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After living what I felt was a ‘decent’ life, my time on earth came to an end.
The first thing I remember is sitting on a bench in the waiting room of what I thought to be a court house… The doors opened and I was instructed to come in and have a seat by the defense table.
As I looked around I saw the ‘prosecutor.’ He was a villainous looking gent who
snarled as he stared at me… He definitely was the most evil person I have ever seen.
I sat down and looked to my left and there sat MY attorney, a kind and gentle looking man whose appearance seemed so familiar to me, I felt I knew Him. The corner door flew open and there appeared the Judge in full flowing robes.
He commanded an awesome presence as He moved across the room I couldn’t take my eyes off of Him.
As He took His seat behind the bench, He said, “Let us begin.”
The prosecutor rose and said, “My name is Satan and I am here to show you why this man belongs in hell.”
He proceeded to tell of lies that I told, things that I stole, and in the past, when I cheated others. Satan told of other horrible perversions that were once in my life and the more he spoke, the further down in my seat I sank.
I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t look at anyone, even my own Attorney, as the Devil told of sins that even I had completely forgotten about.
As upset as I was at Satan for telling all these things about me, I was equally upset at my attorney who sat there silently not offering any form of defense at all.
I know I had been guilty of those things, but I had done SOME good in my life – couldn’t that at least equal out part of the harm I’d done?
Satan finished with a fury and said, “This man belongs to me, he is guilty of all that I have charged, and there is not a person who can prove otherwise.”
When it was His turn, my attorney first asked if He might approach the bench. The Judge allowed this over the strong objection of Satan, and beckoned Him to come forward.
He got up and started walking; I was able to see Him in His full splendor and majesty.
I realize d why He seemed so familiar; this was Jesus representing me, my Lord and my Savior….
He stopped at the bench and softly said to the Judge, “Hi, Dad,” and then He turned to address the court.
“Satan was correct in saying that this man had sinned, I won’t deny any of these allegations. And, yes, the wages of sin is death, and this man deserves to be punished.”
Jesus took a deep breath and turned to His Father with out-stretched arms and proclaimed, ‘However, I died on the cross so that this person might have eternal life, and he has accepted Me as his Savior, so he is Mine.”
My Lord continued with, “His name is written in the Book of Life, and no one can snatch him from Me. Satan still does not understand yet… This man is not to be given justice, but rather mercy.”
As Jesus sat down, He quietly paused, looked at His Father, and said, “There is nothing else that needs to be done.” “I’ve done it all.”
The Judge lifted His mighty hand and slammed the gavel down. The following words bellowed from His lips…
“This man is free. The penalty for him has already been paid in full. Case dismissed.”
As my Lord led me away, I could hear Satan ranting and raving, “I won’t give up, and I will win the next one.”
I asked Jesus as He gave me my instructions where to go next, “Have you ever lost a case?”
Christ lovingly smiled and said, “Everyone that has come to Me and asked Me to represent them has received the same verdict as you, ~Paid In Full~”
If you do not pass this along to 10 people immediately, absolutely nothing will happen.
Passing this on to anyone you consider a friend, (as I have done here), will bless you both.
“Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell the storm how big your God is!”
Pastor Rick Warren on Wife’s Cancer
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having ‘wealth’ from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, ’Purpose Driven Life ‘ author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder.. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do.
That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD
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