You have an Appointment!

You have an Appointment!

by David Brenneman 

Those who die likely do not consider that their life's journey will be the subject of a meeting. In Christ Jesus those who die will receive a reward for what all they have done in their lives for Christ Jesus.  At the end of the age everyone else will have their lives reviewed as well for different reasons. They all who died without salvation in Christ Jesus will hear that their names were not written in the book of Life.  They will be found guilty of all their own sins and will be, glorified body and all, cast into the lake of fire.  The Final Judgment. 

In your day today, do you live your life in preparation for your meeting with Jesus?  

Only in today, while it is still called today, do you have the grace and mercy granted to you and I to live life in the way that we are to live according to the Bible. 

We all have an appointment, but most are doing absolutely nothing to get ready for it.

We know not when Jesus will return. 

We know not when our own time on this Earth will be over.  We have wasted so much time in embracing this world that by far we are not comprehending the magnitude of our appointment. 

We indeed do not take that Scripture to heart of not being presumptuous about what we will do today. But rather we ought to be of the mind that if the Lord wills, we will do this or go there.  That's what the Bible teaches. 

We often are not thinking about our next breath.   Yet that too is grace upon grace. We take that for granted.  

We get excited about sports teams, actors and actresses, musicians, artists, CEO's, movers and shakers but are not thrilled at all about getting ready to meet Jesus Christ face-to-face.

We indeed have gotten too close to the world's ideology and its definition of identity.  We have accepted its lies about the Scriptures even.  We have sometimes even been responsible for it taking others a lot longer to listen to the cry of the Spirit of God calling them to be saved. 

These things impact our interview, impact our appointment, with Jesus. 

Romans 14:10b-12 NASB "For we will all appear before the judgment seat of God. For it is written:

“As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee will bow,
And every tongue will give praise to God.”

So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God."

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 NASB "According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire."

We aren't here to create Heaven on Earth. 

We aren't here to go enjoy the world. 

We aren't here, honestly, for ourselves.

We aren't here to enter into rest as the world gives it.  

We are here with a job to do both in Christ Jesus and for Christ Jesus.  

We are often subject to yearly performance reviews at our jobs.  What would a yearly review look like between you and Jesus?  How comfortable would you be standing, not sitting, before your Savior as He's going through the last year of your life?  How good or how bad are you thinking you're going to look like?

This was a very sobering thought this morning.  Nobody is guaranteed a today let alone a tomorrow.  Jesus was rather pointed and direct in this parable:

"And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began thinking to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there. And I will say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years to come; relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and as for all that you have prepared, who will own it now?’" Luke 12:16-20 NASB. 

I have relatives who accumulated much in their lives of "stuff".  None of them took it with them when their appointment was called up and Jesus said it was time for them to go from this world.  I live with probably a blessing and a curse. On one hand I want to keep useful stuff and on the other I want to get rid of things if I haven't used them in a year.  That's from both sides of the family. 

I look at who and what I get excited about.  It's extremely saddening to me to watch Believers not be excited about Jesus returning yet they are pumped up about a sports team or player.  They get excited about concerts but not their Savior.  They run off to do things in this world but have no time to be with other Believers or even really quality time with Jesus.  

People completely unprepared for their personal appointment with Jesus. 

They are consumed by seeking health, wealth and prosperity, of security, of this or that in this world and honestly are the people mentioned in Revelation who were told they had forgotten their first love. They are the people Jesus looked ahead to who didn't have the faith.  

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever." 1 John 2:15-17 NASB. 

People in this world need to realize that no Jesus will not "cut them some slack". He isn't going to just "look the other way".

Our works, as Believers and Unbelievers, will be passed through the fire of the Spirit. What remains is what was of value.  Those with their names in the Lamb's book of Life will be with Jesus Christ forever. But the test is the Spirit of God.  Read on in the Bible and you read of people who didn't receive Him as Savior and Lord crying out to Jesus to consider all they said they did for Him. He said depart from Me for I never knew You.

Jesus says that those who did listen and come to Him for salvation will be loved by Him and His Father. That we would be with Him forever. 

At your appointment, be it today, this week, this year, this next few years, will you be ready for Jesus?  Are you ready for your appointment with Jesus?  

Much of what used to be important to me was left behind last year before we moved.  In the last probably 10 years much more has been left behind. 

I have often referred to Colossians 3:24-24...extend that to verse 25.

Colossians 3:23-25 NASB "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people, knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For the one who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality."

Jesus said that not one thing in His Word would fail to come true.  

Many today are being informed that their appointed time to leave this world is at hand. Most don't think that they want to go. Most don't believe that they will end up in Hell. That they think they are a good person. 

There's trillions of "good people" in Hell. 

Only salvation in Christ Jesus separates those "good people" from the "good people" in Heaven. 

If today were your day, would YOU be ready?