Christ’s Assessment

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.  (2 Corinthians 5:10) 

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Christ’s Assessment

When we appear before Christ’s judgment seat we are in heaven and have been glorified. There is no presence of sin. 

This is an assembly of the righteous (Psalm 1:5) where we all are now holy and blameless and beyond reproach. (Colossians 1:22)

We appear before Christ for Him, our Lord, to assess our deeds. He will assess the deeds of the righteous, those saved for eternity. It is our deeds, not our salvation, that will be judged. We have already been saved.

Christ will be assessing whether our deeds are good or worthless. All the translations I reviewed said “good or bad,” but the Hebrew word translated “bad” here means: “easy, slight, ordinary, mean, worthless, of no account.” I had always interpreted this verse as meaning Christ would assess whether my deeds were righteous or sinful. But when we, believers, appear before Christ’s judgment seat we are in heaven, there is no presence of sin, and we are holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.

We’ll be assessed whether our deeds were worthwhile or worthless.

My Assessment

During this time of year, I typically review the year about to close to identify what I did “well” or not so well. I look for what I need to stop, what I should strengthen, and what I should start. I develop goals and plans for the next year.

This year I am trying to assess whether my deeds were good or worthless. What might I have done that the Lord will judge as good, and for which I will receive a reward? What should I do in 2020 that the Lord will reward?

I, of course, am not qualified to judge as He does, but there are indications we can use as we strive to hear from our Lord: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)

One criteria is whether we are building on Christ as the foundation. Ask ourselves whether we were building on Christ as the foundation or whether we are relying on our “natural” strengths and desires.

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11) 

Another criteria is our motives. When we are doing something, are we hoping for recognition and honor from humans, or are we doing it for the Lord?

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. … [if your motive is to] be honored by men, [Then] Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” (Matthew 6:1-2) 

Have we been faithful with what He has given us? 

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.  (Matthew 25:21)

Other criteria are indicated throughout the Bible. 

This gives me a different perspective on my entire Christian life. I want so much to hear my Lord say to me: “Well done.”

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Father, help me build on the foundation that is Jesus Christ, rely on my Lord and not myself, and look solely for His reward, not human recognition. Help me please You and serve Christ.

God Gave 

God so loved the world that He gave Jesus, Christ the Lord, eternal God, our Savior. (John 3:16)

His incomprehensible gift results in salvation, in glory, in eternal life, for those who believe in Jesus Christ. 

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10–11) 

We celebrate Christ’s birth especially at Christmas, but He is a gift bringing believers joy every day, every moment.  

Jesus Christ is the image of God, manifesting the Father in ways we can (more or less) comprehend. He shows us how much God loves us throughout His time on earth, and, overwhelmingly so, by His voluntary sacrifice for those who believe, so that we might have eternal life, and through His continual interventions for us.

I am determined to mediate on God’s gift, His Son, this Christmas. Will you join me? 

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Father, please help us grasp the enormity of Your gift. Please help us rejoice in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Please help us show others Your love.

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Joy to the world! The Lord is come: Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven ad nature sing.  (Thomas Haweis, 1792)

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.  (Luke 2:14)

God is Unlimited

God knows everything, is present everywhere, and is sovereign over everything and everybody all the time. God accomplishes everything He wishes. He is holy, incomprehensible, majestic. He is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. He deserves our adoration, our worship.

All things are possible with God.  (Mark 10:27) 

Nothing will be impossible with God.  (Luke 1:37) 

[God] works all things after the counsel of His will.  (Ephesians 1:11) 

Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. (Psalm 115:3) 

His understanding is infinite.  (Psalm 147:5) 

The Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.  (1 Chronicles 28:9) 

There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.  (Hebrews 4:13) 

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good.  (Proverbs 15:3) 

Awesome and Terrifying

For those who have received Christ as Lord and Savior, those whom the Father has adopted as His children, these truths are awesome and comforting. Our Father can do anything and everything. His promises to His children are guaranteed. We can rely on Him. We can trust Him to work everything for good. We have assurance that He will bring us safety home, to Him for eternity.

For those who do not believe in Christ Jesus, the unlimited God should be terrifying. God knows every thought and deed. It is not possible to hide or escape Him. And judgment is coming. (Hebrews 9:27)

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Praise our unlimited God. God who is holy and infinite in all His attributes and actions. God who is infinitely beyond our ability to comprehend. God who is totally other than us. And who has chosen to save those who believe in Christ Jesus, giving us eternal life.

Help us trust You, our unlimited God. Help us worship You with all we are. Help us be living sacrifices to You, the only God, the only one deserving of adoration.  

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I highly recommend The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

Pray for Your Country

Godly Daniel, exiled to Babylon, prayed for Israel. He knew the time of exile for his country was nearing the end and fervently prayed for his country.

His prayer gives us a template for us to use in praying for our own country. This is a template for all of us, wherever we live.

Determine to seek Him

Daniel gave his attention to the Lord God, and sought Him with prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.  (Daniel 9:3)

We should likewise take prayer seriously.

Daniel prepared for prayer with fasting and dressed to show his repentance. What should we do?

Praise Him

Daniel started his prayer with praise for the great and awesome Yahweh and “reminded” God that He keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments.  (Daniel 9:4)

We should regularly praise our God. How do you want to praise Him?

Confess

Daniel’s confessed that we have sinned. His confession was personal, including himself as part of his country’s sins.

Each of us can see unrighteousness and evil in our country. We, personally, have not directly participated in all those sins, but, we have sinned in other ways. Perhaps we have not prayed about it, perhaps we haven’t tried to intervene, perhaps… We have responsibility.

Daniel was specific. What specific sins of your country should you confess?

Praise in the midst of confession 

Daniel interposed praise throughout his confession, and contrasted God’s character and actions with Israel’s sins.

For example: Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord … Open shame belongs to us, O Lord … because we have sinned against You.  (Daniel 9:7–8)

Keep praising God.

Confess that God is righteous in His actions 

Daniel confessed that God was justified in bringing great calamity on Israel.

Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice. (Daniel 9:14)

Do you believe your county deserves God’s judgment? What should you say to God about your country’s sins (using “we”) and what you believe is God’s righteous response?

Pray for mercy 

Daniel reminded God of His previous actions towards Israel, that He had brought them out of Egypt and made them a name for Himself. 

How can you thank God for His work in your country?

Daniel’s prayer:  O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away … listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine … O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations … for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay … (Daniel 9:16–19) 

Let’s pray

Give Thanks for God’s Love

God so loved the world … [But only those who believe in Jesus Christ] shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) 

We have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.  (1 Timothy 4:10) 

God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  (Matthew 5:45) 

Common Grace

We all know unbelievers who prosper. They may have loving, wonderful families, ample resources, good health, sleep well, have adventures, have fun, help others, contribute to their communities.

This is “common grace.”

And God is compassionate and patient, not wanting any to perish. 

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9)

God loves the world and demonstrates this love through common grace, compassion, warning us of the consequences of sin, and inviting all to come to belief in Christ. 

Overwhelming love for believers

For those who believe and have received Christ as Lord and Savior, there is infinite, unqualified, limitless, complete, full, forever, permanent love. (Learning about God’s love for us is a great Bible study, and one to repeat!)

God, please help understand Your love for us, and help us walk in the assurance of Your love. 

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God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—I am so grateful that You are patient, not wanting any to perish, but for them to come to repentance. I am so grateful that You provide common grace to all. I tremble at Your incredible blessing to me and all believers, giving us eternal life. Help us, this Thanksgiving Day and every day, to give You thanks for Your great gift. 

Thanksgiving Day Series

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

Whom Would You Invite?

Give us Grateful Hearts

Thanksgiving Day 2017

Thanksgiving Prayer

Praise the Trinity

Our God—our one God—is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

No, I don’t understand this either, but it is true. Why should I expect, as a human being, to comprehend the eternal, infinite God?

One God

Jesus: “The foremost [commandment] is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord.”  (Mark 12:29) 

Here is God, Jesus, who prayed to God the Father, who spoke of God the Holy Spirit, declaring God is one.

See Praise the One God.

Three Persons

There are many verses in the New Testament that refer to the Trinity. For example:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name [one name, singular] of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  (Matthew 28:19) 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.  (2 Corinthians 13:14) 

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.  (1 Peter 1:2) 

Paul’s prayer, and mine for myself and for you:

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14–21) 

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Almighty, Triune God, we praise You. You are beyond our understanding, and yet You have chosen to reveal some of Yourself to us. We praise You for showing Yourself to us in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, helping us grasp some of Your majesty. Please help us worship You in spirit and in truth.

It Can Happen to You

Job was blameless, upright, feared God, and turned away from evil.  (Job 1:1)

Job lost his children, his wealth and his health.

His “friends” condemned Job for hidden sins that caused his calamity.

His “friends” believed they themselves were righteous and that no ill would happen to them.

Job said to them: He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt, as prepared for those whose feet slip.  (Job 12:5) 

Basically, Job said: “It can happen to you.”

A couple of examples: 

The rich can experience devastating reversals, losing their assets. Jesus spoke about the deceitfulness of wealth. (Matthew 13:22)

Jesus also told the parable of the rich man who built bigger barns and believed he would have ease for many years. But God said: “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (Luke 12:20)

Those who are very physically fit, follow excellent nutrition, and exercise, can develop a terminal illness. 

Presumption

We can become presumptuous, believing our own actions guarantee the results we want.

We can look to ourselves rather than to God.  

Being rich is not wrong. The love of wealth is wrong. Believing your wealth assures comfort throughout life is confidence in yourself. 

Taking care of yourself physically is good. Believing this guarantees long- term good health is presumption.

This post isn’t meant to scare you, but to encourage you to look to God rather than to yourself.

Our God is all-powerful, loves His children, and has a glorious plan. His plan includes some degree of trouble for each of us, which results in our spiritual growth, making us more like Christ. His plan includes big-league trouble for some of us. 

What to do

Examine yourself. Are you relying on yourself in some area, rather than on God? If you are presumptuous, confess it and repent.

Remind yourself who God is; remind yourself that He is sovereign, and that He loves His children, those who have received Christ as Lord and Savior.

Trust Him.

Be grateful.

Press on.

Think of a pink elephant.

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Now … do not think about a pink elephant.

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Did your thoughts linger on the pink elephant even after told not to?

The “trick” is to substitute another thought for the pink elephant. Then you are thinking the new thought, rather than thinking about the pink elephant.

That tips helps when you are trying to change. Suppose you want to lose weight and keep thinking about some “treat.” It helps when you think instead about new clothes in a smaller size. 

Or suppose you are afraid about some (possible) event in the future. Consciously substitute thoughts about your loving sovereign God. Consciously determine to trust Him. 

The new thought should be consciously in line with who God is and your God-given goals.

Try it.