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The question of how much time we have before the Lord comes back to receive His church has been asked ever since the day Jesus went back up into heaven. The answer is that no one really knows. There have been many guesses throughout time, but apparently those guesses were wrong. Here is what we do know: we are closer today than yesterday.

We look through God’s word looking for clues, for some idea of how much longer we have. What the Bible does tell us is that everything that needs to happen for the rapture to occur has happened. The question then is, now what? Romans 13:11, “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”

The call is for followers of Christ to awaken from our spiritual slumber and make sure we are about the Father’s business. Paul makes it very clear that our salvation, our homecoming, is getting nearer than we really think. This means that we must be on the alert, making sure that we live our lives according to what we say we believe. This must be so because there are still so many that are lost in this world and still in need of the Savior. Verse 12 gives us a sobering reminder, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” We are given the challenge of being serious about our faith and not thinking that we have next year, next month, or even tomorrow. We must always be prepared for the return of the King. We are representatives of the Lord, and that must be about shedding light into the darkness of the world.

I know that it can be easy to fall into the drudgery of everyday life and find ourselves being just a Sunday Christian, but wouldn’t it be very sad to one day hear the trumpet sound for the rapture and realize that we should have done so much more for the Lord? We should have strived harder to win others to Christ.

Brothers and sisters, the night is almost gone, and soon, very soon, I believe, the Lord Jesus will be coming to get us, so we must all awaken to the call of being light and salt, so Jesus may be seen through our lives.