“Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son
of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Matthew 24:44
My wife and I woke up this morning to a power
outage. It was still dark, so I instinctively
went for my camping lanterns. A quick
scan outside the window told me that the neighborhood had lost power. The nighttime snowfall had caused a branch to
knock down a power line somewhere. My
wife set to work lighting candles while I got a fire going in the
fireplace. After a while the power was
restored, no problem.
For me, a power outage is no big
catastrophe. My parents raised me to
have survivor instincts. I can go into
“camp out” mode any time the situation calls for it. However, I know a lot of people that would be
helpless, bored, and restless if they were forced to be without their creature
comforts (cell phones, social media, etc.) for too long. Let’s face it, if an
EMP knocked out the system nationwide, too many people would be at a total loss
as to how to survive. Thus, they’ve
become the sloth. Slow thinking,
dependent, and lazy. They aren’t
prepared because they just expect everything to work as “normal”. (Which is also the reason that there isn’t a
great deal many people that I would want to take on an actual camping trip with
me. No tech allowed.)
Society, in general, has become too comfortable
in settling into “convenience mode”. If
there is an easier way to accomplish a task or an app that will do the work for
them, they will choose it. They want
everything laid out for them, no effort required. That’s the first mistake. Second, they get the attitude of “I’ve got
time, I’ll prepare later.” They get the
mindset that there are more important things and that is at the bottom of their
priority list. The present concerns them
more than the future. That can be
terrible thinking, especially when applied to our spiritual lives.
In the first thirteen verses of Matthew 25, we
are told about a group of virgins that went out in the evening to await the
arrival of the bridegroom. Half of them
took extra oil for their lamps, while the other half did not. As you could probably figure, the night waned
and by the time the bridegroom had arrived, the unprepared virgins could not
keep their lamps going, for they had no oil to fill them with and were forced
to find more oil. By the time they were
ready, the marriage feast had begun and the entrance doors were shut. The prepared virgins were able to attend the
marriage feast, without delay. Verse 13
sums it up nicely by stating “Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the
hour.” The bible repeatedly commands us to be prepared. It warns us that we won’t know when the time
will come.
Folks, I keep fresh batteries ready in my
lanterns. I keep my emergency power
packs charged. There is fuel ready for
my camp stoves. Of course, I use these
items for the luxury of being out in the middle of nowhere, but I keep them
accessible at home, just in case. I
don’t know what circumstance might arise where they will be needed. That is why I keep them handy. I DON’T KNOW WHEN THE TIME WILL COME THAT I
NEED THEM. In that same mindset, I
attempt to stay prepared spiritually, because I DON’T KNOW WHEN MY TIME WILL
COME. It will be too late then. I will have no one to blame, except for
myself.
Ask yourself, “Am I prepared for when the Savior
returns? Will I be ready the day that I
WILL be facing the Lord?” It isn’t a
question of “I didn’t know that I was supposed to…” Are you a lazy sloth or are you a
survivalist?
Which will you choose?
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