Articles
Are You Prepared? (2)
Are You Prepared? (2)
Greg King
Preparing for eternity is serious and necessary. Without the proper preparation God’s word tells us that we will spend eternity in a place prepared for the devil and his angels. This is why the person who fails to make preparation is declared by God to be a fool. Luke 12:16-21 And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. 17 "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' 18 "Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."' 20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?' 21 "So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." The man who counts on tomorrow is a fool. This rich farmer made great plans, but he did not include God in those plans. There is nothing wrong with planning for the future, but there is something wrong when we plan and do not include God in those plans. We talk about what we are going to do tomorrow, and yet tomorrow is something of which we cannot be certain. Solomon said, “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring”, Proverbs 27:1.
While death and judgment will occur; we do not know when they will occur. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, the Lord’s return will be like a thief in the night. A thief is successful because he strikes at a time when you least expect it. The Lord’s return will be somewhat like that—he will return at the time when we least expect him. The tragic thing about all of this is that most of the world will not be prepared for either death or the Lord’s return.
We will all die physically. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:50, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…..”. Like death, judgment is certain. No one will escape judgment. Acts 17:31, “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." The word of God says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” There is no escaping the judgment. It is an appointment that we all must attend. We will not be able to call up Jesus and give Him an excuse on why we cannot make it. We cannot call in sick. We must all attend. Some people will be excited on that day and others will be sad. Are you prepared?
