Matthew 25:13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
I once preached on the parable of the ten virgins near the Burundi/Congo border. It’s not a complicated parable. Do take a look at it in Matthew 25. My sermon could be boiled down to three things:
- Jesus is coming.
- Nobody knows when.
- Are you ready?
A number of people responded to the invitation. Plenty of others declined. Two days later I was driving towards their village on my motorbike only to be turned back by a group of soldiers as killing was taking place up ahead in a rebel attack. An undisclosed number of people died, and it struck me as never before just how urgent a message we have been entrusted with. How many of those who died had accepted or declined the invitation just forty eight hours earlier? God knows. For each of those people unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire, their time to meet Jesus had indeed come, they hadn’t known when, but the most important issue remained the same – were they ready?
How about you?
If not, what needs changing? If yes, then Smith Wigglesworth lays out the following challenge:
“Live ready. If you have to get ready when the opportunity comes your way, you’ll be too late. Opportunity doesn’t wait, not even while you pray. You must not have to get ready, you must live ready at all times. Be filled with the Spirit; that is, be soaked with the Spirit. Be so soaked that every thread in the fabric of your life will have received the requisite rule of the Spirit – then when you are misused and squeezed to the wall, all that will ooze out of you will be the nature of Christ.”
Dear God, please help me today to get ready, live ready, and to help others around me likewise to get and live ready. Amen!
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