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What will we Christians say, as we stand before Jesus for the judgment of our works, when the Lord asks us, “What did you do when you knew that My judgment was indisputable and imminent?”
I want to have a good and ready answer for that question.
My wife, Laurie, has been helping her father’s widow pare down her possessions for the last couple of months, and last Saturday I accompanied her to assist in selling some furniture. I was standing on the little front porch of the house. It was chilly and blustery, and it had snowed/rained that morning. I don’t remember why I was standing there, but it was likely because I had helped in some way with people moving furniture to their vehicles. In the yard across the street stands a magnificent, large deciduous tree. No leaves yet, but it’s not difficult to imagine the grandeur of it in full leaf. It possesses thick limbs and a hefty trunk. The wind blew up in that tree and tossed those sturdy limbs around. Then the Lord spoke.
A little background. In my early experiences with the Lord, He was, as He was with you, surely, very gracious, merciful, and compassionate. He made Himself known to me in you’d-have-to-be-stupid-not-to-figure-this-out spiritual events, but I was stupid. Ignorant. Foolish. The Lord had already done two wondrous acts in my life, but I was clueless. The third event occurred when my friend and I were in San Francisco. While there, I bought some occult books. As I was sitting in the shotgun seat of the truck parked in the driveway of the house where we had stayed, a wind blew up in this dried-up, perhaps dead, bush by the side of the house. In that wind, the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Trouble.” This was not aimed at me, and I had no idea what it meant at the time. So, I began to ask the Lord—after the cluelessness departed in large part—what He meant by that word “trouble” that day. I was answered in the course of time when I was out walking, when the wind shook the trees. The message was “Judgment is coming.” It was a clear but not overwhelming sense of judgment; however, it was sobering, nonetheless. Ominous. Occasionally, that sense returns, in different strengths, when the wind blows in trees.
As the wind blasted through the tree on Saturday, however, the sense of judgment was strong; so strong that when I stepped back inside, it was difficult not to break down in tears. Thus, I am compelled to write to you the message I received: Judgment is coming. It is coming as surely as the day breaks into dawn.
When Paul preached to the Gentiles at Athens, he didn’t mention Jesus by name but said, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30–31).1
John wrote, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:18–19).
Finally, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’” (1 Peter 4:17–18).
Please pray with me for those who do not know Jesus. Do what you can to glorify Him, to make Him known. Please pray with me for the Church, not just in your country but in all countries. Please pray for the Church in the United States, where I reside. We have a very large influence on churches abroad, and I am saddened to tell you that not all that influence has been helpful. Too much of it has been unscriptural and damaging.
May the Lord be merciful. It should concern us that Jesus said, “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:7–8).
1All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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