Now granted, we still get Heaven. That is no small feat. Will there be punishment? No I don’t think so, Jesus took that for us. Will there be torment? No, in fact I think there is something said about all my favorite foods being there ;) I think you get all of the good stuff that everyone else gets. But what’s the distinction then? Well, I think a lot.
1. You miss out on your inheritance here on Earth. The Kingdom starts here. It’s not after we die physically. It’s after we die spiritually to ourselves and gain the Holy Spirit. That means that when Jesus declares that you receive all heavenly blessings… that’s ALL. Not some. Not partial. Not this and not that. THAT IS EVERYTHING. But if you don’t claim it, someone else will… he’s called Satan or the Devil or as I like to prefer to say the Enemy. There is a full camp of darkness out there waiting to steal what is RIGHTFULLY yours by your own concessions. See they have only the power we give over to them. That is the unfortunate truth.
[#2 has to do with roles and crowns and rewards in heaven… is for a different time… and perhaps a different person hahahaha it’s still a little confusing to me]
But hey no worries… the great thing about our Lord is He gives us His authority by His name. At any point in time you can take it all back. Now it may be a process… it may not be over night, but you better believe when you call on the Name of God He is FAITHFUL to respond and ACT. He is not a complacent God.
See, I think our issue is as a whole, OKAY OKAY, MY ISSUE is… I am complacent. Up above where I’ve said that you can’t lose your salvation, I think that is total Truth. However, often we act as though we aren’t saved. So either…
A. You were never saved to begin with OR
B. [My issue here] Have neglected His voice so often that it’s like we’ve become callous and instead of yielding and transforming to His likeness we become like those around us…we become in a sense indistinguishable from the world we live in that we are called to be set apart in.
The revelation of losing your salvation never spoke so clearly to me one day then in a church service the other day and the preacher was telling us all about getting our stuff right and pretty much recommitting your life to Jesus if you’ve gone astray [emphasizing on the “big” sins here, drugs, sexual immorality, murder, and the like] … come back before it’s too late kind of deal. Wait, a darn minute! Are you telling me at any one point in time I am EVER going to get this life right? I mean seriously. I am not so arrogant [and I’m pretty arrogant sometimes] to believe I’m ever going to achieve the mark, where I am fully righteous and holy, free from sin? In fact the more I know and grow and love the Lord I realize as far as I’ve come [and it’s so miniscule] I have so much more to go.
See, I’m not getting into heaven by any standard I’ve achieved it’s only by the grace the Lord has so mercifully offered me. Honestly, I deserve death. I am THANKFUL there is judgment. I look at the world around me. I look at the darkness in MY heart, which I think the real wicked sins live [gossip, pride, judgment, laziness, complacency, the list goes on]. Then I look at our HOLY PURE RIGHTEOUS God… and we have all, on our best days, and the best of us, are so far from even a remotely adequate reflection of the greatest that lies within our Creator. Granted, I think He did a marvelous job with mankind and with the Earth. I really am not one of those people that see the world as hopeless and awful… in fact more often I see beauty and majesty even in the most desperate of people and times. And firmly believe that 99% of us do wrong without realizing the magnitude of the consequence of sin, and more often than not our wounds we inflict on others come from our own hurts we haven’t allowed the Lord to take over and heal.
All this to say. I think we all have our junk. We are all in the same boat. However, that being said I think too often we teeter the line between what the pastor today at church said, “we worry about trying to fit in as Christians instead of just being Christians.” My heart breaks sometimes when I see facebook status’ and blogs [and I’m not saying I haven’t been there and don’t do this, my heart breaks for myself when I have that reality check in the mirror] of people I know to proclaim they are Christian, yet if they didn’t outwardly yell to me, “hey I believe in Jesus,” I would have no clue they followed the God of the universe, the creator of the heavens and the earth. And I think how often does my life not reflect Him in such a way I would have to TELL someone I ‘m a Christian [and a real Christian, not the ones that pretty much bash you over the head with a bible… you know the ones were named after, the ones that are suppose to look like our leader Jesus, the Christ, the son of the Living God] for them to get it. I hope my life shows more than that. Maybe they don’t know I’m a Christian, but hopefully they see something different [and the good kind of different here not bad]. Because bottom line. We’re different. We’re called to be separate. We are called to a different standard because we know what Truth is, our eyes have been opened, don’t choose to ignore the sights around you.
I think this all goes back to our inheritance that the Lord leaves us. He left us the keys to His kingdom. The opportunity to sit in the presence of the Almighty. For Him to dwell within our hearts and homes. Yet we live despaired, discouraged, and defeated. We have victory in front of us, but instead choose not to pick it up. We let idols run our life. You think Baal and those other pagan gods we read about in the OT were so ridiculous, but let’s open our eyes to the ones that plague our society today. I look around and see so much. They are called much different things now, but they are still there. Unfortunately, they are still there in my life and home too. I think of the things I surrender daily by just not offering it up to God, not asking for His anointing and supernatural presence to come and intervene, let alone the things that keep all His blessings at bay because I fill my life with crap that has nothing to do with His glory.
I am one of those people, and I don’t care. We don’t celebrate Halloween, we don’t do Santa, we don’t do the Easter Bunny, I believe most almost all uses of alcohol are equal to using drugs and should be looked at as bad, I don’t let my kid (s) watch lots of shows, I don’t let myself watch lots of shows, I won’t go see the Golden Compass or Twilight or read Harry Potter, I don’t believe in evolution or cavemen [just the other day I found out 2 dinosaurs that I was taught were real, actually never existed….scientists got them wrong in fact they are something else… how often we think we have it figured out and at the end of the day its still a theory not scientific fact and should be treated like that] and I’m sure my weirdo list goes on. I know I still have lots of stupid things that take up my life and interest that the Lord hasn’t brought to light for me and my household. I’m not holier than thou. That’s not the point. Often I hide behind the line; well it’s a heart issue. Which it is. But some things are what they are, and if it’s not an issue maybe it should be. A spade is after all a spade.
Maybe if we aren’t living in the supernaturalness of God, we aren’t really living with Him at all. If we don’t walk in power, maybe we aren’t really walking at all. Maybe as Paul so beautifully writes, were are BARELY escaping death. Yes, we get life, but only a small reflection of what we were created to receive.
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