Last Days
“You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Luke 12:40
Now brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 2 Thessalonians 5:1-2
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Matthew 24:42
A few weeks ago my husband, Otto and I were attending a large community event and saw people carrying signs proclaiming May 21, 2011 as the day the world will end. Kooks, is what I thought. Clearly, we don’t know when that is going to happen. Yesterday Sam, our pastor, addressed this same declaration. Apparently, some man invested his life savings to get this word out. He obviously believes it. Sam gave the man’s reasoning with numbers and used the expression square root, things that leave me behind, way behind. It doesn’t matter. I don’t believe it and neither does Sam. Still, it makes you think. What if I could know the time and date? What if the hour were not unexpected? How would I behave then?
In the passage from Luke 12:35-48, Jesus talks about readiness, and doing what is pleasing to God. The passage does not suggest that we should all be on our knees in prayer. It does say that we should be doing what we were created to do, which is, serve God.
I thought about all the clichés and songs that reference what we should do or how we should behave if we believed we had only today. Some are of the, eat, drink and be merry variety and others are of the make your mark, appreciate the people around you, variety.
In discussing the idea with Otto this morning I said that I probably wouldn’t change the way I approach God. I don’t feel a need to seek Him more in such a case. If the rumor should turn out to be true I’ll be seeing Him very soon. I guess I’d want to do what I want to do anyway, and that is whatever it is He wants me to do. I did say though, that I would want to be with my dearest ones, since I have no idea what relationships are like in heaven.
Otto had a bit of a different take on the whole thing. He said if he believed the prediction that he would feel a greater sense of urgency toward those people we know who are not in a relationship with God, those people around us who are not saved. I liked his perspective and gave it a lot of thought throughout the day. I realized that our mistake is not in questioning the validity of the prediction but in living without urgency toward the unsaved people in our lives.
The truth is judgment day can arrive anytime. None of us knows when we will make the journey to meet our Creator. It is hard to live one day at a time and yet that is all we can count on. James admonishes us to couch all our talk of future plans in light of God’s will. (James 4:13-17) He’s right. Earlier today my son invited me to his home on Saturday. I teased him saying that I would come as long as we were all still here. The truth is that, God willing, I will go to Jeffrey’s and if it is not in God’s will, for whatever reason, then I will not.
Now brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 2 Thessalonians 5:1-2
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Matthew 24:42
A few weeks ago my husband, Otto and I were attending a large community event and saw people carrying signs proclaiming May 21, 2011 as the day the world will end. Kooks, is what I thought. Clearly, we don’t know when that is going to happen. Yesterday Sam, our pastor, addressed this same declaration. Apparently, some man invested his life savings to get this word out. He obviously believes it. Sam gave the man’s reasoning with numbers and used the expression square root, things that leave me behind, way behind. It doesn’t matter. I don’t believe it and neither does Sam. Still, it makes you think. What if I could know the time and date? What if the hour were not unexpected? How would I behave then?
In the passage from Luke 12:35-48, Jesus talks about readiness, and doing what is pleasing to God. The passage does not suggest that we should all be on our knees in prayer. It does say that we should be doing what we were created to do, which is, serve God.
I thought about all the clichés and songs that reference what we should do or how we should behave if we believed we had only today. Some are of the, eat, drink and be merry variety and others are of the make your mark, appreciate the people around you, variety.
In discussing the idea with Otto this morning I said that I probably wouldn’t change the way I approach God. I don’t feel a need to seek Him more in such a case. If the rumor should turn out to be true I’ll be seeing Him very soon. I guess I’d want to do what I want to do anyway, and that is whatever it is He wants me to do. I did say though, that I would want to be with my dearest ones, since I have no idea what relationships are like in heaven.
Otto had a bit of a different take on the whole thing. He said if he believed the prediction that he would feel a greater sense of urgency toward those people we know who are not in a relationship with God, those people around us who are not saved. I liked his perspective and gave it a lot of thought throughout the day. I realized that our mistake is not in questioning the validity of the prediction but in living without urgency toward the unsaved people in our lives.
The truth is judgment day can arrive anytime. None of us knows when we will make the journey to meet our Creator. It is hard to live one day at a time and yet that is all we can count on. James admonishes us to couch all our talk of future plans in light of God’s will. (James 4:13-17) He’s right. Earlier today my son invited me to his home on Saturday. I teased him saying that I would come as long as we were all still here. The truth is that, God willing, I will go to Jeffrey’s and if it is not in God’s will, for whatever reason, then I will not.
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