Matthew 24:36-44; Hebrews 9:28
Seth knew he needed salvation. Would he pray or put it off for another day?
Seth slammed the bedroom door, wadded his pillow and threw himself across the bed. He grabbed his Xbox controller from the night stand. Starting up a new racing game, he tried to get his mind off the conversation that had just taken place.
“This is the way it is going to be just before the Lord comes back . . . just before the Lord comes back . . . just before the Lord comes back . . .” His dad’s words seemed to echo again and again in his mind, as he raced his car around the track unseeingly.
I know I should get saved, he thought. Someday I will. But I don’t like people to hassle me about it! I’ve got plans. I want to do things my own way. Getting ready for Heaven will just have to wait. In a couple of years, when I’m out of high school . . . well, that will be time enough.
He raced another lap. Being saved is okay for Logan—he seems to be happy enough, all right. But what would the guys say if all of a sudden I became a Christian? Wow! Would they ever give me a bad time.
His troubled thoughts were interrupted as the bedroom door opened, and Logan came in. Seth pretended to be absorbed in his Xbox game.
Walking over to the side of Seth’s bed, Logan gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “Hey, Seth, don’t be upset. Dad, and the rest of us, just want to be sure that you make Heaven too. He didn’t mean to make you mad.”
Seth stared at the screen and acted as if he hadn’t heard Logan. Logan stood in silence for a moment, then moved over and sat down on the edge of his own bed. He sighed. “Okay, so you’re mad. But the fact remains, the Lord could come tomorrow, and you’re not ready!”
Seth threw the controller down, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and stared grimly at his brother. “Not you too! I’ve just about had it with you guys. All I hear about is how I need to ‘be ready!’”
“Okay, let me say it this way,” Logan responded. “Think back about the earthquake yesterday. We had no idea it was going to happen, of course, but if we had, what would we have done differently?”
His brother shrugged. “I dunno. We wouldn’t have gone to Sports Central, that’s for sure. I probably would have been looking around for some sort of safe shelter or something.”
Logan agreed. “Right. If we’d known it was coming, we’d have been foolish not to get ready for it.” He paused for a moment. “Don’t you see, Seth? It’s that same way with the Lord’s coming. The Bible tells us that we don’t know the day or the hour when the Lord will come back.
“But it does tell us what we can expect just before He comes—things like we were reading about on the iPad this morning. We didn’t have any warning at all that the earthquake was coming. But we do have warnings that show us Jesus could come any day.”
“Oh, c’mon,” Seth scoffed. “I’ve been hearing that ever since I can remember—that Jesus could come any day. They’ve been preaching it for hundreds of years. I’m sure there’s plenty of time left.”
Logan sighed and gave his brother a troubled look. “It’s exactly that attitude that has all of us worried, Seth. How would you feel if you were left behind? You know as well as I do, the Scripture about two shall be together, ‘one shall be taken, and the other left.’ You’ve gone to Sunday school and church all your life, and you know the importance of being saved and ready for the Lord’s coming. You’re so sure that it’s not going to happen now. Well, remember the Bible says that, ‘in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.’”
For a moment there was silence. Then, with a shrug, Seth agreed. “You’re right, Logan. I know I should be saved. But not now. Some other time . . .”