When those close to you come home after a long gap of time from a distant land, how much anticipation fills your heart as you await their arrival! What all preparations you make! Above all, you prepare yourself and your heart to meet and greet them and share in the joy of reunion.

The same things ought to be true as you wait for Jesus to come in glory.

There are some reasons why we should be alert, awake and watchful for His coming.

1. He comes like a thief
   Jesus Himself declared this truth many times. Other passages also testify to this truth.

   Since a thief comes unannounced we will have to keep watch to be ready for His coming. The only thing we know is the manner in which He is coming. But we do not know the time. Still, Jesus gave many signs of the times and challenged us to interpret them to know the likely circumstances during which His coming will occur(Matthew 16:3). And judging by the signs He has given elsewhere in the Bible, we can know that we are living at the end times preceding His glorious appearing.

   He comes like a thief to steal away to safety His bride--all those who have believed in Him. He comes like a thief to take home with Him the bride whom He bought with His own blood (Revelation 5:9/ ...and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation'' NIV). He comes like a thief to fulfill the promise He gave to His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them, which once finished He would come back to take them to be with Him where He is (John 14;13).

   So we are asked to be alert, awake, and watchful so that we will not be left behind by His surprise coming at an unexpected time.

2. Arrival of Deceivers and Deceptions
   

   This is a great area of concern. Jesus found it important to warn us about coming deceptions in the last days. The only possible safeguard against deceptions is to keep looking to Jesus and never taking our eyes off Him. Keep looking at His humility and sacrifice on the cross. Only this kind of a focus on Jesus alone can prevent us from being deceived!

   One: For a cross-less Christianity is popularly preached today. But Jesus said: ``If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'' (Matthew 16:24b NIV). We need to remember that true Christianity has a price tag attached to it. And that price tag is the cross!

   Two: Along with the preaching of a cross-less, Christ-less Christianity, there also is a preaching for living in prosperity in this earth. But the Bible says: ``But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20 NIV). So it is clear that we do not live for the ``now'' alone, but we live primarily focused on the hereafter!

   Three: And to make all this confusion worse is the deception of self-styled gurus and prophets preaching a secular gospel, mixing elements of various religions and teaching that all streams lead to the same river. But Jesus said: ``I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'' (John 14:6 NIV).

   So we are asked to be alert, awake, and watchful so that we will not be deceived by deceivers and deceptions of the last days.

3. The possibility of being left behind
   

   Jesus said the He came to bring division on the earth. His second coming would divide people of this earth as in no other time of history. The wheat and the chaff will be separated. And no one will be able to cross the dividing line at all.

   Unless you are found prepared for His coming the opportunity of going up to heaven with Jesus will be gone for ever. Then what remains will be fear, terror, pain, pestilences and death.

   The horror of being ``left behind'' is unimaginable. Your child sleeping in your arms might be taken and you left behind. Your husband who was in your embrace might be taken and you left behind. You might have been talking to your pastor over phone, and suddenly the line at the other end falls down dead. He might be taken and you left behind.

So we are asked to be alert, awake, and watchful so as to be found in His company as He takes His children back to heaven.

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>