Monday, January 23

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Matthew 24:36-39
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left."

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." 

Like most Moms, my wife rarely gets a “day off” from being a Mom. About once a year or so she gets away for a conference or a visit to family and leaves me at home with our boys.

Now I am no longer the complete slob I was in college or in my mid-twenties single years! Twenty-five years of marriage has produced at least a little growth in the area of domestic hygiene. But, as much as I hate to admit it, when Lorene leaves me home alone it doesn’t take very long for the “law of entropy” to take over.

The “law of entropy”, for all you non-science majors like me, is the second law of thermodynamics, which, loosely translated, states that “everything in the universe moves from order to disorder unless energy is introduced into the system.”

So within a few hours of her departure, our home degenerates into a state of primordial chaos. Dishes pile up in the sink; empty Portillo’s boxes lie strewn around the family room and dirty clothes litter the floor.

This is not because of me, mind you, but because of the “second law of thermodynamics.” The law of entropy simply takes over. Who am I to fight against the very laws of the universe?

But as the hour of my wife’s return draws near an amazing transformation takes place! It happens first in me – then in our home! Over the years I have developed a kind of formula for this process. For each day she is gone it takes me about 30 minutes to clean up. One day away means 30 minutes of getting dishes into the dishwasher; Portillo’s boxes into the garbage and dirty clothes into the washer. Two days means an hour – and so forth.

The point is, the nearness of her return transforms my behavior and my priorities because I want to be fully prepared for her arrival! That’s what Jesus is trying to teach us in regard to his own return!

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." 

We don’t talk a great deal about the return of Jesus Christ to earth, but the Bible has a great deal to say about the certainty of his coming. The New Testament makes 300 references to the second coming of Christ; and Jesus’ return is mentioned in 23 of the 27 New Testament books. But in all those references, Jesus never tells us when he will return! Why is that? Why would God keep that bit of information from us?

Think about it this way. If my wife tells me she will be gone for the weekend and will return home at 7:30 pm Sunday evening; when will I start to prepare for her return? Right! I will begin to clean up at about 7:00 pm – depending on how long she has been gone! But what if she were to say that she would be home “sometime over the weekend.” What would I do then? I would be in a state of “continual preparedness!”

I think God has chosen to keep the exact time of Jesus’ return from us because he knows our very nature. He knows we would be tempted to ignore his word and his will until the last possible moment – and that’s not the way he wants us to live! That’s not the way to experience all that he wants to give us. Rather, God wants us to live in a constant state of preparedness – because that’s how we will know the blessing, peace and joy that he has for us!

Are you living in that kind of spiritual preparedness? Or have you been ignoring the dishes piling up in the sink?

Ask God to help you increasingly live as if Jesus were coming back today!

Pastor Brian Coffey