Readiness for the presence of Christ is unlike other passages in believing experience. It includes a measure of happiness. While much is made of the certainty of Christ’s coming and the demand that people prepare for the event so as to affirm our assignments in the current situation. What readiness looks like should not elude us and much of our dismay and anxiety may be reduced if Christ’s own words become the prism through which we see our happiness at that grand event.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Matthew 24:45-46

This saying pins parousia happiness to

1. persons (servants) in authority
2. giving food in due season

Meanwhile, many are wasting time reaching for sinlessness, miracle-working power or status, and treating their fellow householders as if

• there is a lot of time [ My lord delayeth his coming; ] And shall begin to smite his fellowservants,
• personal relationships rest on eating and drinking [and to eat and drink with the drunken; Matthew 24:48-49]

Prying the irrelevant away from our Christian highways is not a priority yet the evidence that we need to keep doing so is abundant. God does not save us then threaten us with death. That would make salvation less than a gift. In addition to divine gifts being irrevocable (Romans 11:29), God has committed himself to be with us (Heb 13:5, Mat. 123). It is God incarnate who distributes grace and mercy. We are God’s children, not on trial, and not under tutors and governors. Eternal life and adoption are not loans.

Leave those things alone that do not fit grace, mercy and peace

It is easy to see how the fabulous attracts attention even in the Bible. All Israel needed was the ark to host her enemies, until not. All the church needs are eyewitnesses until not. The church needs no ark and does not exist where all we have is fable and magical wonder. The all-important word is authentic in the mouths of genuine witnesses.

One way to show that you deserve no air time is to begin and end your testimony with “our fathers”. When the Jewish leaders investigated John the Baptist they did not like what they heard. John and Jesus were calling “last lap” and “time’s up”. Time had run out for the Jewish religious system. The axe was at the root of the tree. The thought that someone and something other than Moses and the Law were God’s priority was terrifying and it held the only exit from death valley.

The thing about ancestry in New Testament Judea was its use as a cover for everything. “We are Abraham’s descendants” was the answer when

[ ] Bondage is mentioned. They answered him, We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, You will become free? John 8:33

[ ] Hypocrisy is suspected. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Matthew 3:7

[ ] Truth is at stake. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. John 8:51

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The ancestors of the Jewish people were idolaters. Make no mistake about it. They ate, drank and rose up to dance their way around the covenant.

What did idolatry look like? 1 Corinthians 10:7 is precise.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

How much of our worship today is eating, drinking, and dancing?

Exodus 32:6-8

And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

And the Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

How many of our priorities are in the same box?

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith

1. by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons
2. through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
3. who forbid marriage
4. and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 1 Timothy 4:1-3

Who does this? Who is in death valley?

To be unaware of certain kingdom matters is not the same as being deceived. All believers grow in grace but those who designate any set of teachings as exclusively Christ’s priorities are definitely not among the elect.

The devil the beast deceive the whole world. The elect are rescued from their grasp.

We have seen that this is how a semi-literate clergy keeps people in the dark and captive to their shallow slogans, quasi-prophecies, elitist goals, and miracles. They pick some (even irrelevant) biblical ideas and make a great fuss about them and convince people to join them. Very often the convincing is done through signs and wonders – often contrived- and not through Christian interpretation of the texts.

We have heard the one about “victory over sin” as if Christ did not come to save us from sin. Here are a few other distractions.

• God’s inability to resurrect believers who eat animal flesh, as if food and drink command us to God.

• Gentiles are now clean but the animals on the Mosaic taboo list are not
• The new covenant is the old (Sinai) covenant

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Matthew 24:24

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. John 10:5

Sometimes the best foot forward turns out to be the same old yesterday. If God put the moon under your foot why does it dominate your head?

There is an eclipsed moon in the heavenly sign of Revelation 12 and people liked the dim moonlight of their tradition.

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (12:1)

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? Galatians 4:9

Luke 11:48 tells us that yesterday’s errors were with the proud people of New Testament times in Palestine.

So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.

Peter (2:2:22) puts in a knowing comment on this subject too. With all the evidence of Israelite progress why would anyone put any confidence in Moses and the prophets?

What the true proverb says has happened to them: The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.