For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)
A pastor I know recently raised an interesting point:
‘What will you be doing when Jesus returns?”
That can be a frightening thought.
The Bible says that when Jesus returns, no one will be expecting it but everyone will know it is happening. (2 Peter 3:10 and Matthew 24:30-31 are two verses that tell of this, but there are many more.)
I don’t know about you, but it would be very embarrassing if the sky split open, there was a huge trumpet blast, and suddenly Jesus was coming down out of the clouds just as I was uttering words I would later regret directed at the driver in front of me who had committed the terrible infraction of driving exactly the speed limit.
Okay, scratch the word “embarrassing” in that last sentence and insert “heart-wrenching.”
But I do it all the time. Every day.
Seriously, I could have a t-shirt printed with Paul’s “wretched man” lament:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:19 NIV)
That’s one reason every radio I own is currently tuned to Kinship Christian Radio.
What comes out of my radio is the full armor of God. Truth, righteousness, the Gospel, faith, and God’s own Word are there whenever it’s on –reminding me that my real enemy is not the gentleman in the Buick with a light foot, but the enemy of my soul.
Even as I write this, Kinship Christian Radio is playing a song with the lyrics:
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours.
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours.
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they’re the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet.
For the leper and the lame; they’re the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet.
(Casting Crowns, “Jesus Friend of Sinners.”)
And the beauty of it all is that it’s all happening right now. Every day, 24 hours a day, God’s love and mercy and truth flow out over the air.
And it’s not just for some 56 year-old guy in a plaid flannel shirt who is convinced he needs to scream at the driver ahead lest he arrive at his destination ten seconds late.
It’s for the mom struggling to raise her children who needs a word of peace. It’s for the farmer working overtime in the field who is so very tired. It’s for the teen who is under a heavy burden of peer pressure to be like all her friends. It’s for the grandmother or grandfather who wonders why the kids don’t visit more often. It’s for those who struggle with a loved-one’s illness. It’s for the dad who works day in and day out but the money never seems enough and he worries how he’ll pay for it all. It’s for the one who just can’t seem to find a job. It’s for the prisoner behind bars who finds freedom in Christ that he never knew he could have. It’s for that person whose life of what used to be “fun” now seems shallow and pointless and just plain stupid– and he wonders if all that stuff about Jesus is really true.
It is true, friend. Jesus is LORD. He died and rose to life for you. He loves you and He is waiting for you.
Right now.
Today’s Praise
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25 NIV)