Are YOU Ready?

From "Thy Kingdom Come" - April 2012 - a publication of The
Association of the Covenant People, Burnaby, B.C. Canada.

ARE YOU READY?

by Bob Vermaat

"...prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." (Amos 4:12)

Are you ready, are you really ready? For some of you, that are
familiar with the NFL pregame show, these words should sound
familiar, because they are called out to the audience just before
the start of a football game.

Now, I am not going to talk to you about football, but I am going
to ask you just the same, are you ready, are you really ready?
Are you and I really, really, ready to meet our God as per Amos
4:12? A lot has been said lately about the year 2012 possibly
being a very pivotal year. Both religious and secular sources
have commented on the fact that the Mayan calendar ends this year
and also that in the sixteenth century Nostradamus, a French
astrologer and seer, predicted the world as we know it would end
on Dec. 21, 2012. Even some of our own writers have in times past
bandied around dates in speculation of significant events
pertaining to the imminent return of our Lord, years such as
2011, 2012, 2016, 2020, etc. But Jesus, when asked by His
disciples, after His Resurrection, if He was now going to
establish His Kingdom on earth at that time told them that it was
not for them to know the time or the season. (Acts 1:7)

The same holds true for all of us. We can speculate and surmise
all we want, we can cal culate prophetic times, but the bottom
line is that, also according to Jesus own words in Acts 1:7, that
time is only known to the Father and He will make it happen in
His own time and according to His own pleasure, not a day early,
nor a day late, but precisely as God the Father ordained before
the foundations of the earth, in other words, before time. Great
are the mysteries of God and all that is required of us, His
children, is to watch and wait, to be ready when the time comes,
for He, Christ, will come as a thief in the night. (1 Thes.5:2)
So, all that we as believers can and must do is watch and be
prepared, for we will not receive advance warning other than the
signs in the heavens. "Immediately after the tribulation of those
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its
light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of
the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of
the Son of man in heaven;" (Matt 24:29,30).

You see, return of Christ is a sudden event, not a drawn out
process in which we will still have time to set things straight.
Once His signs appear we better be ready, for time will have run
out. A good example is the parable of the ten virgins, who went
out to meet the bridegroom, (Matt.25:1-13). The bridegroom is, of
course, the returning King and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, coming to
claim and setup His Kingdom. The ten virgins on the other hand
depict the ecclesia or church. As we all know a good number of
those believers in today's churches, who claim Christ as their
Saviour, at the best pay lipservice only and possess neither
fortitude nor conviction to stand strong in their faith. Those
are the foolish virgins. They come along for the ride, but have
given no thought to put their house in order and are led to
believe that all that is required is membership to or in some
church or religious organization. They lead the good and
sometimes pious life, but they have no substance. Jesus said, "If
ye love me, keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." (John 14:15,21)
Observe that the Lord correlates love for Him with obedience to
Him. To love Christ means that we care enough for Him to keep His
commandments (v.23-24) but we cannot keep His commandments unless
we search the Scriptures to find out what they are. Sadly, the
only times that the Bible is read is once a week when they happen
to go to church. For the rest of the time that precious book is
only an ornament on the shelves collecting dust.

The wise virgins, on the other hand, came prepared, they brought
extra oil for their lamps, meaning they had done their homework,
they knew what the Scriptures said, they were prepared to wait
for the bridegroom no matter how long that could be, they
believed His promises, they were patient, they were informed,
they were ready. That is the state that the believing remnant is
hoped to be in. We must diligently search and study the
Scriptures to understand what is required of us. "My son, if thou
wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee, so
that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to
understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and
liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as
silver, and searchest for her as for hidden treasure; then shalt
thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of
God. For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of his mouth cometh
knowledge and understanding." (Prov.2:1-6) These words of Solomon
are echoed by Christ Himself in Luke 11:9 where Jesus says "Ask
and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock
and it shall be opened unto you."

So you can see that the answer to being ready is found in
searching the Scriptures and then acting on what we find and
holding on to it until the end. "Prepare to meet thy God, 0
Israel." Amos uses this verse to warn the backsliding Israelites
of the coming of the wrath of God because of their idolatrous
lifestyle and behaviour. I am using it here as a warning for
complacency and neglect. The Lord is not coming to chastise the
Israelites this time, but He is going to leave behind all that
are not ready and waiting for Him. It seems that a lot of
believers have no trouble relating to Jesus the way He came the
first time, as a meek loving Saviour born in a manger, doing good
and healing the infirm and teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom,
but those same believers seem to be unable to get their mind
around the fact that at His second coming Christ will come as a
conquering King, not as a Lamb, but as the Lion of Judah, not as
a mere man, but as God! Do not be fooled, He will not come with
an olive branch to plead with you, but He will come with a sharp
sword, and He will come to rule with a rod of iron. (Rev. 19:15)
So my dear friends, if you have not yet made yourselves ready,
you better start doing so now for the time is short and His
return is imminent.

I like to close this essay with a short prayer and I hope that
you will pray this with me whenever you receive this writing:

Dear Father in Heaven, blessed be Thy name. I pray, 0 God, that
you give me the perseverance and the strength to search out your
Holy Writ in order that I may learn the ways most pleasing to
you, so that I will be made ready to meet you face to face
whether in this life or in the life to come. Thank you, Lord.
Amen.
..........

NOTE:

While I am pleased the writer wants you to be positive towards
God's commandments and searching the Scriptures, and being ready
spiritually. All so important, the main importance of our lives,
for we do not know when it will be out last breath in this life.

But I have to comment on the coming of Christ, for the writer is
obviously not understanding ALL that is written about the event
of the return of Jesus to this earth.

First let's understand this often quoted Scripture of 1 Thes.
5:2. It is the "day of the Lord" being talked about, and that is
not about the actual literal day of Jesus' return, but the
prophetic event of many Bible passages of the prophetic books of
the Old Tesament, and the book of Revelation - the day of God's
wrath. From Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation we can put
together the basic end time, or the last 42 months of this age.
There will be the Great Tribulation, then the "day of the Lord" -
and last the heavenly signs, and the coming of Christ, yes
suddenly, out of the blue, out in the clouds and the blue of the
sky.

The prophecies of your Bible make it very clear that we shall
know when we enter the last 42 months of this age. There will be
an end time resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe;
there will be a king of the south led by Egypt. This king of the
south will come against the king of the north, and the king of
the north (Europe) will defeat the king of the south, and march
into Jerusalem. The Jews will go into captivity. The Europe Beast
will come against the Western nation who oppose it (especially
the British Commonwealth and the USA) and will win the day.
Europe will rule the Western world. There will be a shout of
"peace, peace" - but then will come the "day of the Lord" which
MOST of the book of Revelation is all about.

From these earth shattering events, and the war between the West
and the East, that would kill every person on earth, if not
stopped by the coming of Christ, we Christians living at that
time will very well know that Jesus' is soon to come. The exact
day we shall not know, but world events will CLEARLY tell us we
are in the the last 42 months or so of this age.

The Maya calendar and Nostradamus have nothing to do with end
time prophecy. I have given the true explantion of the Maya
calendar on my website. And Nostradamus .... well some figured he
gave the year 2000 as the last year, now I guess they are re-
interpreting him to say 2012. And on and on it goes.

2012 has no direct connection with ANY Bible prophecy. 2012 will
be just another year, on the way to end time events. But nothing
extra-ordinary will take place this year. There is MUCH yet to
form in world events before we reach the last 42 months of this
age. Jesus will certainly NOT return before 2015. And the way
worlds events are going, or I should say NOT going in any fast
form, I'm doubting that Jesus will return before 2020, but come
2015 I'll let you know about 2020.

Yes be spiritually ready though, for YOU do not know when it is
YOUR last day, then for you falling asleep in death, the next
moment will be the return of Jesus. In death there is no
recollection of time. One second physical death, the next second,
you are with the angels, guiding you to Jesus in the clouds of
the air.

Prophecy and end times events, death and the resurrection, are
all expounded for you IN DEPTH on my website.
..........