Clues found in Camp Fire

Burned-out shells of abandoned cars and pick-up trucks, frames of charred poolside chaise lounge chairs, scrapped edges of fast-food and gas station signage, etc. These are the images left in the aftermath of the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif.

Paul writes in I Corinthians 3:13-14, “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward."

“Notice it’s not about how MUCH it is, but what SORT it is,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan. “What’s the quality? What’s the motive? What’s the heart that produced it and drives it?

“People have the idea that when they arrive at the judgment seat of Christ, they’re going to drag up their little bag of works with them to sit down and the Lord’s going to say, ‘Okay, whatcha got in the bag?’

“You reach in and pull out the best thing you’ve got. It’s all polished and ready and you’re proud of that thing because you’ve spent years building it, honing it, working it, getting it right, making it just what you KNEW God wanted it to be.

“You remember Brother Ted’s song about the Bible version issue: ‘Hold on, wait a minute, Lord, I spent my whole career teaching them that fire was heat lamp in the original Greek.’

*****

“I always remember the time when we lived in Selma, Ala., I heard a deafening boom and looked out the window to see our garage was on fire. The firemen came and in about 45 minutes they let the garage burn on down to the concrete slab because it was just a tinder box.

"I went out there the next day and, you know, there was NOTHING left! It was gone. Just a pile of ash and cinder and charcoal. We had a car battery in there and you couldn’t even find where it was! I thought, ‘Wow, fire is devastating. Everything gone just like that.’

“Do you realize there are great portions of Christian lives that are not built according to the pattern of godly edification and are going to come up a blank at the Judgment Seat? There’s just going to be a big blank spot there.

“Now, you know, there is a certain security in that. You wouldn’t want all those things hanging around your neck for eternity, would you? Paul says, 'If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.'

“That fire is going to get all that stuff out of the records there. That’s actually a final element of God’s grace in securing you unto Himself because those things are just what they are in your life now. They are a total waste.

“We need to fill our lives with godly edification, understanding who we are in Christ and building an appreciation for that into our lives so that is what lives in us and in our thinking process. Our mind is to be renewed day by day with that truth so that reality is what lives in us.

“All the judgment seat of Christ really does is demonstrate what is real and has been real all along. Wisdom, and the reason to know about it, is so you NOW can live in light of the reality there.

*****

“You know what the fire is? God said in Jeremiah, ‘Is not my Word like unto a fire?’ You remember Jeremiah said, ‘His work was in me like a fire; it just burned and I couldn’t contain myself.’

“When Paul says He’s going to ‘try it by the fire,’ he’s talking about the Word of God. The Word of God that goes in and tries a thing, and judges it, and identifies it, and sees whether it matches the doctrine.

“What we pull out of that bag that we thought was so wonderful is going to wind up just ashes. Because we got the idea that the thing to it all is that we just have all these wonderful things we did for God. Paul says that we are His workmanship. It’s not my work; it’s His work.

“What He’s going to be interested in rewarding is what He’s doing for Himself in my body of flesh, not what I’m doing. It’s about His life, not mine. He says, ‘You build in you the doctrine, because the words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.’ ”

*****

Paul precedes his advice about works that abide and works burned up with I Corinthians 3:10-12:

[10] According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
[11] For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
[12] Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Jordan explains, “There’s going to be a lot of people who point to great buildings and great campaigns and great circulations, with thousands of this and millions of that, and say, ‘Look what we did for God,’ and when it comes under the scrutiny of the heat lamp of the Word of God it’ll all be gone because it’ll be wood, hay and stubble.

“You know what happens when you put that stuff in the fire? You get ashes. When you put gold and silver in the fire, it burns up any problems and leaves it all the better. That’s how you purify gold and silver. It’s heat that makes the diamond. You don’t damage it; you bring it to its perfection.

“The gold, silver, precious stones are identifiable in the Word of God so you’re sure to know what they are, and the wood, hay and stubble are, too. One lasts and isn’t destroyed and the other is transitory and soon goes away. One is eternal and the other is temporal.

*****

“A fellow asked me one time, ‘How’s it going to be with you at the judgment seat of Christ?’ Do you know that you’re supposed to KNOW how it’s going to be? Paul said, ‘This is my confidence, I’d rather depart and be with Christ which is far better than to be here.’

“When you have an understanding of what grace is, then you have that confident boldness and assurance and you can see your life now lived in light of that. The whole issue is, ‘Hey, out there it’s going to be manifest who we really are so what should we do right now?’ Live like it! Live in the light of that reality! 

“Your faith better not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God and that’s the whole key! That will allow us to work together in a realm of real appreciation and real service.

“The way your sins and failures are going to be dealt with at the Judgment Seat of Christ is the way you and I--and God--deal with them in our life right now, because our sins have already been judged at Calvary and their full penalty and price has already been paid. Our sin, as sin, will not be the issue.

“Grace will operate and objectively evaluate our service, our conduct, our suffering and all the rest, based upon who we are in Christ. That’s no more or less than the way we’re to operate in our own thinking right now.”