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CLEVER
TREVOR
Any
similarity to any person living or dead is purely deliberate.
I have a certain
good Christian friend that I have known for more years than I can count,
even if I use all my fingers and toes. We used to spend much time together
and he has always been better than me at everything, except for once - but
more later. Let us call him
say ‘Trevor’ because that's his name and I have always enjoyed trying
to outsmart and competitively beat him at something, usually failing,
except once as we shall see. He could always beat me at chess and even at
'Connect 4.' He introduced me
to good music and was a good confidant of mine but I still needed to beat
him at something. He now lives in darkest Wales where he is a magistrate
and is involved with Bishops and such. All this leaves me well behind
again, (except for once, as we shall see.)
I remember when all he had was a scooter and a pair of perforated
metal-lensed goggles to keep the snow out of his eyes. When he abandoned
normality and became a maths teacher I had to think of some happening to
outshine his and so I did and now is the time to tell.
You may ask me
whether I realise how cruel it can be to mock and then to 'rub salt' into
the resulting wounds of a good friend. Well it is wrong and I shouldn't do
it. So here goes and if
this means I get carried away to Wales by medieval men with metal hats and
spikes to be sentenced to a beheading in Aberystwyth, then so be it.
Please come with
me to a hotel in far away London, I had abandoned Margaret for a self
indulgent weekend. I 'poshed'
myself up in a specially hired suit. I was to go out for a meal and the
car was to pick me up at 6.00 p.m. At
the correct time I went to the lounge where people were gathering for
their nights out at theatre and such when a liveried chauffeur entered and
called for 'Mr. Collett for Buckingham Palace'; then silence, a dropped
pin would have sounded like thunder. I was ushered into a limousine and
driven to Buck house, where I was taken up the famous carpeted stairs
(with others I might add), to the main banqueting hall.
After being served drinks, we were seated at our tables. I was with
the Royal Butler and a Banker with his Wife. Thankfully they never asked
for my job.
I was later
introduced to Prince Charles, and what did we discuss? - How to make
mashed potatoes, - now I ask you! During
the evening I was allowed to use my mobile to ask Trevor where he thought
I was phoning from and guess what? HE
WAS OUT! Life
can be so unfair. However I
filled him in with the details later on - again and again.
Well of course my
little gloat was a bit of mischievous fun, hopefully at brother Trevor’s
expense (he doesn't mind by the way) However if I now went
to the Palace and wanted to go in, do you think the guards would say 'yes,
certainly mate, go round the back and ring the bell marked Liz and Phil.
‘The key is under the mat,' or would they just shoot me? (Hopefully says
Trevor.) The only people who
would be allowed to gain entry are those invited so that they can be
honoured because of their valued roles of effort or status. (I was
only there because of my daughter’s role)
However the doors would always be open to members of
the Royal Family themselves because their relationship with the Monarch is
different, not because of work and effort but by family and genetic ties.
The Palace is part of their family life just as our Heavenly Father's home
will shortly be ours.
If a person has a
family business and expects his children to grow up to be involved
profitably in the venture, their relationship takes a dual role. They are
first his children born with his genes so that fact cannot be
undone and remains historically secure.
However when they join the family firm they also become servants
to be trained, disciplined,
rewarded or dismissed from their duties according to their efforts.
This would not affect their family ties.
A serving son or daughter's possible negative role may affect the
pleasurable fellowship of family relationship but cannot affect its
reality. So it is when we are
'born again', our relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit, becomes
as a child with his Father, a relationship that cannot be genetically
undone so our eternal safety is secure.
However, we are expected to join in the family business with the
Gospel that will, if we are true to that responsibility, result in a
reward in that coming day but if we are unfaithful in our efforts we shall
suffer loss as servants but even so, our being a child in the
Father's home will remain the same.
The matter of our conduct and effort as servants will be
settled at the future
'Judgement ( examination)
Seat' before which every
believer will have to give an account as servants of the 'family
business' but our relationship with our loving
Father will remain without question.
It is good that we do not confuse these two positions. Satan would
love to move our thoughts of salvation from Grace to self effort.
The 'Judgement
(examination) seat' will be a family affair where Jesus will bring into
the open all things said and done by all of us so that transparency,
honesty and joyful forgiveness will abound between all. Those who have
worked so hard for our benefit will be willingly honoured by all and
warmly thanked and rewarded by our Saviour. We shall also have to face up
to the effects of our own unfair remarks and actions and willingly put
them right. At last the real
wonder of warm forgiving fellowship will be experienced by all. The joy we
shall feel in the presence of Our Saviour in that day will be so intense
that our old unchanged bodies and minds would not have been able to
contain it. The worship and thanks to our God will, for the first time, be
wholesome and without the contamination of sin. It will be a wonderful way
to begin our eternity with our Glorious Friend and Saviour. To see the joy
on His face will be to remind us of how ‘for the joy that was set before
Him’ he endured the cross with all its pain and shame.
To see Him find His joy amongst us, His family, will be so humbling
yet so thrilling it will take eternity for us to even start to understand
it. Let us never forget for a moment the generosity of God when He gave us
all this as an undeserved gift.
If any reader of
these comments feels that they want to know more, speak to our Pastor,
Jon, or a member of the prayer team.
It is good to
remember that the 'Judgement' or examination seat is for those who had
earlier taken the Saviour's offer of forgiveness. However the later
dreadful 'White Throne' will be the place where the sins of those who
reject Christ will be addressed and that will be a dreadful, serious
event.
God Bless
Ian
P.S. May I thank
all those who have so kindly encouraged me on my various jottings and for
the way that all of the many
short comings have been so kindly and
good humouredly overlooked.
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