We’re familiar with deadlines. April 15th is when our taxes need to be filed every year. Our Christmas shopping has to be done sometime before December 25th. If you are in school, or at least remember when you were, there are deadlines for assignments all the time. You may have deadlines on your job. Thankfully, I’ve never had to delay a service by an hour or so because I haven’t finished my sermon yet. The earth and time itself have a deadline. There is a day, set by the Father, when this life and world will be over, done, caput, finished. Eternity will take over.
There will be no more time to repent or correct any of our misbehaviors. Who we are at that moment will determine so much of what will happen next and forever. There’s a line in one of our songs that says, “We will be ready the dawn of that day.” I sure hope that’s true. If your life is not right with God, please don’t wait another day to get ready. None of us know when that trumpet will sound or our name will be called and we’ll be standing face to face with God. But all of us have a sense about what we need to do in order to be ready for that moment. There is a deadline and one thing we know for sure is that we’re closer to it now than at any other point in history.
-Pastor Joel Everhart