Sundays are my refresh button when I travel. Sometimes I get to worship with angels that God has put into my life, while other times I get to spend some one-on-one time with the Man upstairs by logging on to hopeonline.tv to watch the sermon from back home.
Today was a one-on-one kind of day, and as I got ready to soak up some Jesus time I sat in a little office wishing I had coffee and praying for the energy to make it through the day. We started the sermon with Mark 13:32-37;
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
It made me think of a time in college when a group who had bought into a someone, somewhere’s analysis of the end of days were passing out flyers on campus. What struck me about these encounters was not the utter and complete miss on this verse, but the use of fear to turn people towards God.
If you were told that tomorrow, the world was going up in flames, I’d guess that you’d have a little heart to heart with Jesus…
But instead of God giving us that time frame for preparation, He asks us to “be on guard“, “be alert“, and to “keep watch“; to be ready for His coming at all times. He asks us to stay be spiritually vigilant and to answer His call.
But how do we stay “awake”?
We are at a critical time in the world right now, with events unfolding that evoke terror in our hearts, but what if we didn’t use these events to scare people towards God? What if instead, we reached out with the love that God shares with us to heal? What if we conquered evil with good deeds and open hearts? (Romans 12:21)
My favorite part about Pastor Mike’s message this morning was our role in bringing God’s Kingdom to earth. He said, “You don’t need to do something epic to give a glimpse of the Kingdom of God”. Being awake is opening our eyes to the opportunities in our every day lives to share His love; To relish in those moments and to grasp on to the opportunities that daily interactions provide.
YOU have a chance to make a difference, just the same as I do and the person next door…We just have to wake up every day looking for those moments and be ready to open our eyes, ears and heart to how God can use us to share His love here on earth.
It’s time to start living each moment of our extraordinary, ordinary lives.
Spending time in missions doesn’t mean that I will be doing epic work abroad. For me, it is living out my ordinary life in an extraordinary way to share God’s love and Kingdom with many tribes and nations. If you feel as though He is calling you to support me, please pray for strength – That I may see, use and appreciate all of those moments abroad. Also, I will need financial support for God to send me. Please consider contributing financially by clicking on the [Support Me] button at the top of my page, or by following the link.
Thank you for your support and thank you for using your extraordinary life to inspire me!
