I think the first thing we need to realize is that this world isn’t our home. I remember growing up there was a Christian comedy show that played on Sunday nights on a Christian radio stations across the country and the theme song was This World is not my Home. The theme of the song was that we are just passing through this world and our final destination is heaven. In essence, we aren’t to get to comfortable because there is something greater than what this world has to offer. I will give these two warnings. The first one is that we are not so heavenly focused that we are no earthly good. The second warning is that we can not be so earthly focused that we will miss heaven. It is striking that balance of knowing what are destination is and working towards it, but is also being in tune to the worlds needs and meeting them. So here is my question, how do we strike that balance?
The second thing we need to realize is this idea of “the signs of the times.” What I mean by this is that we know everything has a season and we can sense or see the changes coming. Whether it is the changing of the leaves, the days getting longer or shorter and a change in temperature. When this happens we often go into a mode of preparing for the upcoming season. Whether it is making sure we have the right equipment and toys out and working along with putting the previous seasons toys and tools away. So, here is my question, how are we preparing for the return of Christ? What are the things we need to put away for the season or just get rid of? How does one prepare for the return of Christ? Besides making Him the Lord of our lives, how about putting on the full armor of God found in Ephesians 6 or the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5.
The third thing we need to realize is the idea that if Jesus didn’t know the time or day of the return, we won’t either. I think this is a good idea because if we did know, we would procrastinate on what God has called to do. A few years back, there was a jeweler in Superior who felt led to sell off his inventory because he thought the return of Jesus was soon and he wanted to get things in order. He didn’t give any bold predictions of day or year when he thought Jesus was returning, but he wanted to be ready and he also wanted to shift his focus on building Gods Kingdom. Christ will return and making bold predictions of day or year does more harm than good. I think it’s a misuse of our time and Scripture when we try to iron down a date. Our calling is to be prepared for Christ return
I will leave with this. We are called to be good caretakers of what God has given and blessed us with and one day when He returns, we are going to be judged and held accountable for how we used the things that God left us in charge of. So how are you being responsible and developing Gods gifts in your life? Is God going to find you faithful when He returns?
