Surprise!! I Am Still Here

This past week has been filled with news about the "rapture" scheduled for Saturday, May 21. My comment to friends was that no matter what happened, there would be some very surprised and disappointed people on Sunday morning.

One of the topics I rarely debate is the entire Left Behind thinking. It is not because I think it wrong, the believers silly.  From my perspective  it is  misguided  because it misses  the point.  While we busy ourselves making rapture preparations and spreading the news, we bypass two very important teachings in the Scriptures.

The first is elemental - No man knows the day or the hour. The return of the Son of Man will come as a thief in the night. For that reason alone focusing on the when and the who will be taken from the world is rather pointless. My faith convinces me that when the Time comes, we will know it and those who are prepared will go and those who aren't won't.

The second teaching is also elemental and often forgotten. God has told us what the signs are of the approaching time. He wants us to know the clock is ticking towards the appointed hour not because he wants us to focus on the time, but on the preparation for the time. Like the virgins in the parable, we need to be trimming our own lamps and keeping them oiled and ready. Burning lamps are a light for the world and a beacon for the bridegroom. It isn't the clock we need to be watching, but the lamps.

There are two essential things that Christians need to be doing, then. The first is trimming the wicks. The Hebrews writer puts it this way: and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Heb. 10:24-26, NASB - emphasis mine)

Our duty, then, is to keep each other strong in the faith, helping each other and encouraging each other to love and to doing good. We need to keep each other alert and on watch. We, in a sense, are our brother's and sister's keepers in this. Never forget what Jesus commanded in the upper room: Love one another as I have love you. He followed that up with a command to go and bear fruit. (John 15:12 ff, NASB)

Which brings me to the second task of keeping the lamps oiled. We can do this by staying in the Word. That is what will keep us on guard against several light killers. If we are in the Word, we are closer to knowing the mind of God and to living in His will. It actually makes us less judgmental of others because it reminds us of how frail and sin prone we ourselves are. Paul says the Law was his schoolmaster - teaching him not how to look at others and see how bad they were, but to look at himself and see how good he wasn't.

Therefore, rather than worrying about when and how we are going to be called up, we need to focus on being called up at all. We also need to focus on who we are going to take with us when we do go. Rather than focus on who isn't going and how dire their fate will be, concentrate on whom we can bring with us and how great their joy. Let the fruit we bear provide the oil for our lamps so we work harder to bear more fruit.

So, yes, I am still here and thank God there is still time to fill my lamp and keep it burning, not just for me, but you as well.