Sunday, May 13, 2007

Are You Ready?

A dear friend was buried yesterday. I’m glad the funeral was not until I got back from Texas. The funeral contained a long section of testimony about my friend Mack. At one point Mack’s wife stood up and talked about her husband. She talked about how she never doubted his love or faithfulness. She said that people always say that you don’t know what you got until its gone but for her she knew what she had. She knew that Mack was a good man.

Mack’s father talked about how he knew his son from birth until 3 years old and then left. The man talked about recently being ordained a deacon and his son not knowing. He talked of regret of how he did not know this good man everyone was talking about.

Many, many testimonies on how Mack helped them or how Mack was always available to talk. Many talked of Mack’s encouragement and being a friend. All said how good a man Mack was. All said how much Mack loved his family.

Although all said what a good man Mack was, do you know what I did not hear? I did not hear that Mack was a godly man. Although all said that Mack loved his family, do you know what I did not hear? I did not hear that Mack loved Jesus.

Without Jesus Christ all that we do is for naught. We can’t earn our way into heaven. There is nothing that we can possibly do in and of ourselves to merit the favor of God. Only through the blameless, perfect sacrifice of Jesus for our sins can we gain righteousness.

Mack died sitting in his easy chair doing one of the things he loved best and that was watching the NBA playoffs. Mack is evidence that we don’t know if we have the next 20 years or the next 20 minutes. The pastor who gave the message was a former SpecOp soldier and gave the analogy of, "soldier, you need to get squared away". If you ever served in the military then you know what that means. We were always on 24-hour standby meaning that we had 24 hours to get to wherever the mission called. Squared away meant you were ready to deploy at any moment. Our mission is reconciliation with a God that loves us and made a way for us to be with him for eternity. You may not have 24 hours prior notice. Are you ready to deploy?

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