Dinner

I had a conversation at dinner tonight about the happiness, fear, desert, gospel, and the end.
What is happiness to you - the question was asked
What do you fear - answers: regret, failure.
I sat back taking in everything that was said by my peers around the table. I sat there searching for words not of what I feared but of how to encourage them how to move them towards the true hope. These are my peers who know Christ. They have taken classes on the Bible, some mission kids, one I know better then the rest and I see fruit in her life... yet their fears are of this world. Still baffled as to what to say the topic changed...
What do you want to do after school - my answer: go.
I did not explain it that simple. I explain where the 10/40 was and what it was. It did not hit me until after all had left the table that two of my peers whom I was talking to grew up on the field yet did not know what the 10/40 was. Again the conversation moved...
You know the passage that talks about when all the nations here then the end will come - yes matthew 24:14
Some say we are in the end times now
I began to comment on how we are in the already but not yet because Jesus came but He will come again. Then on how only the Father knows when the end will come. I made reference to the parable of the ten virgins (Matt 25). This time I posed the question
Will we be ready? - response: that is one of the things that scares me the most, not being ready. if only we all lived like the end was coming
At this point again I sat listening, searching my brain for scripture and words. What should I have said? He IS coming and we don't know when. We are to live like this always ready! The end will come but when the nations know and they don't, it's our responsibility. This is that task we have been given. We need not regret. We need not fear failure if we rely on Jesus Christ! Although none of those words came to mind. Father, I ask you to move within the current generation. May we seek your truth. May we not be swayed by philosophy and empty deceit. May we step up and live in the reality that is, You ARE returning and we don't know when. May we be the laborers to the harvest that is ready. May we live in complete submission to You and You alone. Father may we not be against You but with You gathering Your people (Matthew 12:30).