Watching and Ready

Luke 12:35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

There are many scoffers today who think its useless to watch and be ready today for the Lord's return. After watching through prophetically "loaded" days like yesterday, the scoffers like to taunt but I submit to you that they taunt to their own shame. We were specifically commanded to watch and be ready, no time qualifiers mentioned which means we are expected to be doing those things now..today and every day.

We are watching and ready, yesterday, today and tomorrow. We are exercising our faith, expecting our Lord's return at any moment, exactly as our Lord commanded us to. Faith comes with a reward, did you know that? Disobedience and faithlessness comes with a price, did you know that? When a person's pet doctrine stands directly at odds with clear direction in scripture (like people not praying to escape all), the person, not God is wrong..every time. So when we are told clearly to pray that we may be counted worthy of the escape from all that is coming, then we must do exactly what we were told to do, that's faith, that's belief, and that's obedience. When we are told to be watching and ready today and everyday, and we watch in eager anticipation of our Lord's return (while others sit back and scoff) we are centering ourselves by faith and obedience in our Lord's will.

There is a day coming for the mocker, the scoffer, the unbelieving, disobedient and faithless. As a man believes, so he receives. The people who actively try to steal men's hope through the teaching of false doctrines like:....... there's part of the unfolding of the book of Revelation called "satan's wrath" and "there is no escape from all" etc, etc, those men have a reward for what they are doing. When they find themselves neck deep in the time of Jacob's trouble (because they believed they would be there) I don't think there will be any more laughing or taunting. When they see hell on earth unfolding around them while the echoes of "the great disappearance" reverberate in their mind, there will be more weeping than laughing.

My adult life has been spent in and around the military. My first job out of high school was as a professional soldier. Our Lord gave us this:
2 Tim 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Soldiers train for war their entire lives for that time when they will be called to go to war. They live in a state of perpetual readiness for that time when what they trained for will be put to use. We are soldiers. We stay in a state of perpetual readiness for our commander to show up and take us where he is. We WATCH like a soldier on a wall. Our commander said he would be back for us and we are to have our lights shining, our eyes open and our backs to this world when he arrives.

Now that we've made it through pentecost 2009 we are approaching the 3.5 year mark from Dec 21, 2012. That's the next "loaded" date, not that we won't be watching every day mind you, but I view each of the "loaded" days on the calendar as a military exercise, a time to remember everything we've been told by our Lord, a time to self evaluate to determine ..am I ready? The book of ecclesiastes tells us there's a time for everything. Today in the days of Noah and Lot, that is, pre-flood, pre-fire and brimstone days, there's still laughing and joking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, and there will continue to be these things right up to the day we enter the ark of our escape from all...on THAT day, we will see who the wise and the foolish are. I have a funny feeling on that day the mockers will fall silent. Keep the faith, grace and peace.