It’s High Time
What a great day! We saw our highest Sunday School attendance since April and enjoyed a wonderful day with Bro. Grady Higgs. The morning message was especially impactful to me personally. There are times when the Pastor needs to hear some bold preaching and it was “high time” for me as Bro. Grady expounded Romans 13:11-14. I was moved to consider my own shortcomings in the evangelistic arena. So often we think we’re doing okay until God’s Word points out just how much more room for growth we actually have.
Bro. Higgs’ message focused primarily on God’s eternal clock but as I sit tonight reflecting on the passage, the final words are hitting me hard as well, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the lust of the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” This strong admonition is connected with the thought that God’s clock is winding down and we are headed for the Day of the Lord at break-neck speed. In light of God’s timing, we are to make no allowance at all for the lust to have its way.
When we think of “the lusts of the flesh” our minds drift automatically to the deviant and the imure, but think of the “lusts of the flesh” as any inordinate desire for that which is temporal in place of the eternal blessing God intends. How many times do we rationalize, justify, or excuse our sinful attitudes and behaviors so that we can enjoy the moment at the cost of the eternal?
I feel that things have been going well for me, for my family, and for my church in recent times. But today was a wake-up call… literally! Listen again to the words of Paul in this passage, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep…” What is the sleep of the soul but apathy toward our mission and complacency toward the world’s desperate spiritual estate? As Bro. Grady pointed out, this is a time of anxiety, a time of anticipation, and also a time of anguish for the people of God.
In the end, today carried a message of good news. The verse concludes, “for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Look to the sky, redemption draweth nigh! Jesus is coming soon!
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