Be Sure You Are Ready!

If you are fortunate enough to live until the clock ticks past midnight, what might that time bring for you? If you have not obeyed the Lord yet, now is the time to do so, for tomorrow may bring spiritually disastrous happenings. If and when tomorrow comes, it may bring...

1) A Hardened and Calloused Heart. The Bible has issued several warnings about caring for our spiritual hearts - our intellect, or seat of intelligence. Solomon penned “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Our heart is that which represents our conscience, the part of our mind that helps us determine between right and wrong. When one continues to put off obedience to God, though he knows that is the right thing to do, he allows his heart to become hard, a condition the Bible calls a “seared” conscience (I Timothy 4:2). When one finds himself in this condition, it is improbable he can find his way out, as his foolish heart has been “darkened” (Romans 1:21).

2) Death. An appointment we all will keep is death (Hebrews 9:27). This verse points out that after death comes the “judgment.” This helps us realize making things right with God must take place before we pass away. So many push the thought of death out of their mind, but the wise man reminds - “For the living know that they shall die” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). Truly, we must live each day as though it may be our last. If you are putting off obedience to God, thinking you have plenty of time left, now is the time to do what is right, before it is too late (II Corinthians 6:2).

3) The Second Coming of Christ. Admonitions are plentiful throughout Scripture concerning the Second Coming of Christ. It will take place as a thief in the night (II Peter 3:9, I Thessalonians 5:2). It will take place as travail upon a woman with child (I Thessalonians 5:3). We do know some things about this day, such as it will be glorious (Titus 2:13), it will mark judgment (II Timothy 4:1), all eyes shall see it (Revelation 1:7), and it will take place in the clouds (Revelation 1:7). However, not one single man knows when it will take place. Jesus said “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32).
Be sure you are ready!
--- Larry R. Ping II