We never know when our time will come

We never know when our time will come

Luke 12:16-21

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

The first week that we arrived in Mozambique, in March of 2011, one of the missionaries there said, ‘’This is Africa, every day, you must be ready to preach, to pray and to die.

I think that sentence sums up three biblical thoughts, we need to be ready to preach (I Peter 3:15 ‘’ Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”) to pray always (I Thessalonians 5:17) and to be ready to die. Luke 12:16-21 above.

Late last fall, in one weekend, there was a rash of headlines related to American sports, in which people were dying, some young, some old, and all unexpectedly.

On Friday, five people from Oklahoma State University on business for the women’s basketball team, were killed in a plane crash.

That same day, a young student and ski champion from Scotland, studying in Oregon, was riding his bicycle and was hit by a car, and died the following day.

On Saturday, a young woman was hit and killed by a truck while tailgating before the Harvard – Yale football game at Yale University.

That same day, a band major in Florida died, after a hazing incident by fellow band members.

The following day, Sunday, a University of Arkansas football player, was found collapsed in his dorm room, and died of a previously undiagnosed heart ailment.

The next day, on Monday, a young baseball player for the Seattle Mariners, Greg Halman, died, after being stabbed to death by a family member.

Over this same weekend, hikers, hunters, fishermen, died of accidents or natural causes, all over the US and Canada. In all of the above examples, ranging from 18 to 80 years of age, one can guess that not a single one of these people woke up that morning, knowing that it would be their last day on earth, or how it would happen.

Statisticians calculate that on average, about 155,000 people die, every day, around the world. It’s the normal and inevitable conclusion for all of us in the physical world, but the question is, are we ready for what will be required of us after death?

Romans 14:10-12

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.