God Will Disclose The Purposes Of The Heart

When the Lord comes, he will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart. 1 Corinthians 4: 5

Suppose that in the next life you see two doors in front of you. Over one door are the words ‘What I want’. Over the other door are the words “What God wants’. Which door will you choose to go through? In this life we may fudge the issue and try (unsuccessfully) to go through both doors. But it is not possible in fact to go through both doors. The time will come when we have to choose one or the other.

Suppose you walked through one or other of these doors. Looking back, the name written over the first door is ‘hell’. The name written over the the second door is ‘heaven’.

Christ’s wondrous figure, the form of the noble king, will come from east from out of the skies, sweet to the minds of his own folk, bitter to those steeped in sin, strangely diverse and different towards the blessed and the wretched.

To the good he will be gracious in appearance, beautiful and delightsome to that holy throng, attractive in his joy, affectionate and loving; agreeable and sweet it will be for his cherished people to look upon that shining form, to look with pleasure upon the mild coming of the Ruler, the mighty King, for those who had earlier pleased him well in their heart with words and with works.

To the evil he will be fearsome and terrible to see, to those sinful people who come forth there condemned by their crimes. It may serve as a warning of punishment to one who is possessed of the wise realisation, that he indeed dreads nothing at all who will not grow terrified in spirit with fear for that figure, when he sees the actual Lord of all created things journeying amid mighty marvels to judgement of the many, and round about him on every side journey squadrons of celestial angels, flocks of radiant beings, armies of saints, teeming in throngs.
Christ III, The Judgement; from The Exeter Book, 10th. century

O Christ, deliver me from the ways of darkness
so that, holding firmly to your Word
the gate of glory may be opened to me.