Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

Ecclesiastes 12:13, KJV

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

Revelation 20:12, ESV

Wendell Phillips said that common sense is to bow to the inevitable and to make use of its conclusions. In our reading of the New Testament during these past 30 days we can come to no other conclusion than we are here because God put us here, that He has an eternal purpose, and that every knee will bow before Him on the day of Judgment. Further, we have read that the rewards in this life and in eternal life are far in excess of anything that we could hope for or imagine. Near the end of Revelation, we are told that we will be judged according to the things that are written in God's book of life.

Since all of these things are true, since it is inevitable that we shall all be given an eternal judgment of salvation or punishment, isn't it only common sense that we change our lives to live according to His unchangeable will, rather than to have a silly and unreasonable hope that He will bend His holy will to our preference? Far too many people live with a foolish notion that God will change His mind for us - but this really doesn't make sense. Just as every wise sailor knows that you must adjust your sails to meet the inevitability of the currents and the winds since these forces of God's nature can never bend to our will, a wise servant of God will adjust his will to God's unchangeable will, for...

"if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire"

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelations 20:15, 21:5-8, ESV

There is a day when we will receive our reward or our punishment for the things we have done. In these last 30 days we have read of God's plan. We have read of His perfect grace and of Jesus' perfect sacrifice. We have read that though we do not deserve to be with them in Heaven, that they want us there all the same because they love us. God and Christ have done their part, and we have now read of how we must do ours. Ours is such a small part, but when we use common sense we will realize this truth from our reading of the New Testament during these past 30 days: God will reward those who serve Him now in His way with an eternity of service. It is a beautiful service and we are privileged indeed to have the opportunity to take part.

If you have completed this challenge of reading through the New Testament, you are to be commended! Not because you have accomplished a physical goal of reading a book, but because you have begun your journey to Heaven by reading The Book. Now that you have begun, what will you do next? I have a suggestion, but that can wait until tomorrow.

The reading for today is Revelation 12-22. While some of these chapters contain prophesies that cannot be fully understand until their fulfillment, they also contain a glimpse of the Judgment that should encourage us all to make sure that we are doing all that we can to take part in the heritage that God has reserved for those who will serve Him now. May God continue to richly bless your efforts to seek His holy will, and to do it!