Living in a Dying World

Not only does preparing to meet God involve ourselves, it without doubt includes those around us. We cannot in any given day expect to go out and about with no interaction with unsaved people. In fact, Jesus said that as we are going, to make disciples of all men. Let me repeat that, as we are going. Jesus understood that we have a necessity to be going out and about in this world. He calls his followers to be salt of the earth and lights to the world. Preparation must be made so that we can go out and shine, giving flavor and light to the world. This preparation cannot and must not be callous; we have no quota that we must meet. Jesus has not planted us in this world that we return to him void, but rather that we go and bear fruit. Let me ask you this, when you see a person do you wonder about the state of their soul? Their eternal destiny is at stake. Do you care that they should live or die? Death happens; there is no way to avoid it. “It is appointed for man once to die, and afterwards the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27) We, like Ezekiel mentions, are as watchmen. We have seen the fire, the enemy coming in. It is up to us to save and warn them. We should strive our best to warn them, if they refuse, their blood is on their own hands, we have done our best, our hands are clean. But if we fail to warn people, where is our love, our compassion? We cannot stand by and let lives go untouched, we should earnestly care about them.

Let me say again that we cannot escape going out into the world. Let me ask you this: When driving what do you see? When in a crowd what do you see? It is too easy to group people into containers. There are cars on the road, there were a lot of people in the mall, or whatever. We can complain all we want about the bad drivers on the road and never stop to even think about their eternal destiny. We can walk down main street with nary a thought about the souls of those around us.

God is interested and cares for their souls. Do we? Do we act with compassion and love in all that we do? Are we willing to give up our “rights” and yield to others. Christianity is not about rising to the top, it is about being the bottom for His glory. God is at the top, God is king, and yet He came to serve.

Are you prepared to emulate your King, your Master? Are you concerned about the souls of those around you and acting upon that concern? Are your hands clean of the blood of those around you? Have you pled with them to escape the fire that threatens them?

A Thief

Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. - Luke 12:35-48

From these verses we can see a variety of slaves, namely:

1. The slave who is ready
   
2. The slave who abused the other slaves
   
3. The slave who knew the master's will but was not ready
   
4. The slave who did not know the master's will and was not ready
   

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The Faithful Slave

Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds awake when he comes.
Blessed is that slave whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

This is the ideal, the slave who knows his master and his will, the one who delights in it enough to be ready at all times, whether he knows his master is coming soon or no. The work may be hard, but the slave knows that the master will be pleased.

This is the Christian who has done what God has required of him, and has done it well and wholeheartedly and was prepared when God came for him.

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The Unfaithful Slave

My master is delayed in coming.

Opposed to the faithful slave is this one, he, when his master's back was turned, beat and abused his fellow slaves and got himself drunk with wine. Even a kind-hearted master would not tolerate this behavior for long.

Cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful

This is the one who claims to be a Christian, but is not. Who willingly teach false doctrines and seek to lead others astray. The wolf in sheep's clothing.

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The Lazy Slave

Knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will.

We have now come to the slave that I would most like to focus on, the slave that knew the master's will, but did not do it entirely. Of the so-called Christians in the world today, I am afraid that most of them would classify either in this or the previous category, they are either unfaithful or spiritually lazy.

When a master left certain things under the care of his slaves, he expected them to do their best. He would not give the slave something that they could not handle, but give them what they would do best at. So too did God. He has given us both talent and ability, and expects us to use them as He has decreed. As we will see later, God does not expect us to come to Him one day with exactly what He has given us, but that He wants us to be reaping returns from what He has given, that we be actively using our gifts for His glory. This does not always mean that we have to go into ministry, but that we can use our gifts in everyday life. That whatever we do, eat or drink, word or deed, that all is done for the glory of God. Unfortunately it is easy to separate God from our everyday lives, there is much to distract us and keep us from continually focusing on Him. But this is not an excuse. The command is this, that we be ready for His return, both now and later, in all seasons.

Unlike the previous slave, this slave still manages to stay in the master's service, but stays by the skin of his teeth, and his reward is not as great as the slave who both knew the master's will and did what he commanded. So let me ask you this, are you doing what the Lord has required of you? Are you prepared if He should come today calling for you?

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The Ignorant Slave

Did not know, and did what deserved a beating.

I feel that this slave is less common that most people would claim it to be, especially now, in todays world, where the Bible is more and more accessible to everyone, no matter their language.

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All verses are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
Please note that this post is still a work in progress, and will be edited further.

El Shaddai

Many seem to have made eternity and heaven nothing more than earthly pleasures. There is so much more to eternity than that. God, the maker of heaven and earth, the Savior and Sustainer of all, the mighty, magnificent, and glorious King of kings, the Ancient of days, He is there... Should He not be our desire and our portion but now and forever? Do we need earthy treasures to entice us? Beloved, He is enough, and more than enough. Jehovah Tsidkenu is Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Rapha is Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Jireh is Jehovah Nissi, and Jehovah Nissi is Jehovah Shammah. That is, the Lord our Righteousness is the Lord who heals, the Lord who heals is the Lord who provides, the Lord who provides is the Lord our Banner, and the Lord our Banner is the Lord is there. God and God alone is all that we need and He and He alone should be our desire. Come, let us prepare to meet Him, El Shaddai, God Almighty.

And the Ecstasy

Yesterday I ended by talking about a mirror, today, I would like to expand upon that.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12 it says, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." This is talking about the culmination of our knowing God, and what we strive to prepare for... eternity. Jesus said in John 17:3, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Can you imagine that, beloved? To not only see and be with God for eternity, but to "gaze upon Him with an unveiled face" (1 John 3:1-4), nothing hiding Him from our view, we see Him as He is, to know our beloved one freely and fully. Our sin and shame no longer in the way. To know the infinite and to be like Him. This, beloved, is what we prepare for.

When my life work is ended, and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see;
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.
Fanny Crosby - My Savior First of All

The Irony

The irony of the entire question of "How can I prepare to meet God" is in the fact that we tend to focus on the "I" and not on God, yes, self-examination is necessary and good to do, but if we only examine self, we have lost sight of the one we should strive to become. This is a hard subject for me to talk about as I feel that many today are not doing enough examination (including me), both of self or God.

Of self: We live in a society that we love to compare ourselves with other, but only a cursory glance. We can always find things that we are better at than people around us, and we can always find fault with other people so that we can take pride in that we are better than they are. We are "good enough," but we rarely go beyond that. We know that if we dig too deep we will not like what we see, so we only compare ourselves with shortcomings of others to make us feel better.

Of God: many today seem to despise the idea of a holy and just God who hates anything at all. They would rather have a jovial and carefree God, who cares not what they do, but will "save" them anyway. Though in a sense this is also false, because if there is no wrath in God there is nothing to save them from. What I mean is this: what did Jesus die to save us from? He did not die to rescue us from Satan, for far be it from God to owe him anything. But rather He saved us from two things: His own wrath, and the bondage of sin. We cannot neglect the reality of hell. If hell exists, we were all damned to spend an eternity there, but Christ came and took upon himself the punishment that we deserved. A spotless lamb, without blemish, dying, covering us with His blood. So that we, undeserving sinners at enmity with Him, should be imputed His righteousness in the sight of God. This is the gospel, if we claim that God is only love, we can lose sight of what He has really done.

So we should examine ourselves, but when we do so we should choose the mirror to look at ourself. Our mirror should be God. In looking at ourselves in that mirror, we should see how much we imitate Him and how we are like Him, if we fail in certain areas we should strive to fix that and become more like Him. Our examination should not compare ourselves with others, but with God and God alone. As we grow and come to know God in a more full and complete way, we can see ourselves in a more full and complete light. We can see how much we need to change and strive to removing our imperfections. This is sanctification, we cannot grow unless we know, we cannot know unless we devote ourselves to knowing, to reading His word and fellowship with those who strive to know Him as well.

I ask you brothers and sisters, do you want to know Him? And are you prepared to know Him? If so, I ask you to come join me on this journey, as we prepare to meet Him.

When

We live in the not now, but presently.  And one question that many ask is this: when?  When will Christ return? When will the end come?  When shall I be with my Savior?

We yearn, strive, and struggle with these questions.  This is not wrong, for even the early Christians and apostles yearned for Christ and His return.  Rather it is what we do with our time that matters.  Which is why I come to this question, is Christ our life?  In Colossians 3:1-4 it says "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."  "When Christ who IS our life..." not just a part of our life or a section of it, not just the pilot or co-pilot of our life, but our whole life.  Christ should be our all, our passion, we live for Christ and Christ alone.  I have been reading MacArthur's recent book "Slave".  In it he says this: "True Christianity is not about adding Jesus to my life. It is about devoting myself completely to Him."  However, many in today's society tend to be like the people talked about in Isaiah 29:13, giving lip-service to God, but not really following Him wholly.  In doing this they tend to not only fool others but also themselves into thinking they are following God completely.  So true Christianity is not about adding Jesus to my life, but rather making Jesus my life.  And this is the preparation.

Another aspect that comes up when talking about when, is about the people that say "Thus saith the Lord, I shall come on this day"  People have been doing this for a while, however it says that no one knows the day or the hour of Christ's return, but God the Father only.  And that this day will come like a thief in the night.  Many times has the time passed that the people have declared Christ would come, but nothing happened.  Rather than focus on trying to find out when, we should be focusing on preparing for the when. Be ready! In season and out of season.  God may return any time, it is better to be ready for His return and following His commands than to be asleep when we should be watching?  Are you prepared?

Ecce Homo

In talking about preparedness we must know why or what we are preparing for, and as I have mentioned previously, we are preparing to meet God.  There are basically two ways one meets God, either through death or, eventually, Christ's return.

For a while I have considered the latter, and thought how wonderful it would be to proclaim that God is here at last.  He is come and we can rest in Him.  Then the more I thought about that I realized I was skipping over something important.  Christ not only will come, but He already has come.  That may seem obvious enough, but I feel that it has become too simple of a thought and we often overlook the implications of it.

Christ has come, our love, our joy, our life is here, we have His very presence here with us, do we live like it?  This I shall not go into further at the moment, but rather I want to focus on another point, namely:

Christ has come, yet so many people do not realize who He is.  If a king would come, do not heralds proclaim His arrival? Do not trumpets sound and people get ready for him?  Christ is the King of kings, yet we remain silent.  Who shall proclaim Him, who shall tell the nations of our God?

Our preparation does not deal solely with ourselves, but should and must include those around us.  I am reminded of a passage in Ezekiel 33 where it talks about comparing a watchman, set to warn the people of danger.  If he fails to warn them, their blood is on his hands, if he warns them, but they refuse, he has acquitted himself of their blood.  We too are watchmen, set in this world to watch and warn.  Show your love for them, tell them earnestly, plead with them.

Christ is here!  Do we live that joy out?  Ecce Homo - Behold the Man!  Look to Him, live and proclaim it, and joy shall be yours.