Be prepared For Jesus' Return
I told my youngest brother once that you can learn something from everything you do. Even if it seems meaningless.
Well here's a story i wanted to share with you all today about the kingdom of God. First i will tell you a story of what happened to me today.
I went to work today and i work at a car rentals in an airport location. I'm what they call a "counter agent" and i make sure things are in order and i rent people our cars and explain the policy and make sure the customers understand the responsibilities they have when renting a car.
In order to even rent a car, the first thing i check for before i even quote someone a rate or use a reservation that a customer has set up is if they qualify to even rent a vehicle.
By qualify i mean; do they have a valid drivers license and a major credit card that matchs (meaning the driver of the vehicle has to be present and has to pay for the vehicle with his/her card.) No debit cards unless they are flying out of the airport and can prove it by showing me their flight itinerary. If that is in order than i go into actually checking prices and getting them going on renting a vehicle.
Now this typically goes smoothly and i get them going as fast as possible, but sometimes i have customers that don't even qualify.
The customers that don't even qualify is where my story begins.
I had a customer today that came up to the counter expecting to rent a vehicle. She handed me her drivers license and told me her last name so that i can look it up in the system. As i was pulling up her reservation i asked her if she can provide me with the credit card that she wanted to use for this transaction, and she did. she took out her card and handed it to me.
I took the card and glanced at it. The first thing that i noticed was that it didn't have her name on it. So i asked her if she had a credit card in her name and she replied with "That is my card".
Again i asked if she had another card with her name printed on the card because i can't use a card with no name on it.
Again she replied with "That is my card. It's just a temporary card for now while my real card comes in the mail which will take about 5 days."
I handed her the card and licence back and said that "I am sorry but i need a credit card with your name printed on it. I can't accept this with no name". The card instead of displaying her name just had "Preferred Customer" on it.
The customer than gets frustrated that i wont accept her card and starts asking for a manager or someone to talk to and says that this is ridiculous and she has to have this car and so on.
I then told her "The manager is not here today. You can talk to me. I'm the only one here."
Again she's frustrated and says that it's her card and she just hasn't received her other card in the mail and also that i'm looking at her like she's dumb.
To be honest i could have made a more friendlier appearance but the problem is that i run into this so often and there is nothing i can do if the customers don't have what is required. I did also give off a little attitude which i shouldn't have and tried to correct through out this moment.
I tell her again that i can't use the card because my policy doesn't allow me to and then i go into explaining why and the legal issues that it might cause if i did use her card.
So she finally calms down a bit and asked what she can do now and i directed her to the "information desk" where she can make phone calls to taxis and hotels if needed.
She finally leaves and apologies some-what and goes to the information desk.
A few minutes later or so she returns and asked if i can use her card and if she can just show me her real card in 5 days when it arrived but i declined because i needed a card at that moment with her name on it. I let her use my counter phone afterwards so she can make a personal call because she had no cell phone with her and the information desk phone doesn't allow personal calls. She finds a ride and leaves the airport. Thus ending this story...
Now...
The reason i decided to share this story is because i went home after this and stepped into my closet (which i love to pray in often and just talk with God) and i was asking God to help me today because i felt a little spiritually drained and wanted to be filled with his presence.
He reminded me of this situation and made me realize that this can be interpreted into the kingdom of God.
What i mean by this is that in order for a person to enter into the kingdom of God, they need to be qualified in a sense. now i don't mean they have to be perfect or show works or anything like that. Don't get me wrong please. This has nothing to do with works. But it's more of what will happen on judgement day.
Everyone will come before God on judgement day and be accountable for their actions and the way they lived and their relationship with God and so forth. And by "qualified" i mean those people who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and have known him to be their Savior but not only that. If you believe in Jesus, You have to Obey him. Jesus himself said"
"If you love me, Keep my commands"
John 14:15
And also:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 7:21
And again he says:
"So why do you keep calling me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say?"
Luke 6:46
In these verses we see that not everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. Or as i'm putting it.. in this sense "Qualified" to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I use the word qualify because it's the easiest term i can think of at this moment.
So because in my story the customer was not qualified, she could not rent a vehicle. Same goes for the kingdom of God. If we don't qualify, we can't enter no matter how badly we want to try to explain ourselves.
So how do we go to become qualified?
Well i'm certainly not gonna give you a super formula that will get you qualified for sure if you follow steps 1-5 perfectly. But i will tell you what i have learned in life.
Well one thing i want to say is "Be Prepared"...
You need to be ready for Jesus' return. You don't want to be caught off guard when he comes back to take his people. It's like the story of the 10 young women. 5 were wise and ready for the man who is to be married and 5 were foolish. (you can read this in Matthew 25:1-13)
The wise women took their lamps and a jar of oil and the foolish women only took their lamps with no jar of oil. They fell asleep because the groom was taking a while but when they woke up because he was near, they waited for him. The 5 foolish women who didn't bring a jar of oil asked the 5 wise women for a bit of their oil but the wise women said no because then we will all not have enough and suggested they go and buy some at the store. So the 5 foolish women did and by the time they came back, the groom had arrived and those who were ready entered and the door was shut.
The 5 foolish women were too late and were outside the door asking for the door to be open so they can enter but the one standing at the door said "I don't know you".
In life we often are late and unprepared for things and we think nothing of it. We are late for work, school, church, parties, gatherings and it's as if everything is still always ok.
But when we are late or unprepared for important events like a huge interview where we want the job, It can cost you the opportunity to qualify for the job. The manager that was about to interview you might already have a set mindset of you that you most likely don't care as much for this position or that you are constantly late to things and this might affect your work.
Already starting off pretty badly. Little jobs like fast foods or small retail stores might not care as much but if you were going to meet the president of the united states.. being late or unprepared might just ruin you.
Same for the kingdom of God. If we are unprepared like the foolish women or the story of the women who wanted to rent a car from me, you don't get to just waltz in like nothing. It will cost you!
If our world can be so strict at times for things like a job, how much more will God be strict on being prepared? He gives you years and years to prepare.
How old are you now? Because that's how much time he's already given you. How long ago did Jesus rise from the grave and returned to heaven? That's how much patience God had on the world already. And at this moment he's still patient but the time is nearing. It won't last forever. Either Jesus will finally return, or you will die and that will end your opportunity to prepare.
If you are not prepared for his return, it doesn't matter now much you try to explain yourself or plead with him, God will not let you into heaven. You can bang at the gates of heaven but God will just say "Sorry i do not know you".
So start seeking God with all your heart and soul and he will reveal himself to you and will teach you how you can be prepared for him coming and how to build your relationship with him.
God bless you everyone and i hope this blog helped you understand a little more about how patient and graceful our God is. He's waiting for you!
Grace and Peace with you all! and Thank you for reading! God bless you!
TheLastReformation.com Check out the Pioneer lessons on Youtube
Well here's a story i wanted to share with you all today about the kingdom of God. First i will tell you a story of what happened to me today.
I went to work today and i work at a car rentals in an airport location. I'm what they call a "counter agent" and i make sure things are in order and i rent people our cars and explain the policy and make sure the customers understand the responsibilities they have when renting a car.
In order to even rent a car, the first thing i check for before i even quote someone a rate or use a reservation that a customer has set up is if they qualify to even rent a vehicle.
By qualify i mean; do they have a valid drivers license and a major credit card that matchs (meaning the driver of the vehicle has to be present and has to pay for the vehicle with his/her card.) No debit cards unless they are flying out of the airport and can prove it by showing me their flight itinerary. If that is in order than i go into actually checking prices and getting them going on renting a vehicle.
Now this typically goes smoothly and i get them going as fast as possible, but sometimes i have customers that don't even qualify.
The customers that don't even qualify is where my story begins.
I had a customer today that came up to the counter expecting to rent a vehicle. She handed me her drivers license and told me her last name so that i can look it up in the system. As i was pulling up her reservation i asked her if she can provide me with the credit card that she wanted to use for this transaction, and she did. she took out her card and handed it to me.
I took the card and glanced at it. The first thing that i noticed was that it didn't have her name on it. So i asked her if she had a credit card in her name and she replied with "That is my card".
Again i asked if she had another card with her name printed on the card because i can't use a card with no name on it.
Again she replied with "That is my card. It's just a temporary card for now while my real card comes in the mail which will take about 5 days."
I handed her the card and licence back and said that "I am sorry but i need a credit card with your name printed on it. I can't accept this with no name". The card instead of displaying her name just had "Preferred Customer" on it.
The customer than gets frustrated that i wont accept her card and starts asking for a manager or someone to talk to and says that this is ridiculous and she has to have this car and so on.
I then told her "The manager is not here today. You can talk to me. I'm the only one here."
Again she's frustrated and says that it's her card and she just hasn't received her other card in the mail and also that i'm looking at her like she's dumb.
To be honest i could have made a more friendlier appearance but the problem is that i run into this so often and there is nothing i can do if the customers don't have what is required. I did also give off a little attitude which i shouldn't have and tried to correct through out this moment.
I tell her again that i can't use the card because my policy doesn't allow me to and then i go into explaining why and the legal issues that it might cause if i did use her card.
So she finally calms down a bit and asked what she can do now and i directed her to the "information desk" where she can make phone calls to taxis and hotels if needed.
She finally leaves and apologies some-what and goes to the information desk.
A few minutes later or so she returns and asked if i can use her card and if she can just show me her real card in 5 days when it arrived but i declined because i needed a card at that moment with her name on it. I let her use my counter phone afterwards so she can make a personal call because she had no cell phone with her and the information desk phone doesn't allow personal calls. She finds a ride and leaves the airport. Thus ending this story...
Now...
The reason i decided to share this story is because i went home after this and stepped into my closet (which i love to pray in often and just talk with God) and i was asking God to help me today because i felt a little spiritually drained and wanted to be filled with his presence.
He reminded me of this situation and made me realize that this can be interpreted into the kingdom of God.
What i mean by this is that in order for a person to enter into the kingdom of God, they need to be qualified in a sense. now i don't mean they have to be perfect or show works or anything like that. Don't get me wrong please. This has nothing to do with works. But it's more of what will happen on judgement day.
Everyone will come before God on judgement day and be accountable for their actions and the way they lived and their relationship with God and so forth. And by "qualified" i mean those people who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and have known him to be their Savior but not only that. If you believe in Jesus, You have to Obey him. Jesus himself said"
"If you love me, Keep my commands"
John 14:15
And also:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 7:21
And again he says:
"So why do you keep calling me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say?"
Luke 6:46
In these verses we see that not everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. Or as i'm putting it.. in this sense "Qualified" to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I use the word qualify because it's the easiest term i can think of at this moment.
So because in my story the customer was not qualified, she could not rent a vehicle. Same goes for the kingdom of God. If we don't qualify, we can't enter no matter how badly we want to try to explain ourselves.
So how do we go to become qualified?
Well i'm certainly not gonna give you a super formula that will get you qualified for sure if you follow steps 1-5 perfectly. But i will tell you what i have learned in life.
Well one thing i want to say is "Be Prepared"...
You need to be ready for Jesus' return. You don't want to be caught off guard when he comes back to take his people. It's like the story of the 10 young women. 5 were wise and ready for the man who is to be married and 5 were foolish. (you can read this in Matthew 25:1-13)
The wise women took their lamps and a jar of oil and the foolish women only took their lamps with no jar of oil. They fell asleep because the groom was taking a while but when they woke up because he was near, they waited for him. The 5 foolish women who didn't bring a jar of oil asked the 5 wise women for a bit of their oil but the wise women said no because then we will all not have enough and suggested they go and buy some at the store. So the 5 foolish women did and by the time they came back, the groom had arrived and those who were ready entered and the door was shut.
The 5 foolish women were too late and were outside the door asking for the door to be open so they can enter but the one standing at the door said "I don't know you".
In life we often are late and unprepared for things and we think nothing of it. We are late for work, school, church, parties, gatherings and it's as if everything is still always ok.
But when we are late or unprepared for important events like a huge interview where we want the job, It can cost you the opportunity to qualify for the job. The manager that was about to interview you might already have a set mindset of you that you most likely don't care as much for this position or that you are constantly late to things and this might affect your work.
Already starting off pretty badly. Little jobs like fast foods or small retail stores might not care as much but if you were going to meet the president of the united states.. being late or unprepared might just ruin you.
Same for the kingdom of God. If we are unprepared like the foolish women or the story of the women who wanted to rent a car from me, you don't get to just waltz in like nothing. It will cost you!
If our world can be so strict at times for things like a job, how much more will God be strict on being prepared? He gives you years and years to prepare.
How old are you now? Because that's how much time he's already given you. How long ago did Jesus rise from the grave and returned to heaven? That's how much patience God had on the world already. And at this moment he's still patient but the time is nearing. It won't last forever. Either Jesus will finally return, or you will die and that will end your opportunity to prepare.
If you are not prepared for his return, it doesn't matter now much you try to explain yourself or plead with him, God will not let you into heaven. You can bang at the gates of heaven but God will just say "Sorry i do not know you".
So start seeking God with all your heart and soul and he will reveal himself to you and will teach you how you can be prepared for him coming and how to build your relationship with him.
God bless you everyone and i hope this blog helped you understand a little more about how patient and graceful our God is. He's waiting for you!
Grace and Peace with you all! and Thank you for reading! God bless you!
TheLastReformation.com Check out the Pioneer lessons on Youtube
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