“Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Luke 12:35 (NAS)

Read Luke 12:35-40

I’m in the camp of those who are settled in their belief that the Lord’s return is imminent. I’ve maintained this view for more than forty years now, which reveals the underlying problem. You are convinced that scripture teaches that the Lord could return at any moment, and it is replete with indicators of the setting into which he might come, but a lifetime can be exhausted thinking maybe it’s today, but it wasn’t!

Despite the long wait, we must be at the ready. We dare not be lulled into complacency and caught unaware! We should be dressed (“with loins girded”) at all times for the occasion, with lights on, engaged in the Master’s business, near the door to be ready to open it when he comes.

Stewards, i.e., pastors, elders, too are held responsible to make sure the servants are fully engaged in the work when the knock on the door comes. See Luke 12:41-48

By the way, there’s a crown available for those who “haved loved his appearing.”

In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8

As a brief aside, I have sensed a dramatic global shift in past months, that the restraining hand of God has been withdrawn in every quarter. The sense of prevailing and permeating evil is palpable. The inevitability of God’s judgment is as it was in Noah’s day. It doesn’t seem we can go any lower.