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On Whom Do You Trust? ... continued ~
Do you and me really trust the words of the
angels in the book of Acts 1:10-11. “But know
this that if the master of the house had known
what hour the thief would come, he would
have watched and not allowed his house to be
broke into” (Matthew 24:42-44). “Therefore,
you also be ready, for the son of man is
coming at an hour you do not expect. Trust
the Lord, do not say, ‘Where is the promise of
his coming?’” (2 Peter 3:48). “As the days of
Noah, so will be the coming of the son of
man” (Matthew 24:37-39).
Trust the Lord and do not be so busy with the
things of this life that you forget to put oil in
your lamps.
A Waiting Attitude
| Bro Green Mumbelunga (Ndola, Zambia)
P
icture in your mind a family that is
expecting guests for dinner. The set time
for their arrival is rapidly approaching;
preparations are enormous and hopes high.
Yes, the whole family is eagerly awaiting the
arrival of the guests and looks forward to a
delicious meal and fine fellowship.
As Christians, we are waiting for something
even more important. For what? Surely all of
us are waiting for the day of the Lord. Until it
arrives, we need to be like the prophet Micah
who said, “But as for me, I watch in hope for
the Lord. I wait for my saviour; my God will
hear me” (7:7). Does that imply inactivity?
No. There is much to be done.
The apostle Peter helps us to have the proper
attitude while waiting. He says, “What kind of
people ought you to be? You ought to live holy
and godly lives as you look forward to the day
of God and speed its coming” (2 Peter 3:11-
12). This is an exclamatory statement. Peter
was not asking a question. In his two divinely
inspired letters, he described what kind of
people Christians ought to be. He exhorted
them to go on performing holy acts of conduct
and deeds of godly devotion. Centuries ago,
Jesus gave the sign of the conclusion of the
system of things on earth; Christians were not
to let down their guard (Matthew 24:4). They
were to be waiting and keeping close in mind
the presence of the Lord.
What does this mean for us? The word trans-
lated here ‘keeping close in mind’ means
speeding up. Of course, we cannot literally
speed up the day of the Lord. For we know
neither the day nor the hour when Jesus Christ
will come to execute judgement upon this
wicked world and all its systems (Matthew
24:36; 25:13).
The verb in the expression ‘speed up’ here
means to make haste and so is closely related
to the exhortation to be zealous, active,
concerning about something. Peter was urging
his fellow believers to be ardently desiring the
presence of the day of the Lord. They could
do this by constantly keeping it in mind. With
the great dreadful day of the Lord now so
near, we should have exactly the same mental
attitude: “The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And
every one who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved” (Joel 2:31-32).
If we are ardently desiring to survive the
Lord’s day, we will make that evident by our
holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly
devotion. The expression ‘holy acts of
conduct’ may well remind us of Peter’s admo-
nition: “As obedient children, do not conform
to the evil desire’s you had when you lived in
ignorance. But just as he who called you is
holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written,
‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16).
Holiness: To be holy, we must maintain
physical, mental, moral and spiritual clean-
ness. Are we preparing for the Lord’s day by
keeping ourselves holy as individuals, and
ecclesias in God’s name? The moral standards