In Matthew 24, Jesus tells of signs of His return and the need for His servants to be aware of the times and to be focused on the duties the Master has given. \u201cIt will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns\u2026 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come\u2026 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells three parables that illustrate how to \u2018watch\u2019 and \u2018be ready\u2019 for His return. The story of the ten virgins reveals that some will be foolishly unprepared when the bridegroom returns. The wise ones, though, will be ready with a good supply of oil as they wait. In Scripture, oil often represents the Spirit of God, so the important questions are: Am I full of the Spirit, keeping my mind on the things of God and my eyes on Jesus? Or am I living selfishly, wasting my time on the trivial with little attention to eternal matters?<\/p>\n
Next, Jesus tells the story of three servants entrusted with gifts as the master went away on a journey. Upon his return, the master held a day of accounting where the servants proved themselves. Two of the servants had doubled their talents and received praise and honor from the master with promise of further reward. The third servant was cast into darkness for burying his talent due to fear and laziness. Am I using what the Master has entrusted to me? Or am I living a lazy, timid life?<\/p>\n
Finally, Jesus tells the story of the separation of the sheep and goats. Those who clothed and visited and fed and loved the ‘least of these’ were welcomed into the Kingdom. And those who did not clothe or visit or feed or love the poor in their time on earth were sent away to eternal punishment. Am I recognizing Jesus in the faces of the hungry and the homeless and the lonely and the sick\u2026 and am I serving Him?<\/p>\n
Jesus tells us to live ready. We cannot do this without Him, so we heed the apostles\u2019 teaching: \u201cBe filled with the Spirit.\u201d Jesus also tells us to use what we have been given. \u201cFrom everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.\u201d And Jesus tells us to love everyone, for as we love others, we love Him. \u201cThis is my command: Love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBe dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.\u201d Luke 12:35-37<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Matthew 24, Jesus tells of signs of His return and the need for His servants to be aware of the times and to be focused on the duties the Master has given. \u201cIt will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns\u2026 Therefore keep watch, because you do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judgment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions\/2201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}