Woman to Woman

This months article:

Are You Ready?

Sis. Deborah Mullins
Quartz Hill church of Christ

As I sit in my comfortable chair amidst God’s beauty in the Sequoia National forest reading of the sudden, tragic death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife, and her sister; my first thought is “were they ready?” Whenever I hear of such untimely, young deaths, I always ask myself that same question. However, since these three were on their way to such a busy and happy event of a wedding, I doubt that they had been thinking of whether they were ready to face God that day and give an answer for their lives. Which leads me to my point, are you ready?

What should we be ready to answer? Will we find ourselves making excuses, rationalizing for our delay? What does God expect from us, His children?  What would any parent expect from their children? They would expect love, obedience and respect. God expects that, too.

Part of showing our love for God is an appreciation and gratitude for all that He has done. In my present setting, here in the Sequoias, I am amazed at the beauty and the bounty that He has created for us (Genesis 1:29-30). As we sit around our table, full of summer fruit and food, we give thanks for that food. In that prayer we also give thanks for the ultimate act of love--that of God giving His only son to die as a perfect sacrifice for our sins (John 3:16-17). Part of the way that we show our love for our parents here on earth is by talking to them and listening to them. We should talk to God often in our daily prayer and listen for His answer (1 Thess 5:16-18).

As we pray, talking to God our father, we should listen to what He has to say. Where can we find His answers to our questions? That’s an easy answer:  in His word, the Bible (2 Tim 3:16-17). In His word, we find all the things that we need to do in this world in order to join Him eternally. They are repeated in various contexts throughout His word:

1. Hear His word so that you may understand it (2 Tim 2:15);
2. Believe that Jesus is the son of God (John 3:16);
3. Confess before others that Jesus is the son of God (Romans 10:9);
4. Repent (Mark 1:15) of your sins, turning away from them and working hard to not repeat them;
5. and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38).

After these first five “baby steps” are completed, we are asked to walk a path that leads to Him. All of the above steps are needed in order to enter His kingdom and His family. After we have willingly and knowingly joined His kingdom, we are commanded to go out throughout the world to share what we know about how to enter His kingdom (Matt 28:19). We are told to work in His kingdom so that our faith can be seen through our works (James 2:20). Our job as His children is to obey this and all His commandments.

To show our respect for God, we worship Him each and every first day of the week, partaking of the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of His sacrifice for each of us. This is a commandment voiced by Jesus Himself at His last Passover supper with His disciples (Matt 26:26-28).

By remembering Him, talking to Him through prayer, worshiping Him and obeying Him, we will be doing our best as His children. We will be able to answer with confidence when we ask ourselves, “am I ready?” with “yes, Lord, take me home.”

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