Ready or Not

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:16

A friend and I were having a discussion the other day about the time we are living in. Both of us believe that we are living in The End Times. We are both concerned about unsaved family members. Perhaps you can relate.

We were talking about the rapture of The Church and how many of the signs of Jesus' soon return are seen nightly on the news. These are the words of Jesus:

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains." - Matthew 24:6-8

I have a theory about the timing of The Rapture. I believe it will occur during the Festival of Trumpets. I've written about that before so I will not repeat myself here. The point of this story is, what if it does? The Festival of Trumpets takes place September 25-27. That's less than eight months from now.

Our question was this: If we DID only have eight months to go before all of God's children are removed from the earth, what would you do? What would you do during these last eight months?

Jesus offers this advice for when that time comes:

“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." - Matthew 24:42

"So, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." - Matthew 25:44

We are ready! And we are keeping watch. But what else should we be doing? What would Jesus have us do?

1. Share The Gospel with those who don't know Jesus. This was called "The Great Commission" in Matthew 28. WE don't have to "save" anybody. That's the Holy Spirit's job. We just have to deliver The Good News.
2. "Love one another, as I have loved you." - John 13:34. That's pretty self-explanatory.
3. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." - Matthew 22:37
4. "Love your neighbor as yourself."- Matthew 22:39

There's lots of love on our Savior's words. I think that 'loving' is the thing God wants us to do most.

Do we love God enough to tell our lost neighbors, relatives and friends about Him? Again, Jesus doesn't say to convince them or to ram things down their throats. He says tell them. And I'm just guessing here but, I think He wants us to do it lovingly.

Time is short, no matter WHEN Jesus returns. I think we're supposed to act with the urgence as if He were going to come back tomorrow. Remember, we are to be ready. Are we?

Psalm 139