Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Life goes on.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37-39


Do you know what the vast majority of people did on the day after 9/11? They got out of bed and went to work. Do you know what most did the day after Hurricane Katrina or the 2007 Tsunami or even Pearl Harbor? You're right. Unless it personally affected them, they got up and went about their business. 

Life goes on. Oftentimes, relentlessly so. 

People sometimes use this fact to try to give us hope in the face of tragedy. Hope that one day we'll get over our loss. But when your life has been touched personally by loss, the fact that everyone else goes on as if nothing happened can seem rather cruel. Your life feels like it's over, but everyone else barely seems to notice. 

Yet this unforgivable, unrelenting forward march of time and life is just what Scripture says will happen. right up until the very end. People will continue on with life as usual just as they do after every tragedy and loss. Even as God sends signs and warnings that the time is near, people will pay no attention. The vast majority will overlook the signs of Jesus' coming and keep on eating, drinking, and getting married like the world will keep on as it is forever.  

Yes, life will go on...until it doesn't. 

We know of course, that there will come a day when life as we know it stops. Jesus will return. The dead will be raised. We all will be judged. 

So what would Jesus have us do? How do we avoid missing the signs? In verse 42 Jesus tells us to "keep watch." Watch for Christ's return. Anticipate it. Look forward to it. In verse 44 Jesus counsels us to "be ready." Prepare yourself to meet your Maker. Get right with God today before it's too late! Lastly in verse 46 Jesus urges us to live in obedience to God's commands. Once you are right with God, live every day before Him like it might be your last. Be careful to fulfill all your duties to the Lord so you might hope to be rewarded in the afterlife not punished.

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