Advent---Preparing for Every Next Moment

[HKHaugan]

We have been making the case for us to be open to the unexpected to happen at any next moment. The final big unexpected event is expected and that is the Second Coming of Jesus. While we expect Him to return we don’t know when to expect Him, what it will be like and what happens after that. We just know He is coming for us to bring us home. It could happen unexpectedly at any next moment. “You also must be ready. The Son of Man will come at an hour when you don't expect him (Lk.12:40 NIRV)." So what does that mean for us? Three things: preparation, prayer and practice. Today we’ll speak to preparation. The next two segments will deal with prayer and practice.

First, be prepared.
Here is where we have a problem. We are so caught up in the stuff of where we are like home, family, job, health, friends and the world around us. Preparation is not on the top of our agenda, the notes we place on our iceboxes of things to do, the things to remember and get done today. Jesus is very direct when He tells us in Matt. 6 to seek His Kingdom first and all these things will be added unto us.

It’s a matter of shifting from where we are being consumed by temporary issues to being led by the Spirit. Changing agendas from what I think has to be done right now to what God thinks has to be done right now. It’s shifting from an agenda that ends up solving temporary issues to one that gives us an eternal frame of reference for the temporary. Remember the Mary/Martha episode when Jesus was invited to dinner at their home? Martha was consumed with temporary issues of dinner preparations and Mary chose to be with Jesus, relationship and spiritual issues. Note Jesus’ response. He didn’t chastise or condemn Martha. He lovingly suggests she consider the context of for whom she was giving the dinner, what He represented and what He had to say.

Paul, when talking about our lives being lived in jars of clay says this, “So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever (2Cor.4:16-18 The Message).” “We don't give up. Our bodies are becoming weaker and weaker. But our spirits are being renewed day by day. Our troubles are small. They last only for a short time. But they are earning for us a glory that will last forever. It is greater than all our troubles. So we don't spend all our time looking at what we can see. Instead, we look at what we can't see. What can be seen lasts only a short time. But what can't be seen will last forever (NIRV).”

The discipline of being Scripture-conscious, Scripture-indulging, Scripture-centered and thinking Scripturally allows the Spirit to reorient our minds, hearts and spirits. Jesus said this about His Word, “Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will never pass away (Mt.24:35 NIRV).”

It is the eternal Word of God that gives our minds the key to placing eternity and its thoughts, insights and disciplined thinking, first. The Word is the master key to the Kingdom. It is the Holy Spirit working through the Word that shapes how we respond to every next moment and every next moment is where we live all the time. And the Holy Spirit uses the Word uniquely in each individual’s mind and heart. It may be just a word, a sentence or a theme in a story and it will become the basis for the response needed for that ‘every next moment.’ Think about Jesus as the One who is coming back and meeting you in ‘every next moment.’