The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
(Proverbs 20:4) If you knew your time on earth was short, what would you do? In his song, Live Like You were dying, Tim McGraw considers this question: "He said
"I went skydiving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"
And he said
"Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying"
That's a nice sentiment, isn't it? Ticking off the things on your bucket list before you go? Yet what Mr. McGraw (we're not on a first name basis) fails to consider is that most of these things that this man did when he lived as if he was dying were temporary, and assumed that this world is all there is. Really, as believers, we're called to do that every day. We should, every day. love deeper with the sacrificial Christian Love, Speak sweeter, encouraging one another as Ephesians 4:29 encourages us to do, forgive, because it's what Jesus says to do.
Why? Jesus has been gone a long time, and we wonder if He's ever coming back! Because no one knows the day or the hour. No one knows if today is the last breath, or tomorrow is the sound of the Trumpets. Jesus IS coming. This world is on notice, and our time in it is a breath in the breeze of History. This is not about living good or moral lives, but living as people who are eagerly awaiting the return of their Lord and Master. We need to be awaiting His return like it's coming at any moment, sharing the Gospel, and living lives that Please Him. Our entirety is for the pleasure of God, so let us seek Him in all we do. He's coming back again. Are you ready?
2 Peter 3:1-13
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
