"Readiness"

  This previous week has been one of the most strangest of weeks I think that I have ever seen. Strangest in the sense of the number of people that passed away in just a few days of each other that effected so many in our own congregation. My wife Resa was one of those who was affected. Her brother passed away and we traveled to Texas for his memorial.

  As I was driving home reflecting, it struck me about our lives and being prepared. It made me ask are we living as if our lives were going to be here forever? Are we living for the now and doing little to prepare for eternity?

  One thing that seems to ring clear from the word of the Lord is being ready! Death can come at any time to anyone. When we are reminded, we know that but why does it take us by such surprise? I understand about the shock of something but where are we placing eternity in the heart and mind of our lives? Every man and woman, every child on this earth, our lives are headed to one event under heaven and that being a date with eternity. Just as we need food and water to sustain us, we need Jesus in our eternal date. We all have the same appointment with death unless Jesus comes before. In knowing this, in believing this, we need to be making preparations for that date. We are told by God that it is appointed for everyone to die once (Heb. 9:27). Yet we live as if this isn't a reality and our lives show it. We play hard and give up spiritual ground to enjoy the temporal passing of pleasures. Families forfeit the souls of their children for the things of this world pushing and prodding them into things that they will soon embrace and love with all their heart while the things of the Lord fall into the background. Truth is not sought and the love of God is not the foremost thing sought. Parents just exist for their children. It's all part of the whole that gets obscured that one day, one day in the near future, we have a date with eternity and there will be only one thing that matters from that point and our lives will be set FOREVER!