Are You Ready For Company?
What do you do to get ready for someone to visit your home? Do you clean the house from top to bottom? Maybe even buy new towels and linens or pay someone to shampoo the carpet? What about that unfinished remodeling project? Would that finally get done? We haven’t even talked about what food you’re going to serve or what needs to be done in the yard!
APPLICATION
Most of us would feel like we needed to do something to get ready for an important person to visit our home. What if that person was Jesus Christ? What would you need to do to get ready if He were to return today?
If we have an urgency about getting our house ready for company, shouldn't we have an even greater sense of urgency about being prepared for Christ’s return?
"So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him" (Matthew 24:44).
"But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief" (1 Thessalonians 5:4).
Eleventh Hour Salvation
The Price Of Late Obedience
Eighteen year old Fabian Gonzalez was a bright, talented, motivated high school senior on the brink of graduation. Waiting for him in the fall was a $32,000 scholarship to attend Northwood University. But before he could realize his dreams or explore his full potential, his life was cut short in a tragic traffic accident.
But unlike so many other teen traffic accidents, there were no drugs, no alcohol, no crazy antics. Fabian didn't die recklessly trying to dodge the rules. He died recklessly trying to obey them. WFAA News, Dallas, reports:
His memory brings smiles to the faces of Ricardo and Priscilla Gonzalez. They recall how Fabian never wanted to upset them.
But on Saturday night, just after midnight, in the 4200 block of South Walton Walker Boulevard, Fabian died trying.
Ricardo admits his son was speeding. "He was in a rush trying to get home, because we gave him a curfew," he said.
It's unclear what distracted young Fabian that night last month (April '13) that he should lose track of time and find himself racing to meet his parents' curfew--and expectations. Had Fabian not allowed himself to become distracted, he would likely have left for home in a timely way, driven the speed limit, and arrived alive.
How easy it is to become distracted and neglect God's will. How difficult it can be to make up for a moral lapse. The time to obey is now, not later. We may have all the best intentions, but when we allow distractions to rob us of our focus, we have no choice but to pay the price that comes with late obedience.
"I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways" (Psalm 119:15).