One Last thought About Crowns

 "And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders  will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne saying, Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things and because of Your will they existed and were created." (Rev. 4:9-11).

After receiving these crowns then what?  This question brought to mind the story of the man who was awarded the "Humility Award" in his church; later he had to give it back, because he wore it.  The above Scripture tells us the elders place their crowns at Jesus feet and, if they do, would not all of us want to follow their example to show our love for our Father who art in heaven?

 As you can see, each crown is given to those who do a good work on His behalf and will want to place whatever crowns awarded at the feet of Jesus, when we come face to face with Him.  In my study of crowns  I have come to one conclusion: if you have not earned one or more of the crowns, described in previous days, I question whether you will have entry into God's Eternal Kingdom. 

I would be remiss if I did not suggest to you that there is a second option for our choosing.  "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, the great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened:  and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.   And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged,  according to their deeds.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.”

This is followed by one of the most profound and dangerous statements (for those who do not know Jesus as Lord of their life), "if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire". (Rev. 20:11-15).  Did you know that less than forty percent of our young people today even know there is such a thing as the "lake of fire".  Is that not frightening? 

Soooo, my young friends, what say you? Are you worthy this morning to be dubbed with the sword of the Lord with the Imperishable Crown?  Are you following Paul's example and running the good race?  Is your life an example of God's love and filled with rejoicing?  Paul tells us if you want your life to be great in God's Kingdom, then "…learn to be a servant of all" (Mark 9:35)  Are you worthy of the Crown of Exultation?   

Blessings,

Gramps