Don't Wait To Be Warned.

 If your thief had the courtesy to let you know when the thievery was to take place, would it have taken place? No.

You would have stopped the thief if you knew they were going to be stealing from your home. 

If you were told that thieves were going about your neighborhood breaking into houses, would you be more on your guard and taking precautions against being robbed? Yes.

We are told by God that we need to WATCH for the return of the Lord.

Watching is an active word. When I say I watch something, that means I'm doing something. If I say I watched the ball game then you know I was watching what was going on with the ball game. You wouldn't think that I was sleeping if I said I was watching, would you? No. In fact if I fall asleep that ends my ability to watch. 

We must WATCH for our Savior's return. We must know the signs that are heralding His soon coming. The watching must be a daily activity, a daily watching, a forever watching until the day arrives.  We cannot say we are watching for our Savior's return if we truly are not watching for it. Well, we could say it, but it won't be true. 

We don't know what hour Christ is returning, but we have to watch, we have to be ready. These words are in a little ways ominous…

'…for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.' 

Watching always will have us prepared, it's when we stop watching that we have something to worry about. If you choose to stop watching for the Lord to return you do so at the risk of His coming and you being caught off guard and unaware, and unsaved.   

Seriously. We don't want to hear those words. We want to live in the delusion that we can accept Christ as our Savior and then go about our day to day business no longer having to concern ourselves about whether or not we belong to Christ. We accepted Him and that's that. If we occasionally think on Him that's great, but He doesn't need to consume our lives - that's for the preachers and teachers of Christ, not for the average person, the average person has another kind of job to do.  So there we are safe and secure in NOT watching but letting others do the watching for us. Surely our preachers or Christ believing friends will wake us up to  Christ's soon coming when it's time. These are Satanic deceptions and Satan has used them well. 

If we are not watching for our Savior's return, it will come and we WILL NOT be His, He will not know us! This is truth, God says so in His word to us!

We liked to believe that some big alarm bell will sound giving us time to get our affairs in order, but that's NOT going to happen. Our affairs need to be in order at all times!  We need to be the LORD'S at all times! ALL TIMES! 

Don't wait for someone to tell you to get ready and start watching… make your entire life one of watching as a Christ follower. Do your day to day job with Christ front and center in your thoughts, in your work, with you, a part of you. 

God help us to this end, to be found watching and ready, waiting for our Lord to return so that we are prepared and not taken by surprise!

All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever!!!!!!! Amen!

(Excerpt)

EXPOSITION OF MATTHEW XXIV  24  (((Written in 1890 - remember when reading the excerpt 131 years have passed since it was written. History does matter.))))

OUR DUTY TO WATCH

VERSES 42-44: "Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."

They who hide themselves behind the saying that that day will come as a thief, and that therefore they cannot know, will find when it comes that they have only insured their own destruction by willfully placing themselves beside those who did not know that the flood was, coming, because they refused to heed the counsel God sent by the mouth of his prophets. 

They were destroyed because they knew not; and they knew not because they would not heed the warning. And is the word of the Son of God of less consequence than that of Noah?–By no means.  If they were destroyed who refused the testimony of Noah, how shall they escape who shut their eyes and ears against the words of warning given by the Lord Jesus? Oh, that men would be wise, and listen to the Saviour's counsel to watch, to observe the signs, and to know when the day is near, that they might not be taken away in the Lord's anger!

"Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9:28. None would look for him– none would be watching and waiting for him–if they could have no knowledge that he was near to come. None would sound an alarm, and call upon the inhabitants of the earth to tremble because the day of the Lord is near, if they had no evidence from the words of prophecy that it is near. Joel 2:1. 

We are thankful that our heavenly Father, in the greatness of his mercy, has given us signs, and warnings, and such strong assurances, that we may know when the day is near, so that it shall not come as a thief upon the believing soul; thankful that we are thus afforded the means of escaping from the ruin that- is impending, and of sharing in the triumph of the redeemed followers of the Lamb. The present watching, waiting position requires much faith and patience. Says Paul: "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that ye have done the will of God [in proclaiming the coming of Christ], ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; that if any man, draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw hack unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." Heb. 10:35-30.

Says James: ,"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and utter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Chap, 5:7, 8.  The present position and present duty of God's people are defined in Rev. 14:12: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (End Excerpt)