Be Aware, Be Prepared, & Plan Accordingly For Events – & In Performing The Great Commission

Word-Of-The-Day:  “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:14)

It is unfortunate, but most of our current news is sensationalized by what I call ‘body counts’.  Some of it is driven by agenda or politics, but ‘mass casualty events’ reports are growing in the news we receive.  Most of the stories are those in previously undisturbed neighborhoods, not generally known until such an event occurs. 

Uvalde, Texas and Parkland, Florida are two locations that most people would not necessarily know became known when horrific school shootings took place.  We believed churches were safe havens, until the Jewish synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and the predominately black community church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, and yesterday’s Mormon church shooting and arson in Grand Blanc, Michigan all took place.

This is a call for all of us who are Christian to ‘be aware, be prepared, and plan accordingly’, whether here in southwest Florida or anywhere in the nation.  Though the statistics still are in the favor of such events not happening, the facts events like these can happen. 

This is not a scare tactic, but a call for all of us to be aware of our surroundings, to have a game plan on how to act or react to scenarios, and decide what to do now, while nothing is currently happening, so you know what to do to do when something does happen.  We pray that the statistics continue in our favor and indeed nothing like the above tragedies happen to us, but we cannot ignore the possibility it could happen.

The real statistic that none of us can ignore, however, is that 100% (except for the two who God took away alive, Enoch and Elijah) of the estimated 20 billion people who once lived or are living since Genesis who have been born, have DIED or will DIE a physical death.  Whether it is from a such an event mentioned, above or normal wear & tear, disease, accident, or an angry spouse, the reality is at some point we will all walk through that door and leave this life into death. 

20 billion other people have or will face this, so you are not alone.  Most people have a sense of eternal life after our physical death; some do believe that death is the end and there is nothing afterwards, but most have a sense that we will keep going on.  But really what will eternity be?  To the Christian, eternal life has two possibilities; with Christ in Heaven, or without Christ in Hell (and eventually in the Lake of Fire).

We often think of ‘the Day of the Lord’ as His return to gather His people in the Rapture, but I have a different take on this.  The ‘Day of the Lord‘ is every day, a day that the 20 billion of us have had or will be in, that day in ‘the Valley of Decision‘.  The day we have to choose whether to follow Jesus Christ or to choose not to follow Him and be separated from Him. 

As long as one lives, there are opportunities to have a change of heart and follow Christ.  It’s necessary to prepare for possible events, but we have to be prepared for that one known event – death and the facing of Jesus in Judgement.  We must be prepared ourselves and to prepare others through the Gospel.

It took me several years from the evening I closed the garage door in a gentleman’s face coming to provide me the Gospel, to that one day where I decided to follow Jesus.  I was fortunate that I had multiple days to choose.  Some are not afforded multiple opportunities, it’s ‘one and done’. 

This is why it is so important to understand that we as Christians need to be strong, in Christ and for Christ, to share His love and His Gospel to others, sometimes over and over until the spiritual 2×4 comes out and smacks them in the head, like Saul’s ‘Road-to-Damascus’ experience – where Saul got hit so hard by Jesus, he temporarily went blind, and the ‘S’ in Saul got knocked back to being a ‘P’ for Paul.

I stress that now is the day for us Christians to go and act upon the Great Commission, sharing the Gospel to others, to help our fellow Christians and to be aware, be prepared and plan accordingly, so as situations occur where the world appears to be falling apart, we Christians can stand strong, upon the foundation of His Word and be the attraction for those in the Valley of Decision to come to.  When they come, we can help them physically, and we can also introduce them to the One who can help them eternally.