In case someone should think this judgment is unjust, consider the following scenario. If a believer were lazy and indolent, not serious about reading the Bible, allowing others to go to hell all around and never mentioning Jesus, watching people hurt and never extending a hand to care for them. attending public worship every six to eight weeks, never tithing, or having skills, gifts, and talents and never utilizing them, when he gets to heaven, should he occupy the same place of prominence as the apostle Paul? Absolutely not! The idea that heaven is going to be a land of total equality is false. Every individual will feel trepidation as he stands before the Lord Jesus. Second, there will be tears. Revelation 21:4 says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Tears have to be present if they are going to be wiped away. Perhaps many will weep as they stand before the judgment seat of Christ thinking about lost opportunities to make a difference. Some will think about immaturities and petty misunderstandings that allowed fellowship to be fractured. Some will recall times when they failed to reach out to someone, and now that person is in hell or Tribulation. Others will remember when they wasted dollars that could have sent missionaries to the mission field. Even though their sins are gone, believers will give an account of their actions and the faithfulness of their lives. 2 John, verse 8, says, "Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward." In other words, one can get into heaven, but lose the rewards! The third word is terror. When believers stand looking into His eyes—eyes of fire—there will be terror. The Judge of all the earth is going to take the believer's life and, like a great video, He is going to show it on the screen of His revealed omnipotence. He and each believer will watch the believer's life scroll by and He will set a torch to every work to test it by fire. If the works are wood, hay, or stubble—the result of misplaced motives, or based on power, politics, or manipulative techniques, and not rising out of love for Him—they will be burned up. It will be a terrifying time. When I stand before Christ, He will not be impressed with any building I may have built. He will take holy fire and put it to everything I have done. If I pastor a church for 20 years, He will take all 20 years and touch it with fire. And if my motive is wrong, if my life is incongruent, if I'm manipulative, domineering, and not faithful to Him, if I don't have His heart and love Him and do it for Him, not for me, if I'm more concerned with my ministry than His ministry, then in a puff of smoke, 30 years will be consumed. I will have received my reward on earth. Built into the fabric of the kingdom of God is accountability. When the Rapture takes place, one- on-one, believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. In a book by David Jeremiah, Escape the Coming Night, he tells the story of Adoniram Judson who was a missionary who went to Burma in the early 19th century. While he was serving in Burma, the missionary was arrested and falsely accused of being an enemy agent. He was imprisoned in a tiny cell and forced to stand so that others could lie down and sleep. The sun was unbearably hot, and because prisoners were not allowed to bathe or have restroom facilities, the stench was horrible. One day, the official’s decided prison was not enough punishment for this man, so they hoisted Judson into the air, hanging by his thumbs. Pain filled every fiber of his body. Upon returning to his cell, his precious wife Ann would creep in after dark and whisper to him, "Hang on, Adoniram, God will give us the victory." Week after torturous week, Ann would come by every night to encourage her husband with the same words, "Hang on, Adoniram, God will give us the victory.

One night she did not come, and another night passed without her return. Weeks went by. His loneliness grew to an unbearable level. No one told Judson that Ann was sick and dying. Months