Storms-a-coming

Anticipation. The word can point to good or bad.

Earlier today the weather radar was showing a cold front moving across the southeast. As the day has progressed, so has the storm—it's now pretty close!

This is how life goes: there are all kinds of important dates and events that seem so far away, but then they finally arrive … and we may feel surprised, as if we had no real idea it was coming.

The biggest appointment of all is the day we pass from this temporal stage of life and slip into eternity. The Scriptures teach us, that "just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (Hebrews 9:27-28).

There will be a day of reckoning for everyone. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others" (2 Corinthians 5:10-11).

"For it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then each of us will give an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:11-12).

Honestly, what causes fear in my own self-examination is what Jesus taught in Matthew 25:31-46. His commendation and condemnation of the sheep and goats, respectively, was not about things that we sometimes concern ourselves with, but with the simple and yet challenging activity of helping others. In this context of Matthew 25:31-46 it's not about teaching, but about practice.

There is so much to do—"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith" (Galatians 6:9-10). We may prefer the emphasis of the last phrase, but God's reality is that we are to do good to everyone. And He is the best example of all: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:17-18).