'THE DRIVER OF THIS CAR TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR
THE SAFETY OF HIS PASSENGER(S) IN THE EVENT OF HIS SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE.'
So read the message I'd stuck by Dymo-Tape (remember it?) to the passenger side of my dashboard shortly after becoming a true Christian back in '74. But why, you may ask? Well, it certainly proved an attention-seeking conversation starter, believe you me!
But seriously, throughout the first 24 years of my life I firmly believed that when God made time He made plenty of it! Yet when I discovered that the Lord Jesus Christ is real by entering into a personal relationship with Him I began to see time very differently.
READY TO SHARE HIS TRUTH
I felt a burning desire to share my new-found faith with others, knowing that they too could enter into the joy of sins forgiven and peace with God. But I also wanted to share this message of the gospel with urgency as I discovered from the Scriptures that the Lord will return one day to take to Himself all true Christians... and that this would take place at a totally unexpected time. In fact, this is how He describes it...
'No-one knows about the day or the hour... Two men will be in the field;
one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other left. Therefore, keep watch, because you do not on what day your Lord will come... So you must be ready, because the Son of Man
will come at an hour when you do not expect him.'
Matthew 24:36, 40-42
And Christian author C.S. Lewis also underlines the magnitude of this event... and the gravity with which we must consider this truth. This time He won't come as a tiny baby...
'For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming
that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.
It will be too late then to choose your side.'
But what does all this mean for you and for me? Well, in this, once again, the Scriptures should guide our thinking... and the way we live our lives ...
'...the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought
you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to
the day of God and speed its coming.'
2 Peter 3:10-11
READY TO FACE HIS RETURN
Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us exactly when the Lord will return for His followers and as a result it has to be said that a great deal of controversy prevails amongst very sincere Christians regarding this. Nevertheless, one thing is crystal clear. The core message of these sections of Scripture leaves us in no doubt whatsoever that we must BE READY!
So if you're not yet a Christian, do please realise that you may have less time than you think you have in order to 'get right' with God. This is what the Scriptures say about it...
'I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation.'
2 Corinthians 6:2
Or, once again, in the words of C.S. Lewis...
