Are you ready?
Seriously, are you ready?
“For what?” you may ask. I will tell you…soon.
If you are a follower of Christ, then there is a mandate to be ready.
Did you know that?
Seriously, did you know that?
I want to share a scripture and then a story…here goes!
But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 1 Peter 3:14 & 16 NLT (Emphasis added is mine).
I had the pleasure of visiting a youth group last night and they had a guest speaker: a young man who had grown up in that very youth group as a student, ten years earlier, and was now back serving as an adult leader. I knew him when he was younger and have gotten to know him better lately, as an adult.
Was he ready? Ten years ago, maybe. Tonight…yes! He told a story, his story about how God had intersected his life as a teen and, more recently, how God had rocked him as an adult. He was funny, biblical, transparent, honest, and real. He had studied, written several pages of notes, thrown them out, started over and spoke from the heart. He was ready!
And God met Him right there! In that crowded concrete room with 100 people, young and old, sitting in plastic chairs and on carpeted bleachers; all who needed to hear that God loved them and that there was HOPE for them in Christ. His dad was there to observe and it gave me great joy to watch his father’s face glow with pride as his baby boy shared the Truth in such a profound manner.
Two father’s faces were radiant that day: one up in the bleachers, The One up in the sky. Both looking down and saying “This is my dearly loved son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.”
So I ask again…are you ready?
