Just One More...

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peters 3:9

Ever since I was a small child I have heard people say, "We're in the end times. Jesus is coming back soon."

As a 12 year old I watched our nation panic as the new millennium approached and more than ever the church declared that Christ would return.

Now 18 years removed from the Y2K scare, I still hear the same words spoken. Whether with callus certainty and a hopeless sigh or with a great shout of joy, my heart has been ever increasingly grieved by these simple statements.

For has anyone stopped to consider what they are saying? And what it truly means?

I love Jesus more than life itself. He has given His life for mine and He IS my life! I delight in the day I will see Him face to face, but as for the end of the world I pray, "Father, please, not just yet."

People say they want Jesus to come back and bring an end to all this destruction, pain, and suffering, but have you considered that for those who have not chosen Christ, they're destruction, pain, and suffering will have only just begun... for all eternity. "Father, please, not just yet." 

Once Christ comes back that's it. No more opportunities to preach the Gospel, no more hours to pray for salvation to come to the lost hearts around you, no more chances to give up your life so that someone else may live. "Father, please, not just yet."

Have we grown so hopeless at this evil age that we have forgotten why we're here? 

I have the rest of forever to live in peace, in the glorious place prepared for me where all suffering, pain, and death are no more. But I only have this one moment here. 

I want another opportunity to preach the Gospel! I want another hour to pray for salvation to come to these lost hearts around me! I want to give up my life so that someone else may live!

I am not willing that any should perish! Please, use my life to bring more unto repentance!

Nothing makes me weep as does the thought of eternal separation from Christ. I will gladly remain a light in this world of darkness and pain if it means that one more life can be saved.

Jesus will come back someday, but my hearts tearful prayer is still this, "Father, please, not just yet."

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

John 4:35