As we get closer and closer to the coming of the Lord, I find it sad that even though many are aware that we are in the end times of human history, people make excuses instead of getting their lives right with God. Many are playing spiritual Russian Roulette, a game of putting one bullet in the revolving barrel of a six-gun, holding it to the head, and pulling the trigger. “It’s never going to happen,” they say. They gamble their eternal lives that Christ will not come and put an end to the evil going on in this world. This madness is in people's hearts even though they see sign after sign of His soon coming. Jesus talked about it in terms of people invited to a banquet and spurning the grace of the One inviting them:
16But He said to him, "A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.' 18"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused' (Luke 14:16-18).
It is time to prepare for the banquet with the Lord and no longer make excuses.
In 2000, I was separated from my American-born wife and two children for nearly three months when I left them in England to start work as one of the pastors in a large church in Cincinnati, Ohio (I was born in England). You bet I was counting the days until our reunion! How lonely I was without the ones I loved. It brought me to tears many times. As the time grew closer for their coming and our homecoming, I prepared everything for us to be close again. I checked the flight times repeatedly; I planned where we would eat on the way from the airport, I cleaned the house meticulously where we would be staying, but most of all, I prepared myself. What joy I had when they arrived; we hugged and kissed repeatedly. I was so excited to show the three of them around Cincinnati, where we would now live. My girlfriend (my wife of 42 years) and two children were coming home to their own country after 19 or so years of serving God in England. You cannot understand my joy in bringing them back to their family and country.
If you are a Christian, this world is not your home. Like me longing for my family, our Lord is longing for our reunion. He has spent nearly 2000 years preparing a place for us so that where He is, we shall also be (John 14:1-3). Joy will flood His heart at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb when He shows us where we will live together. It must be disappointing to Him that some are not even watching for that Day; instead, they make excuses and choose the things of this world.
Many are unaware of the biblical signs of the times around us; they are spiritually asleep and not watching for Christ's return. These should be days of preparation. Before celebrating Passover and deliverance from Egypt for the Promised Land, the Jewish people went through days of preparation (they still do) as the Passover lamb was brought into the house for four days before it was slaughtered (Exodus 12:3-6). The houses of the Israelites were meticulously swept clean before Passover because it was also the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and every crumb of yeast or leaven had to be swept up and put in the garbage bin. Yeast or leaven speaks of sin. In preparation before we see our Beloved, we are to get ourselves ready to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). We should sweep up our lives of all sin and prepare ourselves for the banquet with the Lord. Turn off the TV! Forget sports! People are dying without knowing the Savior! We must do what we can to reach them with the truth! Prepare yourself for eternity!
Prayer: Father, keep us awake amid a world that wants to medicate and drug us to sleep. We want to be wide awake and sensitive to You so that we may walk in eager anticipation for that great Day when we will see You in all Your glory. Amen! Keith Thomas
For further reading, maybe you’d like to explore: How Do I Become a Christian or maybe what Jesus said about: “You Must Be Born Again,” or even: How Can I Be Sure of My Faith?
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