Judgement Day
I had to go to court one day for a ticket that I had received in Gatlinburg for allegedly running a traffic light. I remember it like it was yesterday because I was scared but I felt like I had been wrongly ticketed. The light was yellow when I went through it. I went before the judge and told my side of the story. I had a couple of good friends with me a character witnesses just in case. I remember the judge telling me that running a yellow light is wrong. He felt sorry for a poor college student and made the fine $5! I paid it quickly and left.
I really used to be scared out of my wits thinking about judgment day. I was afraid that I had really messed up and couldn’t make into heaven. I grew up thinking that I had to do the right thing all day every day or I would go to hell instead of heaven. My salvation was totally based on works and not based on faith in Jesus to do anything on my behalf. When I discovered the term “grace”, I was blown away. It was if I had been serving a totally different God. There is no doubt in my mind that judgment day is coming, but I have an amazing attorney Who is the Son of The Judge. He is defending me because He died for my sin. Check this scene out….
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” (Revelation 6:12-17 NIV)
I can hardly imagine how John felt when he saw this scene. He may have been writing as fast as he could so he wouldn’t miss it. I think when I was young; I thought I was one of the guys hiding in caves and asking the rocks to fall on me. I really thought that judgment day was going to be doomsday for me.
Now that I know about grace, it doesn’t give me a license to sin or do whatever I want because that would hurt my Father’s heart. He only wants what’s best for me. The boundaries He sets are for my own good. I am not afraid of judgment day because I talk the Judge every day – I know His Son personally. I’m looking forward to heaven not fearing it.
Pressing On! Dwayne