SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/21/2015
10:21 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Standard
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev. 20:12b,
13b
Message
of the verses: “and books were
opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of live; and the dead
were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their
deeds…and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”
The first thing that I want to say,
and should have said it before, and that is it is Jesus Christ who is sitting
on the seat of judgment, and once I began to think about this it make sense to
me, for after all it was Jesus Christ who made it possible for salvation, and
those who rejected that salvation will now have to be judged by Him.
Let us look at a similar passage
from Daniel 7:9-10: “9 "I kept
looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was
like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze
with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. 10 “A river of fire was flowing
And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books
were opened.” It seems to me that somewhere
along the line that I heard that the term “Ancient of Days” refers to the
Messiah. Remember that we said that
there are similar things seen in the book of Daniel that are also seen in the
book of Revelation, and this is one of them, however at the end of the book of
Daniel, Daniel was told to seal up the book, while at the beginning and the end
of the book of Revelation John was told that those who read this book will be
blessed.
Now the books that we read about in
this passage contain the record of the thoughts, words, and deeds of all the
unbelievers from when time began, and it is by these records that the
unbelievers will be judged. I remember
hearing a while back that these books could contain what these unbelievers
thought were their good deeds so that with them they belonged in heaven, but
God will show them otherwise. Now the
standard of what God is looking for is the standard that He has and that is
perfection, and being holy as Peter speaks of where he writes that we are to be
holy like our Heavenly Father is holy.
Now if a person is honest with himself he would come to the conclusion
that this is impossible and may wonder how this can be attained. Jesus Christ is the answer as He paid the
price for the sins of those who will accept His forgiveness and so God sees
Christ’s work on the cross in payment for our sins and thus we are in affect
holy like Him, for that is the only way that God can allow us into His heaven.
John MacArthur writes: “The absolute, unerring accuracy of God’s
judgment will ensure that unbelievers’ punishment in hell fits their
iniquity. Each person’s life will be
individually evaluated, and each person’s punishment will be consistent with
that evaluation. Thus, Scripture teaches
that there will be varying degrees of punishment in hell. When He sent the twelve out on a preaching
tour Jesus told them, ‘Whoever does not receive you, or heed your words, as you
go out of that house or tat city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that city’
(Matthew 1)14-15).”
We will not look at Matthew 11:21-25
for more evidence of this truth that there will be varying degrees of punishment
in hell. “21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles
had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented
long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 “And you,
Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades;
for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have
remained to this day. 24 “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.’”
We will continue looking at this in
our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I was
talking to a friend of mine yesterday and he said that he was studying about
God’s attributes, and in particular God’s goodness, and he made the statement
that after studying this subject that he realized and was in awe that God would
save him. I totally agree with that
statement.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to hook me up with someone who I can talk to about some things that I am
going through, and I pray it will be the right person.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Lydia’s” (Acts 16:14-15).
Today’s
Bible question: “What was the sign of
God’s promise that the world would never again be destroyed by a flood?”
Answer
in our next SD.
10/21/2015
10:47 PM
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