What Are We Preparing For?

Post 346

“Well that’s all fine and dandy for some,” you may say; “but I have no desire or intention of being anybody’s governor or assembly member in the kingdom of heaven. That stuff has nothing to do with me, so I cannot be included in the fault.”

Really?~ (said dryly).
Have you ever contemplated then just what it is that you want to be doing in the Lord’s kingdom? Will you be lounging on pillows and waited on by servants hand-and-foot for all eternity having finally arrived at your deserved luxury so long kept from you? Have you forgone all those temporal gratifying experiences here so that you can reap them in abundance for eternity there as a kind of “delayed payment for services rendered”? Is it really, in the end, actually all about YOU?
It’s a curious thought isn’t it? What do the Scriptures have to say regarding your activities in the kingdom of heaven? You would be surprised! I mean REALLY surprised.
But we are not ready to go into all that just yet. For now, let’s just get our basic thinking straight by briefly reviewing some details in a few related parables of scripture:

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant:…enter thou into the joy of the lord.”

What Christian is not well familiar with this verse as a motivational longing to hear on the day we enter heaven to reap our reward that makes it all worth it? But even in your enthusiastic confidence of clear understanding, are you not just a little curious to recall the missing part made evident by the three dots? Let’s try again:

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things,…enter thou into the joy of the lord.”

Oh yah, there’s the missing part. So if we contemplate the meaning of the parable, we see that, while the pleasure of entering into the joy of the Lord may arguably not be; getting the commendation of praise is unquestionably contingent upon being faithful over a few things.
“Sure, I already got that concept in the “good and faithful” comment, even without the missing part.”
Yes, but I don’t think you yet comprehend what it’s actually saying. Did you see the additional three dots? Let's try it one more time:

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, (therefore) I will make thee ruler over many things: (and to that end;) enter thou into the joy of the lord” Matthew 25:21.

“Hmmm a ruler huh? and over a lot of things? That’s the reward for being a faithful steward of a few of the master’s things? Where’s the luxury in that!?"-- Right?
So let me ask you; IF your Lord and Master, wants you to forever be a “governor or assembly member” of some sort or another, what happened to your dream of pampering luxury in consuming upon yourself the pleasures of the eternal kingdom with just you and your Lord living happily ever after? Just how secretly wicked-stepsister is your Cinderella heart anyway? Apparently we have some work to do before your Prince comes to find you by trying on that spiritual slipper of identification; It seems that your foot must have swollen since the ball, it looks to be uncomfortably pinching.

You see, the child’s fairytale always ends at; “they lived happily ever after,” because all we need to help get us through the bitter trials of our child-like struggles in the here-and-now is a glimpse of that great and wonderful eternity where all our trials will be turned into gold (James 1:12+Romans 8:28, I Corinthians 9:24-25, Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 61:3, etc.). The simplistic version without all the complicated details, gives us a very clear and sufficiently strong Hope to cling to, when, by the struggles, we have no capacity to contemplate more (John 16:12). It is enough (Revelation 2:8-9a,10-11, 3:4-6, 3:7-8,10-13).
But there IS more if we want it. Why?

The details are hidden from the simple in faith so that they do not get discouraged in the struggles of their early maturation: Hold firm to the faith of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and you will be counted among the citizens of his kingdom (Matthew 10:22). Period.
But we are speaking simplistically of a very sophisticated spiritual topic. Simply speaking: The more of the details in our maturity that we gather and comprehend in application, the greater our qualifications for the job we apply for. If you don’t see yourself as a “ruler over many things” in the kingdom of heaven then don’t apply with anticipation for the job that gets the; “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” commendation. Public correction for being comparatively under-qualified is embarrassing to say the least (Revelation 3:17-18):

“When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room (G5117)” Luke 14:8-9.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions (G3438: a staying, i.e. residence (the act or the place))…” John 14:2. We may translate this as stations, or seats; Occupations.

The concept of this parable is not to discourage anyone from seeking the highest seat they are qualified for, but to refrain from overreaching expectations of self worth. I understand that the above passage is a parable, and I have seemed to borrow it’s intended point for another application; a very dangerous use of parables indeed. But the parable is speaking of pride in imagining oneself greater and more qualified that one actually is, and in this way I have not abused it’s point. Especially because, even though the event in which it was delivered was not a wedding, the parable of that event is centered at a generic wedding, and can therefore be easily applied to THE wedding in the Kingdom of Heaven. So let’s try a non-parable verse regarding various seats in the kingdom:

“And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold” Revelation 4:4.

If you are anything like me; it never even crossed your mind to sit in one of those twenty-four seats. Of course not! That is a position of which I am far under-qualified to fill. But those seats are there for somebody to fill. That means there are seats: greater and lesser seats. So, if we are not going to sit there in those very high seats, where will you sit; what room --(G5117; a spot, general in space, but limited by occupancy)-- will you fill at the great wedding of the Lamb?

“And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” Hebrews 6:11.

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” James 2:14.

It cannot now be denied that faith and righteousness go hand in hand, and that getting through the gate is not the same thing as finding your seat; as great or as least as it may be. So let me ask you; “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s a question for contemplation asked of almost every kid in their adolescence long before their life station is acquired. Some know at a very early age exactly what they want to be, while others graduate from college still not knowing. Far too many, sort-of drift along and let the random winds of life give them whatever comes. Well maybe these people do get by, but who dreams of flipping hamburgers as a life’s career? I suppose that some might. and the world needs burger flippers. and garbage collectors. and sewer treatment operators. So I suppose it’s good that there are so many who have no ambition but to survive life on the lowest rungs, grateful to have a job at all.
It is likewise in the kingdom of heaven, which this life Types parabolically (*1):

…“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” II Timothy 2:…19-21.

So we see (in the fuller passage) that successfully departing from iniquity, and shunning vain and profane babblings and strife in pointless conversations, are among the significant factors of qualification for a better job position in the kingdom of heaven, while conversely, a failure to avoid these things, though maybe not disqualifying us from a place in the larger kingdom of God (I John 5:17), certainly keeps us from an honorable seat.

Do you suppose that Cinderella; the bride of the Prince, would be considered a vessel unto dishonor? Yah~, me neither. Can you suddenly see that not everybody who enters heaven is the bride of Christ? Does that shake your very perceptions of the faith and your eternity? It should.
Like the kid who is asked; “What do you want to be when you grow up?,” you need to contemplate this thought for longer than a moment. It’s very important to your eternity. It goes hand in hand with the earlier question regarding the first generation Hebrews of Promise who crossed the Red Sea in baptism but never crossed the Jordan in the righteousness of faith. In Post 247 we asked; “Are They In Hell?” (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/05/are-they-in-hell.html), and we are still discovering the HUGE answer that opens the door to that kingdom for a peak inside. The Grand Tapestry shows us what that kingdom looks like and why.

So I ask you again: If not everybody who enters heaven is the Bride of Christ, where do they all sit: what is their station; their room; their seat? But more important to ask personally is: Where then do I sit with my slightly “Wicked Stepsister” heart?

“How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed!...The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!” Lamentations 4:1-2.

It seems that even “magically perfect” Cinderella can indeed fall from her glory if she is not diligent (I Corinthians 10:12, II Thessalonians 2:3, II Peter 1:10, etc.). What her wicked stepsisters assume is “just the way she was born,” is actually a very earnestly built persona of choice; a robe of righteousness chosen with care from a closet of options (I Corinthians 6:11).
Spiritually precious fine-gold vessels of honor can indeed deteriorate to be esteemed as mere clay vessels of dishonor as they are manipulated by molders not God. After it is made, I am persuaded that the regressive transformation is not contingent upon what it’s made of, but what you put in it (Romans 12:2, 6:16). My computer may be a lofty fine-gold spiritual tool of God, while my neighbor’s computer may be a mere earthy tool of base-nature pornography and wasted time.

Our personal question above that sprung from a sudden realization that we are not all the bride of Christ, should be quickly followed with; Is there anything I can still do to improve my designated seating before my name is called? I’d rather not collect garbage for eternity, if I have a choice in the matter.
The above II Timothy 2:21 seems to tell us that we do indeed have a say in the matter!

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;” Hebrews 3:13-14, (underlined capital type emphasis added).

Does that warning admonition of retaining the beginning confidence ring any Revelation 2:4 “First love” bells? The deceitfulness of sin is the very great bump that will throw you from the train without so much as spilling your tea! But that mystery is a topic for the next Post. This Post is your wakeup call as we prepare for the bump.
Applications are being reviewed and placements arranged as we speak! (John 14:2b).
* * * * * * *

(*1) Parabola: Greek: parabole; a place beside. See Parable.
Parabolic: 1. Allegoric. 2. [From parabola] Geometry a. Resembling, relating to, or generated or directed by, a parabola. b. Hence, having the form of a parabola; as, a parabolic course. - Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 5th Edition 1948.
*