But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father

A friend of mine put the following up as her status on Facebook last night.

Sept 11th (NewYork) Jan 11th (Haiti) and March 11th (Japan)........Luke 21:10-11 Then Jesus said to his disciples : "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes', famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. 'Jesus says for behold I come quickly,' So ask yourself r u ready?

This friend is a very dear friend of mine. When I saw that she put this up, I just shook my head. I had a hard time and still have a hard time believing that she put this out there. It's a very bold statement and one that can stir up a lot of emotions within people.  

It seems like, to me at least, that when horrible disasters happen in the world that people look for ways to link them together. They look for some kind of sign signaling the second coming of Christ. There are the occasional groups that think that they have it figured out and tell everyone when Christ is coming again causing a panic. I remember that kind of panic when we were approaching the year 2000. I heard so many times that Christ was going to come on New Year's Day 2000........Since I'm able to write this now over 11 years later and you're able to read it, Christ didn't come.  Then they tag on the lines like "will you be ready?" or "are you ready?" to make it seem even more urgent.  It's almost like these people are doing it for shock value. Yes, I understand that they have the right to say whatever they want to say. However, I really think that everyone needs to take those kinds of statements with a grain of salt. I also think that people should look back to scripture in this particular instance.

The second thing that came to mind shortly after reading this friend's status was the Bible verse that says something like no one knows the day or the hour.......so I looked it up.  The particular verse I was thinking of  is Matthew 24:36. I did want to include the entire context though in which this verse is placed.

Matthew 24:20-44
Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.  For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

“If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.

“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

    “Immediately after the distress of those days

   “‘the sun will be darkened,
   and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
 
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
 
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
From: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024:20%20-%2045&version=NIV

Basically, no matter how hard we try, we'll never be able to flat out predict when Christ is going to come again. The text literally says that Christ will come when we aren't expecting him......He'll drop in unannounced.  All we can do is remain ready for that coming. I don't mean ready as in having your home all clean and having all of your life goals accomplished. Jesus won't care if your home is a mess and you didn't get to go bungie jumping with your best friend. I mean that we should constantly live the faith that we profess and not just be Sunday Christians or CEOs (those who attend worship on Christmas, Easter and one other Sunday). We should be living our faith daily. We should be constantly growing within our faith and trying to draw closer to God. We should live by what Christ's teachings and the other teaching of the Bible in our daily lives.

Honestly, we should always be ready because we don't know when He might arrive. We should examine ourselves to see if we are ready but we shouldn't have to worry over it. We should just be able to simply say yes and move on with our personal faith journeies.

Hopefully, those kind of status will cause people to examine their personal faith journey and say that they are right where they feel they should be on their journey. I know that I'm able to say that. How about you?