In it for the long haul

Revelations 12
12"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.


This serves as another reminder, that while it has now been reveled in the last couple of chapters of revelations, just what we can expect in the new world, now is no time to sit on our laurels! The reward is in the hands of the Lord, and he is coming………but it will be given to you by what you have done.

I compare this to the scenario of promising a teen a new car if he graduates high school at the top of his class. Freshman year they will come out of the gate on fire, just as we all do as new Christians. It is not the first semester, or even the first year that is hard, and as expected the first quarter of high school over and the Teen is well at the top of the class! It is the following three years that will take its toll. It is over the next three-year period that all the trials and tribulations start. Temptation creeps in, and often the slacking off starts! When all is said and done all too often it is graduation day, and instead of ending up at the top of the class, they end up somewhere in the middle…..maybe the top of the middle. Close……but not good enough.

Now stretch that time out form the time Christ died his mortal death all the way to today…….That is a lot of final exams to ace! We all must take steps to make sure our Spiritual lives do not end up like the story above. If we look into our own souls we know that good is not good enough, and close does not count when it comes to salvation. It is a daily…..no sometimes an hourly struggle, and each choice we make will have a direct effect on our life story and how it is written. It is truly my prayer that each of us keeps that feeling of being on fire, and when that day comes and people are filing through the gates into the new world, perhaps we can nod and smile at each other as we enter into that world!

Peace,
Rev. T