Bible Prophecy and Inspiration

The rewards that we are going to get from Jesus are not going to be based on all your hard worldly work.  Your 401k is not a gage on your heavenly retirement.  The employee of the month plaques for a job well done at the work place are staying behind.

 1 Corinthians 3:9-15- ⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

 ¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. ¹⁴ If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

The foundation is Jesus. 

Throughout we read of the parables Jesus taught. 

Parable of the Sower – The first too examples either don’t understand or quickly fall away.  The other two read like this.

Matthew 13:22-23   – ²² The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

In rewards talk I see this parable in our world today.  I see missionaries and pastors out there giving up their lives for the love of the Father and wanting to have others come to know the Lord.  They are trying to produce a crop.  I see many others trying to produce a worldly kingdom.  Those things usually take our focus off God.

We also see it in the parables of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27).  In both cases they were entrusted with a certain amount and the ones who produced were rewarded with much more.  Both times the one that wasn’t entrusted with much at all and didn’t produce was casted out and it was taken away from him.

We need to serve the King.  The devil is the one whispering in your ear to serve yourself.  He is a thief, liar, and murderer. 

Do you want the most sure fire way to hear God’s voice?  It’s in His Word.  You can read and hear it as much as you like.

Your reward is based on your work, just not the work your doing for yourself or the world.  It’s based on what you’re doing for the Kingdom.  How much you love the Lord.  Are prayer warrior?  That’s working for the Kingdom.  Are you doing things for people in His name? 

No one gets paid to milk the cow if he is a computer programmer.  Another doesn’t get paid for picking up rocks out in a field if he is a waiter.  You get rewarded when you accomplish work in the right area.  The Lord wants to reward us all.  Pray and seek what it is He wants you do and start today.  Your loving work for the Lord will only draw you closer to Him.

The Word of God is full of living words that we are supposed to live by.  Anymore the Churchas a whole just says know the name of Jesus and you don’t have to know anything more.  Is that true?  If it were, there are a lot of wasted words printed all the way through the Bible on how we are supposed to act, treat others as well as serve the Lord. 

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – 9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

 ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

Warnings galore!  If we are honest with ourselves almost everyone is guilty of the very things were being warned about throughout the Bible.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 –   ¹ But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

This isn’t about having a witch hunt for those who are not perfect.  We all need to read these words and try to improve on them in our lives.  Help others realize that it is important to God.

We are in the last days.  Look at that list.  I’ve had to work on a third of those myself because the world is teaching that it’s the way of success.

Check out some of these.  Don’t pass over them and don’t take them lightly, because the last sentence states have nothing to do with THEM.

Lovers of Themselves – plenty of books to accomplish this one.
Lovers of Money – you don’t even have to have it to love it.  What makes you tick?
Lovers of Pleasure rather than Lovers of God – Ouch.  We love our recreation.  We pay lots to do it and plenty of time getting it done.  Where is time with God on the pie chart?  Big piece?  Small sliver?

Our walk is a journey.  We don’t want to walk backwards or sideways.  We lose a lot of time and ground that way in our relationship with the Lord.  We don’t need to become discouraged either, but motivated by knowing that we have a guideline to follow and today is the day we take a new step towards pleasing God, not ourselves.