Are you ready???

I suppose when you first saw this title you might be thinking, this must be about being ready for the Christmas holiday as it is just a few short days away now.  Even though I am not ready for the holiday yet,,, that is not what I had in mind.

Are you ready for the second coming of Christ??  So many people are predicting that the time is drawing near for Christ's rapture of His church.  But the bible says that no one except the Father in heaven knows when that will be, not even the angels know.  Stop trying to predict and just be ready.  The bible also says there will be signs and if we see these signs then we will know the time is drawing near.  But in God's mind,,,, what is near??  In other parts of the bible it says a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day to God.  In other words,,, God does not measure time as we do.

No where that I have found in the bible does it say, when you see these signs then in 30 days, a year or whatever time frame we associate by, will the second coming happen.  People have been predicting the end times for centuries.  And people have been wrong.  We are not to know exactly when the rapture will occur, we are just to be ready.  Are you ready?

Constantine waited till the 11th hour so to speak to be baptised into the church.  He wanted to live his life his way first.  Then when he was dying he would give what few minutes were left of his life to God.  I don't really think this was a smart move.  What would have happened had he ran out of time?  You should always be ready,,, are you ready?  If we were to know the exact time then we would live our lives like Constantine did and wait till the last minute to draw nearer to God.  This would not be pleasing to God and I believe unacceptable.  Don't throw your heavenly blessings away!  Get right with God now and be ready!

Some of us will not live to see the actual rapture of the church.  We will have already passed from this earthly life.  Are you ready for either to happen?

To be right with God, you must except Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  You must confess your sins to Him and believe He died on the cross for the remissions of those sins.  You are saved by Grace through Faith.  Then you must live your life as He commanded.  "Once saved, always saved" is a lie.  Jesus tells us in the bible that on judgement day he will call up His followers, He will separate the goats from the sheep and the goats will be cast into the fires of hell.

What are the goats?  The goats are those who claimed to follow Jesus but did not live the life he commanded.  For example, walking around and saying "I am a Christian" but then turning your back on a needy person, hating someone, intentionally sinning believing you are saved anyway so it doesn't matter are all things that make you a goat rather than a sheep.  Sheep follow their shepherd, goats wander off and do their own thing. 

We are all sinners and we all make mistakes,,, but if you recognize your sins and repent and make every effort to not do it again, then you are living the way God wants you to.  Our values come from these basic principles.  "Love your neighbor as yourself", "do unto others as you would have them do unto you",  "love even your enemy",, "forgive others their mistakes/sins because you also need forgiving for yours".

I remember a time in our nation when folks really strived to have a good sense of values.  They were considerate of each other.  They helped each other in times of trouble.  In short they followed these basic commands.  What happened?  Society as a whole became very selfish and self-centered.  Values were lost as greed took over.  Greed is not an emotion of God, it comes from Satan.  Wake up America!!  "Seek ye the old ways and take the old paths which are tried and true".  Get back to your roots of a Godly nation! 

"Blessed is the nation whose God is Lord"!  What does that mean?  It means when God came first in our lives our nation was blessed.  The economy was good. The nation was strong.  And truthfully, I believe people, in general, were much happier.  I know I enjoyed visiting with my neighbors and sharing in each other's lives rather than fearing them or fighting with them which happens so much today.

I will not predict when the second coming will be here like so many try to.  I don't know if people are right about 12/12/2012 or not.  It is not for me to decide.  But I can tell you, whenever it is time for me to meet the Heavenly Father I am ready...  Are you ready???

Until next time,,,,, blessings!