When it is Your Time…
 

Does it seem like there have been a LOT of natural disasters lately?  Especially earthquakes!  Obviously, the one with the most coverage was Haiti.  Ever since then it seems as though we hear about a new one every couple days; and from all corners of the globe!  Recently there was also an instance of killer rogue waves in the Mediterranean that assaulted a cruise ship and killed two people.  There was also a typhoon that ran through the South Pacific last month.

Are these signs that the end is near?  I don’t believe that they are.  I do believe that they are reminders that we need to be right with the Lord at all times and in all places, since we never know what the future holds, possibly even the immediate future.

Consider 38-year-old father of two Robert Jones of Woodstock, Ga., who was jogging and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane which had failed it’s engine and lost its propeller and was making an emergency landing on a beach in Hilton Head, S.C.  The pilot's vision was blocked by oil on the windshield and there was nothing he could do.  This man was called home by the Lord, which is certainly difficult for us to comprehend using any earthly reasoning.

Also there was 52-year-old Sue Zimmer from Rice Lakes, WI.  She was on vacation in Phoenix AZ to see family and friends when she lost her life at a drag racing event.  Zimmer was killed when a top fuel dragster’s left rear wheel broke free from the car and took flight.  Sue was walking with a friend through the pit area to get a sandwich when she was blind-sided by the wheel.  She was taken to a Phoenix hospital where she later died.  This woman was also called home by the Lord.

These people certainly had no idea that their time had come.  We also do not know when our time will come, so what can we do to be prepared?  1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 2-11 (NIV) gives us the protection and reassurance we need:

“For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  When they say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!  But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.  So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.”

Dave Kanofsky