2 posts tagged “digest”

I had gotten hold of my older brother,s air gun, what a boon for a ten year old! I raced triumphantly upstairs to the bedroom window, where was it, my first trophy? There he was in the tree next door, twittering away and swaying happily in the summer breeze, a sparrow. I beaded him up nicely, steady now. PAP it was a perfect shot, I watched with some satisfaction as he plummeted, lifeless to the ground, I took the stairs in one leap and soon had my prize in my hand, still warm, and I remembered the words of Jesus "Not a sparrow shall fall to the earth, but The Father knows" I can never forget the shame that came over me as I realised God had seen what I had done, and why? I looked at the dead bird in my hand, he was beautiful. I spent many long hours looking inside myself to try to discover what it was, what is it that dark? I promised God I would never again hurt a living thing. But it was to be many years more before I discovered just what that darkness is. We are living in a age that has progressed beyond the concept of sin, but not beyond wicked murder.Jesus said "ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."Once you discover that it,s sin in the human heart that is at the root of human violence and lawlessness then you can know that God has made a way for that sin to be washed away. I look at the cross and I see a co-relation there with the darkness that was in my heart. I also see how much God loves me when I see the length He was willing to go to set me free from it. He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. There is life for a look at the crucified One. I pray that you might find His peace. 

When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,then He shall sit upon His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand,but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand "Come o blessed of My Father,inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world; For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me,I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." Then the righteous will answer Him "Lord when did we see Thee hungry and feed Thee or thirsty and give Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger and welcome Thee, or naked and clothe Thee? And when did we see Thee sick or in prison and visit Thee?" And the King will answer them, "Truly I say to you, in-as-much as you did it to one of the least of My brethren you did it to Me. Then He will say to those at the left hand, "Depart from Me ye cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick or in prison and you did not visit Me." Then they also will answer and say "Lord when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to Thee?" Then He will answer them "Truly I say unto you, in-as-much as you did it not to the least of these My brethren you did it not to Me." Evangelical theology has always taught that the two groupings are the saved and the lost, the sheep and the goats, the christians and the sinners. This is not correct. This is the final judgement The Lord is referring to, and christian will not be judged, but have passed over from judgement, because we accept the judgement of God against sin at calvary, we believe that Jesus bore the punishment we deserved, and since the judgement of sin is death, He died for us,in our place.But besides the sheep and the goats are a third group mentioned who are identified by The Lord as "these my bretheren" they are not the sheep on the right hand of the King, nor are they the goats on the left. They are the saints of all the ages, both of the Jews and the gentiles,and indeed the scriptures teach that when He comes to judge the living and the dead, He will bring His saints with Him. The point of all this is that there needs to be a complete overhaul and re-evaluation of the so-called black and white teaching about the future life. I believe in eternal punishment and I believe it will be as awful as Jesus said it will be. I shared the gospel with a gang leader from Glasgow, he was one of the infamous razor boys, awaiting trial at the Old Bailey. He said "ye believe that book Jimmy" I said I did, he said "then ye believe in hell" I said I did, the colour drained from his face and he left the room hastily, we thought in wrath, but the very first christian he bumped into he broke  down and begged to be shown the way of salvation. The last I heard he had joined the Salvation Army and was going on wonderfully with The Lord. But I believe in preaching the GOOD NEWS and salvation from sin and the judgement of it, both in this age and the next and I don,t believe I am ever called upon to make that awesome judgement as to who will or will not be punished in hell. I don,t believe anybody else is either.Notice in the scripture the curious lack of kinship between either God and the sheep on the right hand or these my brethren and the sheep. I am certain in my own mind that these are the meek who will inherit the newly re- created earth, we will also remember The teaching of Jesus about good deeds done to a prophet or a believer that will not go unrewarded. Of course the natural follow on from all this is that there is yet an age to follow this present gospel age, the millenium age.