STAY
AWAKE AND KEEP WATCH
Kathy
Overshiner
When I was growing up
as a child, my father’s life time career was
a night watchman for a big furniture
factory. He guarded furniture and nights he
would make his routine rounds to check on
the place to see that it was all locked up,
there weren’t any break- in, any fires and
everything was normal.
He
not only did night watchman nights, but he
also did watchman days on weekends .When he
was younger, he had been a police officer.
One night at the age of six, I was sleeping
too close to the edge of the bed, and
suddenly, I fell off the bed and landed hard
on the floor. This immediately woke me up
and I started crying. My father who out of
habit being a night watchman came to see
what the commotion was. He checked the
upstairs out, because I was just a child, I
told him something was after me. Of course
my father found nothing after me. As an
adult now, I see the world’s commotion and
the end time signs all about us, I cannot
help but think that we shouldn’t be
sleeping, but wake up and be watching for
our redemption.
Jesus saw the absence
of the inner reality of himself in the
hearts of the people in the churches (which
definitely includes today’s churches). He
saw religion, but not spiritual life. They
were spiritually dead and only a few true
faithful.
Rev
3:3
“Remember, therefore,
what you have received and heard: Obey it,
and repent. But if you do not wake up, I
will come like a thief, and you will not
know at what time I will come to you.”
1Thess 5:6
“So then, let us not be
like others, who are asleep, but let us be
alert, and self- controlled.”
Be alert means to “stay
awake and keep watch.”
The apostle Paul is not urging us to
be alert for the day of the Lord, but we are
to be spiritually prepared in order to
escape the wrath of that day.
Luke 12: 37-38
“It will be good for
those servants whose master finds them
watching when he comes. I tell you the
truth, he will dress himself to serve, will
have them recline at the table and will come
and wait on them. It will be good for those
servants whose master finds them ready, even
if he comes in the second or third watch of
the night. But understand this: if the owner
of the house had known at what hour the
thief was coming, he would not have let his
house be broken into. You also must be
ready, because the Son of Man will come at
an hour when you do not expect him.”
Jesus tells us there is
a special blessing and care of his presence
reserved for those who in full readiness and
faithfulness “wait” and “watch” for their
Lord’s return during the interval between
His ascension and His second coming.
No one knows the day,
hour or year our Lord will return
Mark 13: 32-37
“No one knows about
that day or hour, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the son, but only the father. Be
on guard! Be alert! You do not know when
that time will come. It’s like a man going
away: he leaves his house and puts his
servants in charge, each with his assigned
task, and tells the one at the door to keep
watch. 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. If he comes suddenly, do not let him
find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say
to everyone: “Watch!”
Because Jesus declared
that his return for his church (the faithful
believers) could occur at four possible
times during the night or early morning
hours, this indicates that his coming for
them could be at any time and emphasizes the
unexpectedness and secret-ness of his coming
in the rapture. Because it is unexpected and
imminent, all believers must be faithful and
spiritually alert.
Rev: 3: 10
“Since you have kept my
command to endure patiently, I will also
keep you from the hour of the trial that is
going to come upon the whole world to test
those who live on the earth”
Those of the earth are
the ungodly people. This promise Jesus said
extends throughout the ages as it did during
Paul’s day. It extends to all God’s faithful
that they would be rescued from the “coming
wrath” This hour includes the divinely
appointed time of trial, wrath and distress
that will come upon the whole world in the
last days of this age, just prior to Jesus’
establishment of his kingdom on the earth.
This
trial “hour” involves God’s wrath on the
ungodly. (Rev Ch 6-19, MT 24:9, I Thess
5:2). Satan during this time will also have
his wrath on Christ’s tribulation saints.
For them, they will suffer loss of home,
hunger, war, famines and death. For those of
us who have kept God’s word before that day,
“hour of trial,” God will keep us from it
most likely through the rapture; “the
catching up” of the faithful to meet the
Lord in the air, just before he pours out
His wrath.
This deliverance is our reward for
keeping God’s word through true faith.
I Thess 4: 16-18
“For the Lord himself
will come down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the arch angel,
and with the trumpet call of God, and the
dead in Christ will rise first. After that,
we who are still alive and left will be
caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will
be with the Lord forever. Therefore
encourage each other with these words. “
John 6: 28-29
Then they asked him,
“What must we do to do the works God
requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is
this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
We know the hour is
getting late, and it is time for us to
repent of our sins, Jesus died for us at the
cross, took our sins upon him and rose up
(ascension) and is at the right hand of God
making intercession for us.
Accept Jesus as your Lord and savior
and his blood will cleanse you of all your
sins. Jesus will forgive you. Come Jesus,
AMEN
