NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!

It was softer than a voice, but louder than a thought.

As I sat at my desk I was paying some attention to business but thinking more about the risk some of our team and the believers in Africa are now facing.

They willingly risk everything for the Gospel.

Part of me is praying most of the time for them and asking God for clear signals on how to proceed.

Something in me said, “Look here for a moment.”

In the scene that filled my mind I was in a vast crowd standing in hushed awe before the Savior, now Judge, Jesus.

It was my turn to stand before Him.

As I neared the intense light coming from His presence, I was sure it would blind my eyes. Instead it made me see every smirch on my soul so very clearly.

Instead of white-hot heat, I felt the enveloping warmth of His presence.
And I knew that He knew all about me—there would be no covering up or blame shifting or damage control about how I had lived my life.

I couldn’t stand up. No flesh could stand before Him.

As I fell at His feet I saw the scars.

In the intense holiness of His presence, I knew that I deserved the harshest punishment for my sins.

Back inside time I could never have understood how my entire life could be on display all in the same instant. Every sin, every failure brought hot shame as it replayed in that timeless instant.

Beyond the throne I saw a rejoicing throng—what a joy to see many there that found Christ because of ministry I had part in. Yet, there was no room for pride for I also realized how many were not there because sometimes I stopped short when it got hard or dangerous or too costly.

How could I make excuses to Him for not going to them because of fear for my safety?

Jesus had come to earth for me knowing His death was a sure thing.
Do I somehow merit a higher level of personal security than His own martyred disciples did?

I remembered the “things” in my life I had struggled to pay for. Now I saw the throne-side absence of those hurting ones I could have reached with those same dollars. The “things”—and the untold ones--are gone.
I saw the scars again.

How must He have felt right then, knowing that too many times I was silent and didn’t tell the ones He took those scars for, that He loved them and had taken their place?

“Unworthy am I, unworthy am I,” the hot words of shame pressed down in my mind even as I heard the Host of Heaven singing, “Worthy is the Lamb!”

Then I remembered the lamb sacrifice scene in the temple.

The priest did not examine the sinner; he examined the sacrifice to see if it was perfect—He already knew the sinner was not. The thought exploded in my heart, “It was the sacrifice, not the repenter that had to be without spot.”

I was not without spot, but my sacrificial Lamb Jesus was, indeed, blemishless!

“Look,” He said as He drew my eyes up to His face and then to the Book.
In that instant, the entire panorama of my failures was swept away in a crimson, forgiving stream of His blood—erased out of Heaven’s book and out of my memory.

Never to be remembered again—by man or God!

Maybe He said it in audible words or maybe it was what His eyes were saying so loud that it thundered into my heart, but I heard the words,
“Enter into my joy!”

At once the tears were wiped away and I was standing—no, I was dancing and shouting in His presence.

The scene faded and, once again, I became aware of the computer keyboard in front of me.

I’m still sitting here sensing a need to write something or to answer some question about what the scene means.

The first thing my heart wants to yell out is, “Nothing else matters!”
I must stay under the blood that sweeps away sin.

I must do all that I can to bring others to that blood—that means going myself and enabling other willing witnesses to go into the hard places.

No matter what the cost or risk…

Nothing else matters.