Open to Heaven

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.  … Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! -- Proverbs 15:3, 11

When I listen to people talk, I find that a lot of our complaints and concerns seem to revolve around fairness and justice.  Sometimes we worry that our efforts are ignored and our motives misunderstood.  The other thing that bothers us is when people we think are probably acting from wrong motives are not exposed and their deeds thwarted. 

It also comes as a shock to us that instant karma doesn’t always work in our favor.  We do a favor for someone, and they either forget about it or even turn against us.  We do our best to be honest and fair, yet the world takes advantage of us.  After a few rounds of getting stabbed in the back, that whole turning the other cheek thing has a lot less appeal.    

I think we ought to make a full disclosure when asking people to follow Christ.  Jesus did it.  He said the world has hated Me, and it is going to hate you if you follow Me.  We need to tell our youth in the churches and new Christians not to expect favorable treatment or even equity in their dealings with others just because they are Christians.  Don’t expect it from the world, certainly, but don’t be surprised if those calling themselves Christians turn on you when it is to their advantage.  God is the only One you can trust absolutely. 

Our fair treatment will come from God.  He is the source of all justice, of all goodness, of all retribution, recompense, and compensation.  He will reward us not just for our successes and accomplishments but for our efforts and our faithfulness and our obedience – because He knows.

It was scary to me that God knew my thoughts – it’s probably even scarier to God.  All my evil imaginings lie open before the eyes of the Lord.  The Spirit of God knows the wickedness in the depths of my heart.  He knows the real reasons – whether cowardice, lust, laziness, or vindictiveness – behind my façade of pleasant words.  Then one day I realized that if He knows the bad side, He also knows the good side.  He knows the times that I have set aside my own preferences to help someone or given more than I could spare or pushed myself past the limit, sacrificed for another.  He knows the times that I was terrified yet kept going.  And, while, despite my best efforts, the bad would outweigh the good, Jesus has His thumb on the scale.  In the end, it is His righteousness that will deliver me and not my own. 

The beauty of it all is that we can be perfectly honest with God.  There are things about me that I cannot tell to anyone, but God knows.  My sins are forgiven and forgotten, and the burden of all has been taken away.  Still there are things that have happened that weren’t as much moral failures as they were just horribly embarrassing.  God knows about those.  He knows what I was thinking when I did something stupid.  He knows the sickness and self-loathing I felt when I took the easy way out a few times, the relief I felt when a potential challenge passed me by.  All that stuff, no matter what it is or what it was, we don’t have to pretend or forget to protect our “image”.  With God there is nothing we can hide behind, but there’s also nothing we need to hide.

Lasting

[F]or the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. – Psalm 1:6

Though this is a brief psalm of only six verses, it effectively contrasts the wicked and the righteous.  Those who follow God are, like a tree by a stream, deeply rooted and enduring while the ungodly, the mockers and the scornful are little more than chaff caught up in the wind.  Their apparent movement and triumphant dancing in the air is an illusion that quickly passes away as they are left in dust, as dust.  Food for that cursed one:  The LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14)

Dust and ash will be the end of the works of many who are saved themselves, as …  each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.  (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)

Many are the saints who will have much to show for their work here on earth -- me, probably not so much.  My time, energy, and meager abilities have most often been given to those things which will not endure.  The treasures I have laid up in heaven are, I am afraid, not very impressive, if there are indeed any that exist at all.  Perhaps there will be one or two that I have helped along the way.  I might point to loyalty and standing by a friend, but that is bred in me and hardly something for which I deserve credit.  I might as well try to claim a reward for blue eyes. 

I’m expecting my works to be turned to cold, gray ash, but that’s all right.  I’ve had a good time with it, and I have no room to complain if I am in heaven at all.  As I have more in common with the wicked than the righteous, apart from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, I would have no hope whatever. 

The only Righteous One is Jesus.  He is that Tree, that Vine planted in the well-watered place.  None of us can be more than a branch, more or less fruitful, drawing from His abundant, everlasting life all that we may produce of any eternal value.  Everything of our old nature eventually gets cut off … and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 

So it is, and so it must be.  It is wise to not get too caught up by and invested in what we do, what we have, or how we live here.  If we do our best to dwell close to the heart of the Lord perhaps there will be some small thing of which we may say it was nothing of ourselves but it was done by Him through us to His glory.  And it will last.