At a recent conference, the speaker read from a story called, “The Station” Its point was that we never reach the station We go through life thinking it will be better after we reach the next stage As we grow up we cannot wait until we get our driver’s license, graduate from school, get a job, get married, get a house, have a family, pay off our mortgage, retire, then life will be perfect But by then life is almost over A nice story but its spiritual application struck me when he ended the story with scripture, “This is the day that the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!”
This got me thinking about preparation, how we spend so much time preparing for the things of this life But how much time do we spend preparing for the future which really counts?
Examining ourselves
In order to prepare ourselves spiritually for the return of Christ, we must go through a self-examination It is a most important part of our lives for, even if we have a thorough grasp of the Truth, we must make practical application of it in our lives If we cannot see where change is needed, how will we ever be prepared?
We are told repeatedly to exam-me ourselves – “Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith,” “Prove your own selves” and again, “If we should Judge ourselves, we should not be judged” The problem with self-examination is that it is, by definition, an individual matter, we can only do a “self’ examination of ourselves In so doing, we are our own accuser, defender and Judge For example, let’s say we are not doing the readings We may bring an accusation against ourselves but we can so easily defend ourselves by listing extenuating circumstances Further, it may not be hard to get the “Judge” (ourselves) on our side as the judge may be looking for an excuse to acquit us.
In examining ourselves we should also remember, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked Who can know it?” We need to Judge ourselves honestly by the word of God, remembering that, “I, the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer 17:9-10).
Paul writes, “If we should Judge ourselves, we should not be judged” If we would Judge ourselves honestly by the word of God, we can work on the corrective actions to prevent condemnation.
Speaking of self-deception, Paul writes of the wilderness experience of Israel He reminds the brethren of the many people who transgressed and fell in the wilderness and concluded, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” We may think, if we saw all the miracles and works of God which they saw, surely we would never be so deceived and murmur as they did Yet we have the great miracles of history recorded before our eyes m the Bible, we do not have to rely on our memories as they did, and we know how poor our memories are when it comes to the things of God Instead of coming from slavery as they did, we are brought up in freedom, instead of wandering through a homeless wilderness we have our own houses We are protected by the powers that be, rather than being attacked by them We are well fed with a variety of food But with all this, do we murmur at the most trifling difficulties?
When we examine ourselves, are we impartial, stripping away pretence? When we see problems, it is important that we not give up, but correct our ways If this is what we are doing, then we are well on the way to preparing to meet the Lord Jesus
Jeshoshaphat prepared
King Jehoshaphat had done wrong in linking himself with wicked Ahab yet we read, “Nevertheless there are good things found m thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God” (II Chron 19 3) A key step m spiritual preparation for Jehoshaphat was to take away the groves The parallel for us would be to abandon the idols of this world in preparing ourselves spiritually If the things of this world are in our hearts and desires how can we in any way prepare to seek God For example, “I can’t go to meeting because it’s my only day to sleep in,” or “I don’t get anything out of the meeting because I keep thinking of what I have to do Monday morning “
Repent, endure, prepare
In the past week Tread Bro Islip Collyer’s comments on three aspects of our spiritual life that fit this pattern – first repent, then endure and prepare All are equally important As baptized brothers and sisters we have repented As we journey m our lives of discipleship toward the kingdom we are in the process of enduring Now we must be sure we are prepared It is not enough to have the strength to endure to the end, we must be prepared for it!
We do not know when the day of the Lord may be but we know it will be soon We are called to prepare ourselves by the words of Hebrews 10 24-25 “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching”
In the process of preparing, we should not be looking at how little we need to do, but how much we can do At school some students look at what is the minimum needed to pass, but our attitude must not be such for if we strive to do the minimum we shall surely fail.
Key components of preparation
The key components in our preparation for the Lord are assembling together, the daily Bible readings and prayer.
Alarmingly, these all can become the casualties of the world’s productivity craze Ecclesial meetings can suffer as the world now works seven days a week I could, with the pressures of my job, spend Sundays catching up on work But how refreshing it can be to spend time away from work focusing on God We all need to ensure that attendance at Sunday meeting is one of the most important parts of our week To begin the week here is a key factor in preparation for the Lord’s coming.
Daily Bible readings can be another casualty of busy schedules I think of the things that keep me from the daily readings – work, activities, Time magazine Somehow in our busy schedules we find time for the things we want to do A student at school announced she was giving up TV for a month – all except “The X-Files,” because they were too important not to see How about us, are there things we don’t want to give up, but we regularly miss the readings?
Expecting a warning?
It could be we are neglecting our preparation because we feel we will have some warning, there will be rumblings of war and so on Although we wait the return of Christ, we recognize it could come for any of us in a moment, for at the instant of death we are conscious of nothing until the judgment The fact man is mortal is one of the first principles we learn from scripture, yet we sometimes may look at the mortality of others and overlook our own We must prepare for the judgment today.
We will not likely have the warning that Hezekiah was given in II Kings 20 1, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” Through urgent prayer, Hezekiah was given a further 15 years of life.
In our cases, we must prepare for the judgment for it may come today without warning!
Ecclesiastes 9 gives us ample exhortation in this regard: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest…For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them” (Eccl. 9: 10-12).
The Lord Jesus provides a similar exhortation: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready (prepared): for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 24:42-44).
Our weekly preparation
We now turn our minds to the sacrifice of the Lord who is preeminently our example. We are urged to present our bodies as living sacrifices, therefore, let us lay aside every weight, (every encumbrance – separating from all things that hinder us) and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”
As we remember the sacrifice of Christ we must make our personal preparation for we are told: “let a man examine himself ” As we mentioned earlier, this is a key element of our preparation to meet our God. Self-examination is something we must do every day.
As a source of encouragement let us also keep in mind what God has prepared for us if we are prepared for Him. Paul writes, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Cor. 4:17).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One