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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
"If Jesus Came Today..."
We are quite aware that no one knows the time of His coming, Matthew 24:36, but what if He did come today? Ten minutes from now? There would be no signs of His coming. There would be no warning, no hints, no way of our knowing when that might be. We would be found right in the middle of what we were doing, Matthew 24:39-42. No time to “get ready,” or pray, or change your life, for that must be done before that day. What if Jesus did come today? How important would all our “busy-ness” be then?
Am I ready?
I cannot help others to be ready until I am ready myself. And what about you—are you ready? Is this too painful for you to consider? What would it take for you to be ready? Are there sins for which you need to repent? Are you sufficiently familiar with scripture that you know the standard by which you will be judged?
Would there be someone against whom you have sinned and need to seek his/her forgiveness? Have you been avoiding this question because your life is in need of many changes? Have you been putting off your own obedience to Christ—to put Him on in baptism? Wouldn’t this be a good time for you to think about what it would be like if Christ came today?
Is my family ready?
Surely we know that we cannot fulfill God’s commands for someone else, but we can ask ourselves if we have we done all we can to encourage our spouse, our parents and our children to obey the gospel? Have you been as concerned about their spiritual safety as their physical safety? Why not speak to that one for whom your love is so strong that you would die for them? Is your family ready for Jesus to come? If not, do not delay your efforts, for if He does not come today, He may come tomorrow. And even if He does not come soon, many of us will face death, perhaps sooner than later. Are you ready? He is coming!
Is the church ready?
When Jesus left this earth, He said He would come again, John 14:3. He also gave the church, His body (Ephesians 1:23, 4:4), specific work to do until the time of His return. That work includes taking the gospel to the lost, Mark 16:15-16, and edifying the saints to the point that they “seek first His kingdom,” Matthew 6:33. Have we been doing the work for which we were commissioned? (Matthew 28)
The church was given the responsibility of being the “pillar and ground of truth,” 1 Timothy 3:15, as well as to “speak things which are proper for sound doctrine,” and “holding fast the faithful word,” Titus 2:1, 1:9. Have we—this congregation—taken care of our business, being faithful to Him? Have we not only taught the truth but also willingly defended the truth, Philippians 1:18? Are we seeking and saving the lost, both here and in distant places?
Is our community ready?
This area is growing so fast state officials cannot keep pace with the traffic and the roads. Many have moved here from Austin and other parts of Central Texas hoping to find a tranquil life. We have built schools, regulated the use of real estate, sought ways to protect property values and fought battles over our water supply.
But, how many of our neighbors are ready for Jesus to return in judgment? And, if they are ready, will it be because we were sufficiently interested in them that we helped to prepare them? Is our community ready for the Lord to return? He is coming—count on it!
Is the world ready?
Mankind in general has decided that what a person believes has nothing to do with their soul’s well being. They have decided that a person’s deeds will have no effect on their eternal destiny. Many words describe this philosophy, but as long as man continues to reject God’s Word, refusing to be obedient to Jehovah, the day of judgment will continue to be as Jesus described in Matthew 25:46, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” What if Jesus comes today? Some day He will. Let’s be ready.
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“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven,
but my Father only.”
“You may juggle human law, you may fool with human courts, but there is a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal.”
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Plowing the Cold, Cold Ground
“The lazy man will not plow because of winter; he will beg during harvest and have nothing.” Proverbs 20:4
Growing up in the farm country of southeastern Colorado, I often wondered why the farmers were plowing their fields after the harvest in the Autumn of the year. After planting, irrigating, cultivating and finally harvesting the crop, it seemed to me like a good time to rest until Spring. However, the farmers did not rest after reaping the harvest but continued to work, plowing their fields while the ground was moist and before the winter turned the ground too hard. By plowing in the Fall, the broken ground would soak up the moisture from the rain and snow during the Winter and would be much easier to work in the Spring.
We can see from Bible passages such as Proverbs 20:4 (above) that this has been a practice of farmers for a long time. In the New American Standard translation, Proverbs 20:4 says, “The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing.”
It would be very important for someone pulling a plow with oxen to do it at the proper time. To delay plowing in Bible times could mean not being able to break the soil down in the Spring. The wise and hard working man would plow in the Fall, but the sluggard or lazy man would put it off by reason of the cold or some similar excuse. By putting off the plowing of his land day after day, his land was not cultivated and he had nothing to reap when Autumn came.
Proverbs 24:30-34 describes the field of a sluggard: “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And lo it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.”
Because of his lack of ambition, the sluggard is unable to reap a harvest from his field and is forced to beg from others. Though the sluggard desired to reap a harvest, he was unwilling to do the work required to get it.
We have many people today who desire many things but are unwilling to put forth the effort to attain them. Others are willing to work for material things but are lazy when it comes to spiritual matters. How many people in the church today want to grow spiritually but are unwilling to put forth any effort to do so? How many people want to further their Bible knowledge, but limit their study to listening to a sermon on Sunday morning. How many members of the church want to see the church grow but are unwilling to evangelize?
We cannot continue to put off the work that needs to be done, whether in our individual lives or in the church. When we make excuses and put things off until tomorrow, we are following the path of the sluggard. We do not know “what shall be on the morrow” (James 4:14), so let us prepare today for the harvest time coming (Matthew 13:30).
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