Get Ready

Today is another one of the unusual, weird, and wacky holidays.

The third Thursday in September is Get Ready Day.

Their online calendar says, “Show your readiness for anything life throws at you on Get Ready Day – start by getting organized, setting goals and making plans!”

This day was established in 2006 to coincide with National Preparedness Month. According to one source, “The campaign’s aim is to prepare people and communities for emergency crisis situations like natural disasters or hazards, infectious diseases and pandemic illnesses.”

Being prepared is a good quality. This is true in business, industry, education, sports, retirement, and definitely when some natural disaster strikes. But how about being prepared spiritually?

Some folks are super organized and prepared for almost any situation in life. Yet the one area in which all of us will face sooner or later is being prepared to die. Now, I’m not talking about buying a cemetery plot or making funeral plans, or writing a will. While all of these are good ideas, the most important is being prepared to meet the Lord when you die.

The Bible affirms, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:27-28).

This passage reminds us that we need to get ready.

#1 Death is an appointment you cannot escape.

Your wealth will not delay death. Your position, prestige or power will not postpone death. Your good works will not circumvent death. Death is a reality we must all prepare for.

#2 The time of death is unknown.

The Psalmist offers this insight.

The length of our days is seventy years —
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
–Ps. 90:10

We know from experience that not everyone makes it to 70. Or 80. An accident may untimely take the life of a teenager. A 40 year old can contract cancer. An unknown birth defect may be detected too late. And, as we have sadly seen in recent years, an evil person armed with a gun can snuff out the lives of innocent children.

The specter of death is ever real. But its time is unknown. So we always need to be ready.

#3 Following death comes Judgment.

This passage as well as many others remind us that this life is not all there is. Following death will come the judgment. Paul reminds us that we must “all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). And that “each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12).

No one will escape the judgment. You won’t be able to hide. Or run away. Or get lost in the crowd. The reality that one day we will be held accountable for our life on earth ought to motivate us to get ready.

#4 You are never ready to die, until you belong to Christ.

One writer expressed it well, “Death is nothing to fear, but it is something to prepare for.”

Indeed, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). The Hebrew writer reminds us that Jesus’ victory over death and the devil provides for us confident assurance and eternal hope as we face death. Yes, we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

For those “in Christ” we enjoy all spiritual blessings in this life, and can look forward to our death as an occasion of everlasting salvation.

To get ready we must answer the call of Christ who pleads “come unto Me” (Matt. 11:28-20). He demands that we believe on Him (Jn. 3:16). He requires that we “repent” of our sins (Lk. 13:3). And he promises, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mk. 16:16). From then on, we live for Him and stay faithful, ready to meet in Him judgment.

When we live in the light of eternity, death becomes our friend, not our enemy.

Get ready.

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman