Mark 13:24-37 contains a remarkable word from Jesus. Three times He calls the people either to “Keep on the alert” or “be on the alert” (vs. 33, 35, 37). These things He says in the context of a promise that the Son of Man is going to come “with great power and glory” (vs. 26). At that time He says He will “gather together His elect from the four winds” (vs. 27).

Sounds like a very special day in history, doesn’t it! One you won’t want to miss. It will be a day of great joy from some, a day reckoning for some, and a great day of revelation when the world will know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. And, what do we do until that day? We stay alert. The One who comes into human history as an infant born in a stable will come again into human history as the One before whom all history bows. It’s going to be quite a day.

The baby born in Bethlehem, now an adult, ready to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, tells His people to stay alert, not to be lulled into complacency, and always to remember that even though heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away (vs.31).

In these days when everything Christian is under assault and Jesus is being marginalized into unimportance, be alert and don’t buy into the lies and fabrications. The world will do to Jesus what it has always done to Jesus. It will nail Him to a cross. And, Jesus will do what He always does. He will burst out of the tombs into which the world lays Him, and He will come forth alive, embracing with redemptive love the very world that killed Him.

Whether or not the world will receive His love is its issue, but make no mistake about it; while heaven and earth are passing away, His “words will not pass away.”

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus indicates to us that those who know Him best will be the most involved in works of mercy and compassion. He reveals how important it is to him for His followers to do certain kinds of things such as feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, embrace the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and to come alongside the prisoner. Holiness in action, that is the lifestyle to which He calls His people.

Interestingly enough, Jesus equates these works of mercy as ministry to Him. When we embrace others we are embracing Jesus. When we extend mercy to others it is as if we are extending mercy to Jesus. And, get this; many times we don’t even know it is Jesus we are touching by our act of love.

What a freeing thought. We live out our lives in the spirit of holiness, a spirit that is so gracious that we treat everybody the same and all people as if they were Jesus to us. It’s real, honest and non-discriminatory outrageous grace lavished on others. Why would we do this? Because this is the way God has come to us. Outrageous grace has been lavished on us by the life of Jesus and so we lavish grace on others.

It makes perfect sense. Often we sing a song that says, “O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer.” Well, Jesus is about outrageous grace, extended to whomever crosses His path. O to be like Thee? Really? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit the prisoner. We are never more like Jesus than when we do these kinds of things. And, remember, He said, “to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).

Don’t you just love the Christian life and the fact that when we embrace others we are embracing Jesus? When we extend mercy to others it is as if we are extending mercy to Jesus Christ Himself.

In I Chronicles 12:32 we learn of certain men who “understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” They were able to assess the times and conditions facing Israel and offer words of true wisdom and counsel. Where are those “sons of Issachar” today?

What times these are in which we live, times known for many things: uncertainty, ideological worlds in blatant contrast, violence, tension. Call it what we will, the truth is that the world seems to be split down the middle on just about every issue that comes before it.

Some believers are convinced that things are so bad now that Jesus must be coming back very, very soon. I’m not so sure; and even if He is I pray He might tarry a bit longer because the world is in desperate need of His grace.

Be that as it may, in I Thessalonians Paul says, “as to the times and the epochs …let us be alert and sober” (vs. 1, 6). We don’t know when Jesus is coming back, just that He is coming back. This should not frighten us or destabilize our lives. In fact, Paul said of this upcoming and certain event, “Encourage one another and build up one another…” (vs. 11).

Don’t be lulled to sleep or overly preoccupied with when Jesus might come back. Just know that He is, and then go about your life as sons and daughters “of light” (vs. 6). Live and move and have your being in the Lordship of Jesus, having “put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (vs. 8).

What do we have to say to a stressed out world? We say, “Jesus.” We live the life of faith and hope and love, leaning on the One who is Lord of heaven and earth. We live for the One who died for us” (vs.10). So, be alert and sober, and encourage one another” (vs. 6, 11). It is a great time to be alive for Christ.

I am intrigued with the politically incorrect posture popularly referred to as intolerance. In this tightly constructed worldview intolerance is the new unforgivable sin, punishable by character assassination or disenfranchisement from the community or, my favorite, made to look like an idiot in the eyes of the so-called tolerant.

In Matthew 25:1-13 we have ourselves a problem. We have Jesus exercising intolerance. How? He says that in this world there are foolish and prudent people. He drew a line and said basically if people were on one side of the line they were foolish and if they were on the other side of the line they were prudent. That is a value judgment on His part, separating people on they basis of their judgments, deeds and attitudes thus making the Savior of the world intolerant.

Or is He? Perhaps He is being truthful and that truth itself draws lines. Perhaps people in this world make decisions that in the end disconnect them from God. They are disconnected not because others are in tolerant. but because they, themselves, draw the line, and disenfranchise themselves.

Take note, too, that in Jesus parable both the foolish and the wise are invited to the wedding feast. No one is left out except those who foolishly refuse to the things necessary to be a part of the festivities. When the party started the foolish were out shopping, preoccupied with activities born of their foolishness.

Moral? “Be on the alert, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13). The Bridegroom is on His way. When He gets here will we be ready for Him or out shopping for what we should have already had? Wise or foolish, that’s our issue.

The passionate desire of the apostle Paul for the church in Thessalonica was, in his words to them, “that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (I Thes. 2:12). Of this longing for them he said, “we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children” (I Thes. 2:11).

Christians are a called people. They are called out of one world into God’s “own kingdom and glory.” Can we get our minds around this? In this world of ours Christians are called to live as citizens of God’s kingdom and glory. This is what defines being Christian.

God has spoken His world into our lives and, like the believers in Thessalonica, by a grace we most likely don’t fully understand, we “accepted it…for what it really is, the word of God” (I Thes 2:13). That word lives in us and, as Paul says, “performs its work in you who believe” (I Thes. 2:13).

Our lives, as Christians, are being worked on by the living Word of God. Is this not a marvelous thing? God’s word “performs its work,” in a hundred or more different ways. We call it mercy, hope, love, power, divine intervention, comfort. Call it what we will in the end it is simply and profoundly, “Amazing Grace.”

What was it the poet said? “O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.”