'J'

by Hallie Gipson

As I was preparing for the latest installment of “The Names and Attributes of God”, one ‘J’ word that helps define the character of God came to mind --- ‘Judge’.

This word is not one I am prone to dwell on when using God’s names and attributes in praise of Him. I prefer the ones that sound loftier to my ears --- Excellent, Great, Alpha, Creator, Prince of Peace, etc. But what about God as ‘Judge’? Well, there’s nothing like a dose of experiential reality to bring a word into sharp focus and give that word depth of meaning! And in my case, that’s just what happened.

I had occasion to accompany someone to court as a ‘substitute’ family member. My role was to be one of support -- both emotional and physical. Having no previous experience in a court room, not even jury duty, I had never given much thought to what court would be like in reality. Several things immediately came to my attention as we sat and waited for her case to be called: the starkness and discomfort of the furnishings; the sternness of the environment; the harshness of the bailiff as he gave the rules of court behavior; the faces and demeanor of not only those facing charges, but also of those accompanying the offenders; the hushed atmosphere; the attorneys as they conferred with clients or other attorneys; the judge; and the bench.

My stomach was in knots and I wasn’t even guilty of a punishable offense or crime! No one in that court room could point a finger at me and accuse me of breaking any law, and yet the angst was there. Isn’t it amazing what feelings an environment can evoke?

As I sat there trying to process my surroundings, I was overcome with gratitude that on Judgment Day, I will not have to fear the outcome. Yes, I will have to stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account of myself, but I will not be condemned to eternal punishment and separation from God.

• Matthew 12:36 –-- “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

• Romans 14:12 --- “So then every one of us will give an account of himself to God.” 

• 2 Corinthians 5:10 --- “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

•  Hebrews 4:13 --- “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

Why won’t I be condemned to eternal punishment and separation from God? Because Christ paid my sin-debt when He died on the cross for the sin of the world, rose again, and now lives to intercede for me before the Father. Hebrews 7:25 --- “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

The person I accompanied received a ‘continuance/delay’ of her case that day because all decision-making parties involved were not present. But there will be no continuance or delay when the unsaved of this world stand before God on Judgment Day! By then, every knee will have bowed and every tongue will have confessed that Jesus is The Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Eternal punishment will be meted out and no second chances allowed. Everyone who has not already professed Christ as their Savior will be condemned and sentenced to an eternity in hell – forever separated from God! And who will be the Judge? God!

• Psalm 50:6 -- And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is judge.  

• Psalm 96:12b-13 -- Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.    

God will judge through Christ.

• Acts 17:30b-31 -- God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.   

• 2 Timothy 4:8 -- In the future there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.   

• James 4:12 -- There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy . . .

So my question for you is --- Do you know my Savior? Do you have a personal relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ? Has there ever been a time in your life that you can say for certain that you received Christ as Lord of your life? Do you believe in His finished work on the cross for your sin and His resurrection which assures us of eternal life? Do you know without a doubt that you would spend eternity with Christ if you died tonight?

John 3:16 tell us that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

When we confess our sin and turn away from our sin in repentance, we have the peace of God because we have peace with God. The only way we can have peace with God is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that cleanses us and opens the door for us to fellowship with God the Father and to claim His promise of eternal life.

If you cannot answer ‘yes’ to those questions, then I urge you to decide for Christ! Don’t wait! God will accept you just as you are --- He doesn’t expect us to clean up or live a perfect life before we come to Him. He does the cleaning up in our lives through the blood of Jesus Christ!

So come just as you are, dear reader! Jesus Christ is waiting with open arms!

Jesus Came to My Mother's Funeral

By Shirley Wiggins

“I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless];                I will come [back] to you.”  John 14:18 Amplified Bible.

God’s Word – The Holy Bible – holds many promises, many of them sound almost too good to be true.  But,  that is the Gospel --- the Good News of Jesus Christ; this is truth.

He came to earth to bring God visibly into focus for all who choose to believe Him.  God is wonderfully patient and will work an entire lifetime to allow people to come to the knowledge of Who He is in the reality of life on earth.

In the early pre-dawn hours this morning, I went on a mind-trip with my Lord.

He took me back in memory to many of the times and places where He ‘showed’ me, in many ways, His intervening work and presence in my life.

In the Summer of 1962 – about this time of year, late June, early July – in the middle of yet another most disappointing experience, He brought my  husband-to-be to my door, and so began my future’s unfolding.

I would not graduate from high school as I had dreamed of doing, but I would become the almost-child-bride of the love of my life.  Our first date was on July 15, 1962.

Our wedding date would be June 28, 1963.

That particular Saturday 55 years ago, I had locked myself in the little room behind my parents’ carport and cried and cried and cried, having been told that I would not be enrolling at the local high school that fall as I had dreamed of doing and had planned and worked to make it happen.

MHS administrators had ordered my school records from Fulton County High School in Atlanta, Georgia where I had willingly dropped out of my 10^th grade year to keep my youngest brother while my mother and daddy worked at their jobs.

After we had moved back to our hometown in the late Spring of 1962, my mother had made arrangements for an aunt to keep my baby brother so I could go back to high school.  My daddy said no, financially impossible.

And I cried, and cried and cried.

Years passed and many more tears I would cry privately into my pillow at night.  “You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in Your bottle.  You have recorded each one in Your book.”  Psalm 56:8 (NLT).

Always, and usually without my conscious awareness,  my Lord intervened for me.  Much happiness, sprinkled intermittently with more tears, came into my life.

My young husband was drafted and shipped out to Viet Nam.  My daddy continued to struggle with substance abuse and deteriorated into an alcoholic.

I responded by   cycling back and forth between anger, fear for my husband’s safety, crushing, heartbreaking loneliness, and more anger toward my daddy, who died in early January 1968.

My husband was sent home from the war some weeks (months?) later.  We would have three wonderful children over the next 10 years.

My mother died rather suddenly,  and completely unexpectedly,  in 1981, while we were living in South Carolina and she in Alabama.

On June 25, 1981,  as we were driving to my childhood church for her funeral soon after she had turned age 54, the Angel of the Lord opened before my eyes this Scripture I later found to be in John 14:1-3 (NKJV):

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me (Jesus).

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. 

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you to Myself;  that where I am, there you may be also.”

In that moment I thought His sole message to me was that He had prepared my mother’s place and had returned for her.

During her funeral as I sat on the front right pew facing the altar where her opened casket stood, I cried and cried and cried.

Then the sense of His presence came to me, picked me up, sat me on His lap as a child would be, and He held me encircled in His warm embrace.

I have no words to describe adequately, or even perhaps accurately, the peace, comfort and pure joy that filled me up – completely.

When the sense of His presence was gone, my smile of perfect contentedness remained on my face, absent any tears.

The tears and the fearful emotions of my feelings would return again and again,  for the next 10 years;  gradually subsiding, becoming less and less frequent and fervent.  My heartache healed and my mourning for my mother ended.

What did not leave me was my growing awareness of His having proven to me the reality of His Being and the truth of His Words, especially this one: 

“I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.”  John 14:18 Amp. Bible.

I began to recognize  in the John 14:1-3 Scripture, that Jesus had issued to me my invitation to know Him personally, and that just as I had known since I was a little girl that God was real, I could know Jesus personally.

Ongoing manifestations of His unseen presence, and His power and comfort and care for me continue to bless me,  always at the times that I most need Him.  (John 14:21.)

And so I continue to learn to embrace the reality of the truth of His presence and provision and protection as the years pass.

I treasure His Word, I praise His wonderful Name, and I learn daily to trust His truth as I learn more and more about the process of walking through this life by faith, and not by sight.  His comforts calm me:  body, soul and spirit.                 Psalm 131:2.

I find that I lean more and more heavily dependent upon Him as my  birthdays bring me closer and closer to that day when my physical sight will  become my spiritual reality as He prepares me to look fully into His precious Face.

Oh, the peace that passes understanding and the love that surpasses knowledge!

 “If you really love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever – The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him.  But you know and recognize Him,  for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless];   I will come [back] to you.”      John 14:15-18,  Amplified Bible.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!