Be Faithful Till He comes.

     

    On May 19th, 1780 the House of Representatives were holding a meeting at Hartford Connecticut While they were holding this meeting the sky grew increasingly gloomy, and dark. As the men looked out of the windows some began to wander if this was the Lords return. 

    Many of them were wishing for an immediate adjournment to the meeting that they might return home. That is when Colonel Davenport, who was the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives spoke up. He said; 

"The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought."

    There are many people who love to think about the last days. They research it, listen to messages and teachings about it. They wonder and are interested in the topic. Some even go so far as write books about the subject. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

    However it can lead us to be inactive, lazy, and unmotivated to do anything for the Lord. I must admit I love studying about this topic my self but I don't think the point for all the prophetic writing was given to us so we could immerse ourselves in the subject and try to answer unanswerable questions. 

    This is not what God intends for us to do in our lives. This is not why God gave us the information about His coming. In fact Jesus time and time again warned us about not being lazy, to be vigilant, to continue working and serving God in our lives. We have a job to do, and that job is not to be worried about the future. 

    This was the very thing that the angels warned the disciples when Jesus ascended up into heaven. 

    When Jesus ascended up into heave, an event I am sure would be amazing to be an eye witness to. The disciples stood there gazing into the sky just waiting. They were expecting the Lord to return right then and there and so they did not think about doing anything but waiting for Jesus to return. They were just standing there looking up in the sky. 

    This is even more interesting when you remember that Jesus before he ascended up into Heaven told the disciples what they were to do. They were not to just stand there gazing up into the son. There was work that needed to be done. There was a world that needed to hear about Jesus Christ. There was missions serve in. Churches to build. Pastors to train. Scriptures to write. 

    The first item on the agenda was for them to go back to Jerusalem and pray and wait to be empowered to do all of those things that needed to be done. Jesus told them to "That they would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. That was an event that had not yet took place. Jesus told them that  after that they were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the entire world, something that had not happened yet either. Another words, there was a lot more to do than staring up into the clouds. 

    So now listen to what the angles told the disciples as they did this. 

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.- (Act 1:10-11)

    The angels tells these disciples "Why are you just gazing up into heaven, You know Jesus is coming back again."  You see the disciples had a lot of work to do. They should not just stand there waiting for the Lord to return, they should be preparing for the Lord's return.

    I think this is something we should be reminded of as well. We don't know when the Lord will come back, and we certainly do not know when we will meet the Lord. However we all can prepare ourselves to be ready. We all can help prepare others to be ready. You see there is work to be done. 

    The point of those prophetic passages is not to know the unknowable. Its not so we can determine what time Jesus will return (according to scriptures that is impossible). God gave us those prophecies  to encourage us to be busy about his work in our lives. He told us what is to come so we don't have to fear what the future may hold, but to live with confidence serving him. 

    There are people who have not yet heard the gospel. There are Christians who need to be encouraged to be faithful. There are still things we are called to do. God has work for you to do, so lets be busy doing it.