Mat 24:42 KJV – Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

From my earliest memories I have heard numerous messages that Jesus is coming soon.  The preachers would stress that Christ could return before the service was finished.  There was always such urgency in the preacher’s voice like it might happen that very minute.

Then every New Year’s eve there would be a service that was called “watch night” service”.  The message would be based on the scripture found in 1 Thessalonians.

1Th 5: MSG
2  You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would.
3  About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—”We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.

After the message there would be a communion service where everyone would be encouraged to search themselves and take stock of their life.  If there was anything in our heart that stood between Christ and us to get it under the blood of Christ.

Then after the preacher finished he would encourage the congregation to gather around the altar and kneel down in prayer while waiting for the clock to strike 12:01.

After the resurrection on the mount of Olives while Christ was ascending to heaven the angels of heaven gave this message to the disciples and followers of Christ:

Act 1:  (MSG)
11  They said, “You Galileans!—why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly—and mysteriously—as he left.”

Christians have been looking for the blessed appearance every since the angels made that promise.

Every preacher since then has believed it could happen in their life time.  It was always a message of urgency and conviction.

As I stop and listen to many preachers, teachers, etc., I do not sense any urgency in their message.  They are relaxed and complaceny has taken its place.

Church services now are but a place of entertainment.  Auditorium lights are off the platform equipped with strobe lights, loud music, smoke machines.  Music that would be called “rock” if you didn’t have any lyrics.

The message of the Gospel now replaced with a message of steps to feel better or how they can have the wealth of the world in their hands.

Let me remind you what Christ spoke to his disciples:

Mar 11:  MSG
17  And then he taught them, quoting this text: My house was designated a house of prayer for the nations; You’ve turned it into a hangout for thieves.

I find no place in todays church services for prayer or the things of God.

Oh how far society has strayed from the Gospel road.  No power in the message because there is no Gospel in the message.  Todays church has become drunk on the appetite for things of the world.  This drunkeness has driven out the place where faith once dwelled.

Luk 18: KJV
8b  …Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

While I am writing this I can almost hear the critics saying this is judgemental, harsh.  No, it is the sound of a clarion call.  A call to the backslider to come back to the cross of Calvary, be washed in the blood of the lamb.

A trumpet call to the weary, weak, oppressed and those that are bound by sin that there is safety in only one man, the man Christ Jesus!

Oh the clock is almost ready to strike midnight and many do not have their lamps full of oil trimmed and burning.

Like the prodigal son they have sold their inheritance for a bucket of pig slop.  It’s time for those to get up out of the pig pen of the world, return back on the road that leads to home where the father’s arms are outstretched waiting for his lost son to come back to him.

I can hear the gospel song in my mind,

“Come into the ark, the sky grows dark

There’s a storm called God’s great judgement day”

Reader what are you waiting for.

Mamma, dad, don’t quit praying for that child who has wandered far from home.  Believe God to put a hook in their jaw and bring them back to the fold.  We have the promise:

Pro 22:  MSG
6  Point your kids in the right direction— when they’re old they won’t be lost.

Child of God keep that love one before the throne of grace, trust God that He will turn that one around.

Be like the widow who bothered the judge day and night until he grew tired and weary for a change in the sentence.  God is faithful.  It may grow worse before it gets better but do not lose faith, place it in the hands of God.

Maybe, you are blessed and your family is in the ark of safety, then start believing God for your neighbour, neighbourhood, and the very town, city, village you live in.  From there we can see a move of God that will encompass the whole earth before the Lord comes back.