The final inspection

[waksupi]

THE FINAL INSPECTION



The Soldier stood and faced God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

'Step forward now, Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?'


The soldier squared his shoulders and said,
'no, Lord, I guess I ain't.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can't always be a saint.


I've had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.


But, I never took a penny,
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.


And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.


I know I don't deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears
If you've a place for me here, Lord,
It needn't be so grand.


I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand.
There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.


As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
'Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burdens well.


Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell.'
~Author Unknown~

[shooter93]

I've always liked that Ric and it holds true also for many people who might not have been soldiers but lived there lives quietly and to high standards, took care of others and this Republic.

[Wayne Smith]

Wonderful poem, Ric but unfortunately bad theology. ONLY Christ is adequate to get us to heaven, He is our perfect defense counsel, Satan is the prosecutor.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Wayne has it correct.
There are many people who believe "Good Works" is going to tip the balance in thier favor so they can enter heaven..
The Bible clearly states "There is none righteous, no not one" before the eyes of Holy God.
Consider for a moment.. If being good and doing good deeds could possibly be sufficient to "wash us of our sin guilt", Then why did the Lord Jesus die on a cross bearing our sins?
Why did the Lord Jesus openly say "He who believes in me shall never perish" ?
Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh to the Father except by me".
In Ephesians the Bible cleary states, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His Mercy He saves us."
I used to trust maybe I could be good enough. Maybe I could be better than most. Then happily a feller gave me a New Testament and I discovered my inability to ever come close to the righteousness God demands. The Lord Jesus took my sins upon Himself on that cross and paid the price. The Pure,Holy One died in my place (and for all). Then made available the free gift of God, Eternal Life through personal faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. And all along the Lord has been saying "Come unto me and enter into My rest".
So yea these poems may make some feel good. May calm the conscience. But the Bible, God's Word says very differently. Is that why most individuals shy away from reading God's Word ? They do not like the Truth ? But the Lord Jesus said " The Truth will set you free".
Mike in Peru
Mike in Peru A sinner who trusts completely in Jesus Christ as my only hope of Eternal Life.

[waksupi]

I saw no where that the soldier denied Christ.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
And sadly I saw no where the soilder stated his knowing Christ. If the soilders whole defense is as the quotes indicate then there is nothing but works.
The Bible says the books will be opened. The final book will be the Book of Life (Rev 20:11-15). Everyone whose name is not inscribed will be cast into the lake of fire. Good works or bad works..
If God ever had to ask me "How shall I deal with you"? My only response could be "I am a sinner trusting wholly in the Blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ". For as the Bible says "our righteousness is as filthy rags before God.
Mike in Peru

[gon2shoot]

Boy what a tough crowd.
Lighten up folks, it's a poem. And by the way, God invited him in.
No offence to you guys, but I think I'll trust God to be the judge.

[Trey45]

This is why we can't have anything nice.

[Wayne Smith]

Boy what a tough crowd.
Lighten up folks, it's a poem. And by the way, God invited him in.
No offence to you guys, but I think I'll trust God to be the judge.

Yes, God's standards are tough, no question. BTW, the poet invited him in, not God.

[felix]

Maybe this will help clarify the Biblical meaning of work(s): http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Paul-James.htm

... felix

[redleg1013]

I think that I really just fell in love with this forum, nowhere else wants to venture into religious talk. Glad to have found another home before I move on to my eternal home whenever I'm called.

[felix]

The Pure,Holy One died in my place (and for all).

For ALL? Not hardly.... Matthew 26:28 ... felix

[waksupi]

I guess I won't bother with posting anything like this again. I figured it would be accepted in the spirit in which it was intended, rather than turning into something I would expect to see in the Politics and Religion forum.

[onceabull]

Well,Ric, I,for at least one, appreciate your trying.... Onceabull

[357maximum]

All you can do is try Ric, I appreciate the effort and I also feel your grief with the crowd at times. All one can do is keep trying ......that or lose your mind. Personally I find myself in the apethetic "whatever" state alot lately however.

[shooter93]

You keep right on posting Ric....and thank you Trey for being correct. I may not have shown such restraint for the same thought.

[leeggen]

wakesupi thanks for that poem. Guess that would be several of us that has served our country. Hope you don't mind I coyied that so I could send it to some freinds that I served with.
CD

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Rick I have read that poem more times than you can imagine and sincerely wish it was that way.
Every Friday afternoon I am in ILLinois I am at the Danville War Museum. I work with a Vietnam Vet who spent his combat time with a ROK unit. The stuff Terry went through, saw and had to do to stay alive was horendous. When we first met we talked alot about eternity. Terry's concept was exactly " I have spent my time in hell". So we started with simple scripture. What does God say. Today Terry reads the Bible to get guidance.
So my question is.. If I know Truth.. should I remain quiet ? If one of our members here is rubbing dog feces on open wounds thinking this will heal should I just let it slide ?
What if I was to read that poem and say in my heart.. "yea that sounds right. I am OK. My good deeds can take me to heaven." That is where I started this journey thinking I was far better than some. But thanks to God someone was willing to hand me a Bible and encourage me to find God's Truth while it still is within my time frame of life.
So hey if someone lists a dangerous load combination I would think some one would be willing to step up and say Careful. So why not be concerned when eternal issues are involved ?
I still like the poem. But sadly I have talked to too many Viet Vets that beleive it is true.
Mike in Peru

[missionary5155]

For ALL? Not hardly.... Matthew 26:28 ... felix

Good morning
I totaly agree that not all will be in the presence of God. The Lord Jesus clearly stated that not all would come unto Him. But is salvation through Faith in the Lord Jesus available to all ?
John 1:29 "who takes away the sin of the whole world".
John 12:32 ""will draw all men unto me".
Romans 5:18 "even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification".
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 ""that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself".
1 Timothy 2:5-6 "Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time".
Hebrews 2:9 "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man".
1 John 2:2 "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world".

The Lord said.. Whosoever will may come. Sadly not all care to. For all the varias reasons that exist. For 21 years I thought I was "maybe good enough". I now know I will never be good enough in my own self for all my righteousness is as a filthy rag before Holy God. But in Christ His righteousness is applied. Through personal faith in His blood sacrifice I am made acceptable in the eyes of God. Thanks be to God for His free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Mike in Peru

[Wayne Smith]

Ric, I personally would not have posted that poem in the Chapel. None the less, it has given us the opportunity to differentiate man's definition of salvation from God's. For this I thank you.

[DRNurse1]

The good news is there appear to be no sheeple here.

My reading into the OP is the light shining out, calming that soldier's fear and guiding his actions comes through Him. The good works are the cause but the result of trying to show His light to others after we accept our place in His flock.

But I am often wrong about other things, too.

[GPC]

I see this is pretty old, but I just found this forum on a Google search because I just did a theological analysis of this wonderful poem, and wondered who else might have also. I wanted to share it here after reading some of the comments.

I love this poem, but... I want posts of this nature to be theologically accurate, so I began to analyse this, and was blown away!
On the surface, it seems there may be problems, but this is really brilliant. Follow along, but this will skip around a little bit in the poem.
The soldier stands before his God. "His": personal possessive pronoun. This is the God the soldier claims as his own. So what God are we talking about?
That becomes clear in a moment: "Have you always turned the other cheek, and to My church have you been true?" So the soldier has personally accepted Jesus Christ as his God.
"I know I don't deserve a place among the people here" He does not claim to have earned his salvation, here we have faith + nothing.
From this we can determine that he is standing before the Bema Seat of Christ, which makes the question Jesus asks of him make sense: "How shall I deal with you? Have you always turned the other cheek and to My church have you been true?"
This is an awards ceremony. Admittedly, the soldier does not seem to realize this quite yet.
Notice that although the soldier brings up his own shortcomings, they are never mentioned by Jesus. Sin was judged on the cross, never to be an issue with God again.
God asks for an account of the good deeds he has done as a Christian, which is what will be judged, and renders judgment very reminiscent of Matthew 25:21: "His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
Note that in the final line, there are two statements, but they are connected by a comma not a conjunction (a comma splice). The first part "Walk peacefully on heaven's streets" is not dependent on "you've done your time in hell"

Respectfully posted

[Boaz]

This does not belong here . If you want to 'theologically' discuss it then take it to the theological sub forum here in the Chapel . I see that this is your first post on the forum .I wish you well but divisive rebuttal such as yours does not belong here .

The Theological' forum is the place for it...NOT HERE !