Watchmen On The Walls Of Our World

I’ll never forget my first guard duty. I drew the midnight watch. Some called it the graveyard shift. It was bitterly cold. The memory of my extreme discomfort still lingers in the corners of my mind. The exhaustion of boot camp. The stress of a demanding and unfamiliar task. The lateness of the hour. The devastating cold and my desire to do well. All these made my fight to stay awake and alert one of the most memorable battles of my young life.

But it was only make belief. Training for the day when I might be called on to stand guard in a real life or death situation. My greatest fear was that I might fall asleep or give an inept or inadequate response to the challenge of those who would test me.

The story of Pearl Harbor clearly illustrates the need for watchmen who are alert and wide awake to the danger of an enemy attack. That infamous surprise attack was only successful because a number of responsible people were obviously asleep on their watch. The culprits ranged all the way down the chain of command; from those who were in command to the lowly officer who ignored the warnings of the operators of a primitive radar system. They had the blood of thousands of sailors, soldiers, airmen and civilians upon their hands.

When I was stationed for a time at Hickam Air Force Base just outside Honolulu during the Korean conflict, my living quarters still bore the pock marks of the strafing of Japanese planes.Just across a green was the large boarded up mess hall where dozens had died when a bomb had fallen in the midst of a sleepy Sunday morning breakfast. Anyone visiting the Battleship Arizona Memorial can still sense the tragedy of hundreds of young lives being snuffed out and their bodies being entombed in a watery grave; all because the watchmen did not give a warning cry. It would seem the ruins of the World Trade Center might also speak eloquently of the need for faithful watchmen on the walls of our world today.

Good and faithful watchmen have always been a scarce commodity. God in His Word places a premium upon spiritual watchmen. The Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel, clearly enunciated the principle that watchmen on the spiritual walls of the world are absolutely responsible to warn the world’s inhabitants of the spiritual danger of rejecting God and His Son.

If we who are called as watchmen and witnesses today go to sleep on the job, the spiritual blood of a lost and dying world will be upon our hands. We are only called to give a certain sound and effective cry. If people do not respond, we will be free of responsibility and will stand with clean hands before our God at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

In light of this awesome and eternal responsibility, may we take our calling as watchmen on the walls of our contemporary world seriously and be ever alert to the forces of darkness that threaten us on every hand. May we always stand ready to cry out and warn those who are lost of the danger of rejecting the Son of God!

Jesus Is Coming Again

Obviously the second coming is one of the most important subjects in the Bible. Enoch, the seventh from Adam spoke of it. So did Job in the oldest book in the Bible. Then every prophet of God focused upon it. About one verse out of twenty-five in the New Testament relates to it in some way. In one sense, the whole of the Old and New Testaments relate to His second coming. God’s time line of dealing with man on earth culminates with this great climatic event. His coming is our blessed hope.

Is Jesus coming again? I believe so. People are thinking about the end of the world today more than ever before. Many books are being written about matters of the end time. Popular secular movies focus on apocalyptic events. New Age gurus with Messiah complexes mix a little fact with a lot of fancy to manipulate followers to participate in terrible, tragic and futile acts. Every earthquake, natural disaster, shocking crime, political fiasco, military conflict, mass famine, threat of worldwide disease plague or terrorism, reminds us of the signs of the end times so clearly outlined by our Saviour.

But even so, it seems His coming will surprise the world. Jesus said that no man knows the time of His coming. He will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. He said, "At an hour when you think not, even so, shall the Son of Man come."

The prophetic clock of God’s eternal time table is ticking. No angel or demon can hinder or stop it’s progress. Man has a date with destiny. God’s eternal purpose will be consummated. No mortal man, priest or potentate, rich or poor, popular or powerful, can stop the movement of the hands of God’s prophetic clock. Every grain of sand trickling through the hour glass of time brings us closer to the end time events predicted in the Word of God. - John White

We cannot stop time, nor should we wish to, but we can put it to good use in the meantime. We can do as the prophet said, "Prepare to meet our God.." We can follow the advice of the wise man and redeem the time. Or as one poet has said, "In time, take time, while time does last. For time is not time, when time is past."

In order to wisely live in these times we are commanded to be watchful. In order to be watchful we need to be informed about future events of the second coming. Since it is appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment, the second coming should be important in our thinking and life. We should start each day with the thought and prayer, "Lord help me live this day in the light of your coming."

Someone has said, "No man lives carelessly whose last thoughts at night or first thoughts in the morning are, "Jesus is coming." We who are Christians should help our lost friends understand what it will be like to be left behind at His coming. Living with an acute awareness of the second coming should move every Christian to be a constant, consistent and compassionate witness of Jesus.

It is significant that after Paul tells us we Christians must all appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where it will be made apparent whether our life has been valuable or worthless in the Lord’s service, that he follows this with this statement, "Therefore knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" I believe this could only imply that we should be deeply concerned and committed to warning the lost of the judgement to come upon those who reject the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. (See II Cor. 5:10-11, I Cor. 3:9-15) Did you ever consider that the only thing or entity we can take from this world to the world to come is the soul of another human being? (Prov. 11:30, Dan. 12:3)

Is There Not A Cause?

What is lacking in the world today is a real committal to a cause. People are without direction. Like ships without rudders, tossed to and fro upon the restless waves by every wind of teaching or philosophy. Apathy permeates every echelon of man’s mundane and material existence. Nothing appears worth living or dying for. The question that leapt to the lips of the shepherd boy, David when he faced Goliath, needs to once more echo among God’s people in our land and in every land upon God’s good earth. The shepherd boy who became the man after God’s own heart cried out, "Is there not a cause?" He then proceeded to do mighty battle in the power of God for the noble cause of the destruction of evil and the preservation of God’s chosen people.

We seem to once again live in a day similar to the catastrophic day following the era of the Judges of Israel. Anarchy prevails and everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes. Which is normally what is wrong in the eyes of an eternally righteous Almighty God. All seek to be captains of their own souls, masters of their own fates, sailing their own ships and rowing their own canoes down the river of life, with no worthwhile spiritual destination or safe harbour in sight.

Even Christians seem to be afflicted with the same deadly malady, as they allow this world and it’s god to establish their standards, select their priorities and set their agenda. The failure of Christians to fully commit to Christ and present themselves as living, dedicated sacrifices to His cause, has led to great confusion in the world.

We are overwhelmed by the moral and ethical crisis threatening to destroy our nation and other nations with cultures previously called Christian. We are confused by the popular philosophies of secular humanism, relativism, situational ethics and post-modernism that have captured the hearts and minds of the masses. We are now seeing a deadly so-called emerging church movement threatening even evangelical Christianity.

We are puzzled by the prevailing promiscuity of our society. We are perplexed when the culture cries, "Assert your rights. If it feels good, do it!"

But God is calling for committal today on the part of His people. He is looking for those who will stand up, speak up and won’t be shut up, no matter how powerful the pressure or painful or embarrassing the world’s rejection. Those who will not cave in or succumb to the ridicule or scorn of their peers, the press or politicians. Those who will not be overly concerned about what the mainline or mainstream will think or say about them.

Those who are more concerned about God’s approval than the acceptance and applause of all the world around them. Yes, God is seeking those who care more about the future of their family, than financial success or failure. Those whose principles are not for purchase at any price. Those who do not mind the world knowing who they are and where they stand. Those will hold the line against accommodation and compromise whatever the cost.

Those who take seriously the words of Christ who said, "No man can serve two masters." Because truly, as has been said, "Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, in the strife "twixt truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side."

Only as people are truly converted and accept the challenge of true discipleship and the calling to commit their life and living to Christ, will the tides of evil that threaten to inundate and overwhelm our world be effectively countered.