“But when the Son of
Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon
his glorious throne. All the nations will be
gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the
sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. “Then the King will say to those on his
right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared
for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry,
and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you
gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and
you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave
me clothing. I was sick, and you cared
for me. I was in prison, and you visited
me.’ “Then these righteous
ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or
a stranger and show you hospitality? Or
naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you
sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And
the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least
of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:31-40
Sometimes people confuse the order of things. The old order was ready…AIM…fire. Firing first, and then aiming (and even
arming) a modern weapon demanded a new order.
This would have been unthinkable to the bow and arrow age, but,
technology…eh?
Theologically, the guided-missile approach plays
well. Under the old order we would point-out
the target first, aim at it, then pull the trigger. The target was being a Christian (when you
get there you’ll do this, and this, and that…and not do those other, nasty things). That’s what you do to get to the
bullseye, be a good person, do good stuff, and you hit the
center. And God smiles. Right?
Just as launching
a missile is first, and the programming then takes over, with signals sent to “aim”
the missile’s guidance control from the satelite to show it the way to the
target, pulling the trigger on your faith in Christ will open your heart (your
guidance system) to receive direction from above. It’s called prayer, and
it moves us beyond being a loaded gun, ready to explode anywhere it lands, to a
need-seeking force of good, doing those things that will really cause God’s
smile in that final accounting day.
For You Today
There are more than enough destructive forces
in our day; God wants to turn your guidance towards lifting and building His
kingdom of peace and joy.
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts on Rocky Road Devotions.
To
dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text: Creator Savior Judge and Judgment Day
[1] Images: Wikimedia Commons Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
No comments:
Post a Comment