Ready or not...

 

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"Ready or not, here I come. ~Jesus" ~seen on a Colo. church sign

🗲 Hide & Seek - remember that game?  My younger grandkids play it & giggle or say something not realizing they are giving their hiding place away.  The excitement of being found gets the best of them.  And then we grow up...

The other day I was having people over and to my shock & dismay some of them showed up early!  I have never had friends show up early - for half a century I've only known people that were late!   I was mortified- I was still dusting the giant dust mites (I think they're bigger in the mountains) off my furniture.  But that is one of the main reasons I entertain - it forces me to clean my house.  I will also clean if my baby grandkids are coming.  I no longer do it for health reasons for myself - no time. 

Cleaning out the refrigerator is another thing I put off - unless of course I'm going to Costco and I'm trying to see if I have room to buy that 4th or 5th vat of something.  

When we expect someone or something, we are excited, we prepare by going above & beyond or out of the ordinary.  So how are we handling the truth of Christ's second coming?  If we knew when that was happening, would we change the way we are living?  As C.S. Lewis put it in his essay titled The World's Last Night, "We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage."

🗲 According to Dr. Billy Graham, in an article he wrote for the New York Times, there are over 1800 passages that deal with the second coming of Christ. Here's a fraction of them:

    1 Thess 4:16-17  " For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."

    Heb 9:28  "So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him,"

 

    Matt 24:27  "For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."

    1 Thess 5:2  "For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."

    Rev 1:7-8  "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes on the earth will wail on account of Him.  Even so, Amen.  'I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'"

🗲 Have no doubt.  He is coming again.  We don't know when.  Even Jesus said, 

    Matt 24:36  "But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

🗲  So what do we do until then?  Is it going to be several years? Months?  Days?  Today?  The Bible tells us:

    Matt 24:44  "Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

    Luke 21:34-36  "Watch out!  Don't let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life.  Don't let that day catch you unaware, like a trap.  For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth.  Keep alert at all times.  And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man."

    1 John 2:28  "And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when He returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from Him in shame."

    1 Pet 1:13-16  "So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control.  Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.  So you must live as God's obedient children.  Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.  You didn't know any better then.  But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy."

                                                                        

🗲 Aren't we so glad that preparing for the Lord does not rely on our ability- remember, the Lord gave us His Holy Spirit as our helper when He left this earth.  

Grace by Rhoda Nyberg

    Rom 8:11 "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. " 

That means we have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead in us to guide us in preparing our minds for action and self-control.  If you feel, like I do, that the way we've been living has been more for our own self than for helping others to know Jesus and how He died for them, read~

1 John 1:9  "But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." 

God's mercies are new every morning, starting with this morning.  Let's be ready or not, whenever He comes.

✙ Lord, we accept Your new mercies this morning.  You have promised to forgive us our sins when we confess them to You.  We so easily get focused on ourselves & take our eyes off of others that desperately need You in this world.  Transform our minds so we can be in this world but not of it.  We want to be so heaven minded that we anticipate your second coming each day.  Help us live like that.  Amen.