will have a life - changing effect on it's hearers. "And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."(2Tim.3:15)

SHOOT A MONKEY! I'VE BEEN TAGGED!

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I haven't been posting regularly. I really don't have a reason for not posting, just excuses.

Excuse #1 I'm a busy man.

Excuse#2 I've been away, which means I had a lot of catching up to do when I got back.

Excuse#3 I'm a lazy man. Hey! maybe that's a reason.

Excuse#4 I'm not a smart man. I have great difficulty with expressing my thoughts in writing. For example, I've been trying to write a post on Luke 13:23 for a while now, and it still doesn't read right.

But anyway, to my surprise, while I was bouncing along in slacker heaven, I got tagged! Good ol' Terry Stauffer, of NEW LUMPS fame, put the 'hit' on me.

Ordinarily, it wouldn't be a problem for me to answer these questions about books since I recently did a post on books and reading. However, after reading Terry's answers to these questions, I'm a little embarrased by my light -weight (by comparrison) responses. I guess Canadians are deep thinkers (with the obvious exception of Bugblaster).

O.K. Enough whining. Here are my resposes:

1.One book that changed your life:
Early in my Christian life, I was greatly influinced by A.W. Tozer, E.M.Bounds, and Leonard Ravenhill. However, I would have to say that DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE by John Piper, is currently having a great impact on my life. The more I read it, the more I am convicted and motivated .

2.One book that you've read more than once:
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS by John MacArthur.

3.One book that you'd want on a deserted island:
Since it's a deserted island, Let's Go Soul Winning by Jack Hyles is out of the running. If I had to choose one book only, it would have to be a Bible. If I had to choose only one book besides the Bible, it would probably be STUDIES IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

4.One book that made you laugh:
WHAT LOVE IS THIS by Dave Hunt, because it was given to me by a pastor who had invited me to preach a revival in his church. He gave me the book just before I went to the pulpit on the 2nd night of the meeting.

5.One book that made you cry:
WHAT LOVE IS THIS by Dave Hunt for the same reason listed above and for it's content.

6.One book that you wish had been written:
A SURE-FIRE WAY TO MAKE PEOPLE BE FAITHFUL IN CHURCH ATTENDANCE by Anybody Jones.

7.One book you wish had never been written:
Can I say the same one again? WHAT LOVE IS THIS.

8.One book that you are currently reading:
GETTING THINGS DONE by David Allen. This book arrived by mail yesterday from my son Steve. I started reading it immediately. It looks like it's going to be very helpful. Hopefully it'll hep me git stuff did.

One book that you've been meaning to read:
THE WORKS OF HENRY SCOUGAL by Henry Scougal.