Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: TRIAL (05/10/18)
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TITLE: The Nightmare of Forever | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marlene Bonney
05/14/18 -
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He knew it and I knew it.
Although I had known that there would come a day of reckoning for my crimes, I was not ready to defend myself. What could I say? All the things I was guilty of were not buried in obscurity now, the prosecution having dug them out, as surely as a miner striking for a mother vein of gold.
How could I explain away the poor choices that led to this moment? I couldn't.
He knew it and I knew it.
Head bowed as a condemned prisoner, I was ashamed and conscience-stricken. I wanted to wake up and find out this was all a bad dream. I wanted to raise my shackled hands in the air and plead for mercy. I wanted to begin my life over and choose the narrow road that was bumpy with tears and perseverance instead of the wide well-worn one paved with selfish ambition, pride, self-dependence and instant gratification. But I could not.
He knew it and I knew it.
The list of my indiscretions was read aloud by the stern bailiff, exposing me as the naked-to-the-bone criminal I had become—that I had hidden behind the face of respectability, good deeds, and philanthropy. Shifting from one foot to the other, I squirmed like a reluctant worm at the end of a boy’s fishing pole. But I was caught, dead to rights.
He knew it and I knew it.
The proceedings took only a few minutes (no jury required), my lame excuses not holding up under scrutiny’s truth and I was filled with contrition, self-incrimination and public humiliation. Sworn testimonies had spouted out of witnesses’ mouths like a car’s backfiring muffler. I was doomed. I took the stand only as a ridiculous attempt to counter the accusations hurled at me by the prosecution like missiles from an air-gun. I became a blithering idiot, sweating profusely as my defense fell apart like a destroyed Tinker toy building. It was pointless.
He knew it and I knew it.
There were many other cases on the docket, mine being the first one to plead “Not Guilty.” Unlike some of the others to follow, for the first time in my sorry life, I would take responsibility for my sins. I would hold myself accountable for them. I would pay penance, do community service, go to church and read the Bible. I would absolve myself because otherwise, I would suffer horrific consequences. But, before I could even make these declarations aloud, the judge sadly hit his gavel on the stand, a sound I would hear ringing over me forever.
“Such will not help you here, stranger. It is too late. I do not know you, but you had many chances to know Me. And you refused. This verdict is final and irrevocable. I revealed Myself to you in many ways, not the least of which was nature’s bounty and the miracle of human life. You will stand over there on the left with the condemned.”
The Great Judge’s eyes were blurry with unshed tears, but His pointing finger was absolute and steady. I would now suffer for eternity, the unquenchable fires separating me from the Greatest Gift of all—God’s love.
He knew it and I knew it.
Time stood still for me as I watched the masses being judged, those on the right clothed in white robes and glittering crowns while we on the left were naked and wanting. How I wished I could turn back the clock and change, but it was devastatingly too late.
He knew it and I knew it.
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Matthew 25:31-41 New International Version (NIV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
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Wonderful reminder of this important message.
Blessings~
It was masterful.