[Darris McNeely] Do you live your life with the understanding that everything that we do and everything that we say is going to be accountable to God? That's a profound thought for a modern mind to understand that our actions, our words, our deeds are going to be judged in a period of judgment by God. To a modern mind, this is something that is completely inconceivable. And yet, it is what the Bible talks about.

It's what the Bible shows us - a coming time of judgment upon the nations and upon individuals. The Bible does talk about a period of judgment. And you know it's not always in the negative, restrictive tones that we think when we look at a word like judgment. People today don't want to think about anything having to be called into account and their actions being judged.

Again, we're in the period here of God's Fall Festivals, the Holy Days. We've just kept the Feast of Trumpets. The Day of Atonement is coming up, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Eighth Day. And we are in a period of time as we look at God's invention in this world.

There's a Scripture in Jude verses 14 and 15 that talks about the coming of the Lord with 10,000 of His saints "To execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds." That's in Jude 14 and 15, the coming of Christ, the coming of the Lord to judge the world, to judge all of their deeds.

Now again let's look at judgment from the point of view of God. We've looked at it here in the book of Jude. Let's look at Psalm number 98 and perhaps we can have a different perspective, God's perspective on how He looks at judgment because in the 98th Psalm it talks again about the coming of the Lord, the earth shouting joyfully to the Lord in verse 4, bringing forth in song rejoice and singing praises. In verse 7 it says, "Let the sea roar in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord for He is coming to judge the Earth with righteousness. He will judge the world and the peoples with equity" (Psalm 98:4-7).

This is God's judgment. And it is put within the context of the Earth singing joyfully and the time of God's righteousness judging the world with equity. When we look and understand judgment from the perspective of God and how righteous and just it will be, then we understand that this is a time to look forward to, that it is not a bad thing when it's all said and done.

Those who have committed wrong, those who have sinned, those who have harmed the Earth, and even harmed the peoples of the Earth certainly will go through a period and a time of judgment. The Bible talks about individual judgment as well. But if we have ordered our life correctly according to God's laws and according to God's way, it's not something we have to fear, nor should we fear again if we understand bringing our life into conformity with God's way and anticipating this period and this time of judgment in the right manner and in the right form, then judgment is not something to fear.

Judgment upon the nations and upon the earth and upon individuals then becomes something to look forward to because it marks the beginning of God's intervention, God's reign and rule upon the Earth in equity and with righteousness. And as we see the Earth and all who are in it are going to begin to understand that that is a good thing.

And so judgment, when we understand it from God's point of view, is something that we should look forward to also with a proper respect and proper amount of fear as we live our own life today.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.