"Jesus is coming" -that is a statement of fact. "Are you ready?" -that is a question relating to the statement of fact. We are told there are twenty times more references to the second coming of Christ than to His first coming in the old Testament. One out of thirty verses in the New Testament deals with it. Paul mentions baptism about thirteen times, but mentions the second coming fifty times. Jesus is coming, are you ready? Let's look at five words that will cover a lot of ground in being ready.
I. OCCUPY [LK. 19:11-13]
The word means "to do business", "to busy oneself". Everybody can do something. Witness, pray, work, give, teach, sing, clean, wash, paint, pass out tracts, give a ride, etc.
II. PURIFY [JM. 4:8, I JN. 3:2-3]
The word means exactly what you think it means, to make clean. To purify oneself. In James it's a command, in I Jn. it's a motivation.
III. WITNESS [ACTS 1:6-8, 2:32, 3:15, 5:30-32]
The word "martus" means to testify (judicially in court or figuratively elsewhere). We get our English word "martyr" from this. Pretty serious stuff.
IV. ABIDE [JN 15, I JN. 2:28]
The word "meno" means to stay in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy. Also translated as continue, dwell, endure, remain, be present, stand... etc.
V. WATCH [MT. 26:41, MK. 13:35, I PT. 5:8]
The word "gregoreuo" means to keep awake, to watch, to be vigilant. Like a soldier on guard duty. Don't let your guard down. When approached by some opportunity or advice it's a good idea to do a mental check. "Halt, who goes there?" Is it friend or foe? Because the world, the flesh and the devil are certainly no friend of grace, God and the Christian.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment