Blog post – the Bema seat judgement and the ‘h’
All believers in Christ will be judged on how they served Him. This will occur after the rapture, before the marriage supper of the Lamb, prior to the Second Coming
I Corinthians chapter 3:
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.” 21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
It is during this examination that all of us will find out if our effort had the dreaded ‘h’ or not. The difference between ‘worth noting’ and ‘worth nothing’ is a simple ‘h’. But that ‘h’ stands for ‘hell’, ‘hard heartedness,’ or (as we know while Satan tempts us through the eyes, God communicates through the ear), the ‘h’ can stand for ‘hearing impaired.’
Be on guard, people of God, children of the King. Be on guard that you don’t let an ‘h’ slip into your service for God, rendering it spoiled.
If I baked you a pie, and in one piece you could clearly see a cockroach baked in, would you feel comfortable just cutting out that one piece and eating the rest or would you consider the entire pie not worthy of consumption? Just one little roach ruins everything. One little ‘h’ ruins everything. One little h turns your work from worth noting to worth nothing. One desire for human recognition when serving or giving ruins everything. One little bit of ‘hard-heartedness’ or ‘hearing impairment’ or ‘hell’ ruins everything. Just like a pinch of leaven (biblical allegory for sin) affects the whole loaf, a little sin ruins your whole effort.
I Corinthians 5:6 ‘Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?’
Galatians 5:9 ‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.’
And Satan is sneaky! He will give you a good cover story for your sin. How many affairs have started when an initially well-meaning minister or confidant decided to ‘comfort’ someone else’s wife going through a difficult time in a marriage? How many embezzlements have occurred when someone selflessly volunteers to be the club treasurer? How many rewards have been lost because you choose to disguise gossip as ‘prayer requests’ for someone? “Oh, we really need to be in prayer for Julie. I heard she’s been flirting with the UPS man.”
AN H SLIPPED IN and you allowed it! You turned what was going to be a great work for God into a work for the devil! And he laughs! He laughs! It’s his favorite trick! A strong man of God goes on a mission trip to Brazil and ends up sneaking out just one night to visit a brothel. H! Hate the ‘h’ that contaminates your service to God.
There is a long list of people in the bible that hated the ‘h’ and didn’t hate the ‘h’. In other words, people whose service and devotion were worth noting vs those for whom it was worth nothing.
Caan’s sacrifice vs. Abel’s (Gen 4:3-5)
Joseph’s dream interpretations vs. Pharaoh’s priests’ (Genesis 41)
Moses and Aaron’s miracles vs Pharaoh’s priests’ (Exodus 7)
Achan’s taking of the gold for his family and them not saying anything about it (Joshua 7)
Elijah vs. Baal’s priests (I Kings 18:22 -40)
Mordecai vs. Haman (Esther 7)
Widow’s mite vs. Pharisees’ gift (Luke 21:1-4)
Parable of Talents/Minahs (Matthew 25:14-30 / Luke 19:11-27)
Parable of Seeds (Matthew 13:1-23)
Thieves on the cross (Luke 23:39-43)
Joseph’s (Barnabas’) gift vs. Ananias and Sapphira’s (Acts 4:34-5:11)
The Egyptian midwives who refused to kill the Hebrew baby boys and those who would have obeyed Pharaoh and killed them. (Exodus 1:16)
Simple obedience leads to great blessing. Such a small difference in a word, but what a huge difference in outcomes. Such a small difference in attitude makes all the difference in whether your offering of time, words, effort, or money is deemed pleasing to the Lord. Hate the ‘h’ in all you do, and you will have some gold, silver, and precious jewels left over after your work is tested by fire at the Bema seat judgement.
Isaiah 40:12-15
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has informed Him?14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
God knows the weight of the earth. He also knows the weight of Christ’s sacrifice. During the Bema seat judgement, it will be like God pressing down on the scale in our benefit when our good works are weighed and we claim Christ.
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.
I would love if He would focus on our highlight reels, and in His great grace, perhaps He will choose to.
I am praying He separates “Israel” moments from “Jacob” moments. In the OT, whenever Jacob was acting in the flesh, God referred to him as Jacob. But when he was walking in obedience to God, He called him ‘Israel’.
When we are at the Bema judgement, will he separate out each moment of our lives and judge them whether they were spirit-led or flesh-led? I hope so, as sometimes within an hour I can go from one to the other, e.g. in traffic or dealing with a difficult person.
Regardless, I have faith that no matter what happens, I and everyone else will agree that we were judged fairly, even generously, because those are traits of the God we serve.
Revelation 22:12 ‘“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
Be ready for your Bema seat judgement. Hate the ‘h’ trying to contaminate your work!