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"Fighting the Good Fight of Faith"
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Monthly Article
December 2008
 DR. PHIL KIDD
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ENTER YE INTO THE GATES OF PEACE
PART 10
Nehemiah Chapter 3
As we deal with the content of how to live a life of peace with God we find ourselves in the final article of this thought. For the last 10 months we have covered the ten gates of the city of Jerusalem and illustrating how entering these gates can bring us to the fullness of peace in our hearts and lives. If you have not read all the articles you can go back through the past months and view them for yourself. I hope that many of you will download them and use them in your preaching and teaching.
The final gate in found in verse (31) the gate is called "Miphkad" which means an appointment. Remember last month was The East Gate and that shows the return of our Lord to catch His children away in the air. Now we go from a rapture straight to a time of appointed judgment. This gate reveals to us the divine appointment to stand before God for the services done in our body after we received Christ as our Saviour.
(IICor. 5:10) tells us that we will all appear before The Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account of ourselves. We will shout when Jesus comes to get us, but a few seconds in front of Him and I think things will get silent for awhile. We must remember that this time of appointment is not to give an account of our past sins for they were washed away by The Blood of Jesus Christ upon the moment of salvation. Neither is this judgment to find out if we are saved or not. That again was determined at the time of receiving Christ.
This is not the judgment of the lost found in (Rev. 20), that is not until after the tribulation period in chapters 6 -19. This is not the judgment of the nations, revealed as sheep and goats. That judgment again is national and takes place after the tribulation period concerning the way nations treated Israel during that time of God's wrath. You must understand that God has appointed a time for His children to give account of the deeds done in their bodies after they were converted.
Great men and smart Bible students have some minor disagreements on the setting and the purpose of the judgment we are dealing with. It is generally called The Judgment Seat of Christ. One major dividing factor is if a child of God can lose their rewards that they have already wrought? I will present both sides and you can decide for yourself. (IIJohn verse 8) tells us to stay faithful less we lose those things that we have wrought. Some content that this verse suggest that is faithfulness until the end is not experienced then the good deeds that they have wrought will be lost forever and the rewards that would follow as well.
While others content that God is a debtor to no man and would not take back rewards He has already prepared for you. Illustration; If you paid your child to cut the grass and they did so for the whole year but started slipping toward the fall of the year. Yes they would lose what they could have had but you don't go back and take back from them that which they honestly work for. The suffering lose would be seeing what they could have had burn up in wood, hay, and stubble on the day of judgment.
I'm not sure how it will all pan out but I know it will be done in a just and fair fashion. For the one of the throne is just and righteous in His very nature. But I am sure about three different areas of our lives that we will give an account for on that great day.
1. OUR ATTITUDES
Many times during His earthly ministry Jesus had to adjust and rebuke the attitudes of His followers. Some times they were very un thoughtful toward the children that desired to see Jesus. Some times they wanted to bring down fire and burn people into hell. Some times they wanted to cut peoples ears off when those people needed to have the chance to listen. Through the pressures and problems of their day they would find themselves getting instructed on how to have a better attitude by our Lord.
If that was true in their day, how much more in this pressure cooker we are now living in. They did not have computers, cell phones, IPods, e-mail, text messages, beepers, etc...There were times when these good men were pushed beyond their limits and it affected their attitudes. The same conclusion can be found in most of our lives and many times we develop attitudes because we fell like we are pressed out of measure.
Bad attitudes seem to find their way into expressing themselves the most on the people that are closest to us. Many times attitudes are formed against people that have nothing to do with the issues that are at hand causing the pressures we are facing. Yet it seems like unleashing our attitudes toward them serves as a release effort for us.
Think about standing before God for every attitude we have had that did not reflex the attitude of Christ. Jesus was longsuffering, patient, humble, and forgiving and understanding in every way. When I think about the many times God has checked my attitude and found me wanting, It makes me fearful of the truth that I will meet Him with this personal area of my life on judgment day.
2. OUR AMBITIONS
This private area of our life deals with our goals and desires during our days on earth. Was Jesus really first in our lives in every manner of faith and practice? Did we allow things or people to get in our way to keep us from being all we could be for Jesus. One woman came to Jesus to worship Him and she began to fall at His feet and anoint them and wipe His feet with her hair, some complained and murmured. Jesus gave her one of the greatest testimonies one could ever acclaim. He said: "She hath done what she could." What greater joy that to know that when all your desires have been revealed and tested, it can be said of you that you did all you could. That comes through setting goals and dedication to not allow any thing to get between you and The Lord.
There will be times in your life that God may deal with you about some thing that may not even be wrong. But He has dealt with you about removing it from your life. Hard to understand how others can do things and you can't? God may know that the very thing you desire could become a stumbling block and hinder you from being all you can be for Jesus. There are things God will not allow me to do that can not be found in The Bible. That does not make me better than others or more holy, God may foresee some thing getting in my way of serving Him to my fullest ability. I just want to serve Him and be willing to make any adjustment in my ambitions to serve Him better.
All of our goals and dreams should be baptized in the will of God. Any thing in our lives that would draw us from Jesus and His perfect will for us needs to be removed from our ambitions.
In 1994 I had a desire to learn how to fly an airplane. So I took all the lessons and became a pilot in 1994. I enjoyed flying and had a plane any time I wanted one. I had a dear Christian friend that owned a plane and allowed me to use it any time I had time to fly. I would come home for a day or so and head for the sky and just fly around for a few hours just to get away and enjoy the beauty of flying.
A few years ago I got up early one morning and was going to fly over into Tennessee and land there and eat and fly back home again. On my way to the airport God spoke to me about flying. The Lord told me to turn around and go home and not fly again until He told me I could. Without arguing or wondering, I turned my pick up around and headed home. I put all my pilot books and flight patterns in my desk and that is where they remain until this day. Now there is not a thing wrong with flying, so why did God tell me to ground my plane? Maybe He knew that down the road it would become a priority in my life, I really don't know and He does not have to tell me, I just want to be in the middle of His will for my life. I said that to say this; some times good things can become a priority in our lives and those things have to be considered a hindrance and must be dealt with according to God's word.
3. OUR ACTIONS
Our accountability will be according to our "deeds" as well. The works we have done in our bodies for Jesus after we got saved. By the time we stand before God for our attitudes and our ambitions I don't know if there will be much left to be judged according to our works. The old saying is still true; "Only what is done for Jesus will last through the pages of time and eternity." He did and still does a great work for us the least we could do is a little faithful work for Him.
On this great day of judgment we will give an account of only ourselves. The excuse of using others for you not being what you should have been will be eliminated. Only your works in your body during your life will be present for evidence and accountability.
When The Lord reveals how much time we have invested in every thing else we had during our life time and how little real time we invested in His work, we will be extra glad we are saved by grace without the deeds of the law or works. The average Christian gives 3% of their lives to the work of God. Are you willing to meet God today with 97% of your Christian life focused on things that does not matter?
I pray that all of us will close out this year making the needed adjustments in our lives to get ourselves ready to meet God according to these three areas of our lives on judgment day.
May God give you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
Until Next Month,
DR. KIDD
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