Who’s Boss
In life you see in so many places and industries where there is invariably an Employee, or a Supervisor, who sort of thinks that the “World revolves around them” and that they are the top of the tree as it were. Then you find some Christians that seem to have the idea that in Eternity, it is sort of “Communist” and that we are all the same, identical, all in the same uniform of a white robe, and all us having a harp under our arm and we all sit around on a cloud and do whatever, and that we are, all lots of little identical pre-programmed Robots.
We have these Scriptures that paint a very different picture; Matthew 5:19 “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 11:11 “Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
We get the Parable in Matthew chapter 25, about the “Ten Talents” and there are three people who are given a very different amount of “Gift” and each has a totally different reward. So far, I have found only one “common thread in the Redeemed” and that is that we all have Eternity and with that, we all have the right to the tree of life once more, {Rev 22:14} so apart from this, it appears to be a vast sliding scale.
Luke in his rendition of this same story has this concept for us as found in Luke 19:16-17 “Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” Here Doctor Luke adds the concept that not only this servant had increased his funds, but he got dominion or ruler-ship over “Ten Cities.” A city must have citizens, authorities and a “Pecking Order” and over this is another layer of authority, right back up to “Father God.”
Quote; “We all entered the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass, when Jesus brought the crowns and with His own right hand placed them on our heads. He gave us harps of gold and palms of victory. Here on the sea of glass the 144,000 stood in a perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others not so bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others had but few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet. Angels were all about us as we marched over the sea of glass to the gate of the city. Jesus raised His mighty, glorious arm, laid hold of the pearly gate, swung it back on its glittering hinges, and said to us, “You have washed your robes in My blood, stood stiffly for My truth; enter in.” We all marched in and felt that we had a perfect right in the city.
Here we saw the tree of life and the throne of God. Out of the throne came a pure river of water, and on either side of the river was the tree of life. On one side of the river was a trunk of a tree, and a trunk on the other side of the river, both of pure, transparent gold. At first I thought I saw two trees. I looked again, and saw that they were united at the top in one tree. So it was the tree of life on either side of the river of life. Its branches bowed to the place where we stood, and the fruit was glorious; it looked like gold mixed with silver. {CET 60}
Here again this author gives us an insight that all the redeemed have one thing in common, that is that they are redeemed, apart from that, there again appears to be a sliding scale of rewards and benefits, as they all had crowns of different amounts of stars, or evidences of their productivity or evangelism, and this is all based upon what we did or did not do, in this current life, using all our time and talents while living here on earth. The more I look into scripture, the more this thought appears, and that at the base, the redeemed are redeemed, the next level up is “our reward” and this is based on our commitment, both to living up to the standards of the Bible but also our response and living it, and in reaching out to those about us in charity and in bringing them the Gospel, financially.
The next level appears to be based upon “Our perfect or imperfect reflection of the Character of Jesus Chris,” and this gives us our ranking or status in eternity. It appears that those (Like Enoch) who strongly reflect Jesus Christ have a higher station in Eternity, and the bottom of the Tree is poor old John the Baptist, as he is “Tail end Charlie” and below him, well there just is nobody else in the Kingdom as he is the bottom of the barrel.
Dear Reader; will you not commit to actually “Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk” and being a genuine Christian and not just a semblance and a “Wannabe” who has a form of Godliness but no power and no Eternity, so let us each “Stand up for Jesus” and be a perfect living replica of Jesus Christ.
