Showing posts with label pray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pray. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Shocked, They Still Shall Be


I don’t know your opinion on visions or pictures or revelations from the Lord. But whatever your thoughts, I want to just ask you to consider this for a minute. I remember driving into the Bay area over the Benicia Bridge one particular time and seeing something. Something I had never noticed before, and that the naked eye would not recognize. I saw people. I looked at the city that I was approaching and I recognized that it was full of people. My eyes lead me beyond that city and I saw the neighboring cities and the neighboring multitudes of people.  But then I realized I was not looking at people at one given time, but multiple generations. Generations of people long past.  I realized in a moment that I was looking on the crowds and throngs of that day when all will stand before the throne of God. Imagine. It is going to be incredible; the world’s population a thousand times over; plus angels and demons.
More recently though, I thought about what those people and myself will feel and experience as we enter the throne room that judgment day. We will we be shocked. I’m not talking a feeling of  “awe,” here, but truly SHOCKED; shocked at who people truly are inside. I think we will be in more shock, and disgust with human kind, on that day, then we could ever be while living a day here in this mortal life. I pictured this:
             I’m entering the throne room of the Most High. It is beautiful, and radiant, streaming with light. I walk down the long glistening isle leading to the prosecution bench. I look out into the crowds and around; seeing the faces of every person I have touched in my life, back when I lived in a land of sunrises and sunsets. I see the ones I loved the most and those I shunned because I thought them not worth my time. I walk on, continuing forward. I am almost in a state of serial and I feel numb with the size of the room. Then, I see Him. I want to run. I want to stop. I want to laugh and dance and point and say to every one “ look! There He is!” I also want to cry, to hang my head and weep bitterly. Never in my days on earth had I felt such an emotion.
It is my turn to be tried. I look out from the bench raised above the chattering crowd. All of the most beloved and dear to me from life, seated in the front pews.
I can barley breath and heck no; I cannot turn my face to look at my King, My God, my First Love. There is then a motion to have my charges read to the crowd. As they begin, my gut leaps into my throat.
This can’t happen! NO!
 I can’t bare to hear those things again that I regretted, and tried to forget, or hide. Now they will all know. It is ALL there. Every lie; every curse; every lustful thought; every slap in Jesus face; every person I rejected; all of the un-pure thoughts and actions; every thing is out. And the people watching and listening in the crowd will be shocked.
They will all look at me wondering how or why. Why they where the object of my malice, or lust, or gossip. Or some will be wondering how I could have hid that information from them. Some will look at me in disgust. Mom will be crying right in the front. Her head bent. Weeping into her hands. Dad will be sitting in his seat; leaned over looking at the floor with his hands grasping his temple. I will be alone in the throngs of a multitude. My heart will regret again.
 In that moment, I will have nothing and no one to stand beside me. And every heart apart from mine will be shocked.
 The One who is Judge over us begins to decree the sentence that is due me, but is suddenly interrupted, “She is mine, Lord! She is mine.” The voice so familiar and sweet, and turning I see a face I know and love. “This child accepted Your Gift to her, Father. She shall walk with me in Your Kingdom.” Then to me he will turn and say, “Your sins are forgiven because you believed in My name. Well done my child. Well done.”
And again the throngs in the crowd will be shocked. They new, that is what Jesus does. Yet shocked, they still shall be. 

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Our life is an Example

How often do we honor our parents through prayer or encouragement?
I think we, as young people, get so absorbed with our own lives, that we forget that God wants us to HONOR our parents. Not just through obedience, which we fail at half the time anyway, but through lifting them up in prayer and offering them WORDS of encouragement.
Exodus 20:12 "honor you father and your mother, so it will go well with you and you may have long life in the land (the earth) God has given you."
Do we even know what it means to honor? Thank God for a dictionary cause I knew I needed it when I made a funny face to that question.
To Honor is to: hold someone in high respect; to revere.
They should be completely at the TOP of our prayer list. We need to lift our parent up to God, especially those parents who are struggling with God, because only God can change and mold them. "Do NOT let anyone look down on you because you are young, BUT set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
Sometimes I think our parents tend to be our exception to the gossip rule. We go off and talk about everything and all their problems and what we don't like about them to our friends. But Is that Honoring to our parents? Is that honoring to GOD???? How would our attitudes toward our parents change if we were praying for them and their spiritual walk with God.. I wonder?!
Am I stressing enough? How important this is?
How much more honoring is it to be daily lifting them up in prayer? Not praying for selfish wants and desires, but asking God to give them the grace and wisdom in growing with you, Or pray that your parents would discipline and encourage you in a way that will bring you closer to God.
This is so important. I pray that my words will not roll off your shoulders into the dust, but that you would take them and change the world by setting an example with your life!
I'd like to pose these last questions... Do you pray for your parents? Do you offer encouragement to your dad when he is having a rough day? Do you leave a note for your mom on her bathroom mirror telling her she is loved and appreciated? I wish I did when I was near my parents, but It is more difficult being away. I wish I had done more, now that i see how important and how helpful I could have been. But i know God is a professional at making up for lost time and it is never to late to start.
God bless you and teach you in building strong God centered relationships with your parents. And remember, it is NEVER to late!