It's Time To Get Ready

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:44 ESV

Good Morning Girlfriends:

How the time has flown by, it's been five years ago now since my youngest daughter and her friend decided to sign up for the High School Pageant that had been posted. As a mother I wasn't all that fond of my daughter signing up for this event, because they are usually very competitive, and some girls can come out feeling worse than they go into these competitions. Both girls had said that they were only signing up for the experience and for fun, that they were not going to let the Pageant make them someone they were not. The girls were able to invite who they had wanted to come to join in the festivities of the evening, both friends and family were able to attend.

Each of the girls who had signed up, had to meet at designated places during the training, as they had to learn a dance that they would be performing that would go along with a song that had been picked out by the women who were putting the pageant. Each girl that participated, was recorded as they had to tell a little about themselves, like their names, where they lived, who their family was, how many people were in their family and some hobbies they enjoyed doing. This recording would play as each one would do a walk on stage sporting an outfit of their choice for the walk.

As the evening went on, each girl had to present a hobby they were interested in, as they talked about the subject they had chosen, my daughter's hobby was creating a beautiful canvas on women's faces, which was the art of applying make up, in which a friend of mine and myself had been the models in which she had explained each step that was taken to get us to look the way we did, there was before and after pictures.

Near the end, each girl was asked a series of questions, some personal and some about the current events that were going on, and they were judged on how they responded. Then it came down to one last parade around the stage as they were dressed in their lovely gowns, as the judged had to make their final decision who would be crowned.

Girlfriends, looking back at this, I realized that there was much more that goes into a pageant then what one would think. The reason why I had not really wanted my daughter to sign up, was because I didn't want there to be any disappointment if she had not been chosen. Maybe that's why I had felt to ask the question that I did that afternoon sitting at our kitchen table. I held up my brush as though it were a micro phone asking the two girls the question..."How will you feel if you are not chosen to wear the crown?" To my amazement a beautiful response came back to me from my daughter as she responded, "Winning or not, does not define who I am as a person." I have to say that I was one proud mama right there.

Esther was one among many young girls that had been chosen from different places, that would have a chance to meet with the king to see which one would be chosen to be the next one to be queen. They too had to go through many months of preparation using special oils for beauty treatments, followed by six months of using special perfumes and ointments, then each girl was given the choice of clothing and jewelry to wear when they had their individual time with the king. Esther held a special place in the king's heart, being the one that he had chosen to take as his queen, he saw a rare beauty within her aside all of the preparation that had been given, it was there right from the start. It was stated that Esther was said to be both beautiful and lovely found in Esther 2:7, the king did not believe that she had needed to add one thing to her own natural beauty.

As I was pondering over all of this, Jesus has already extended a free invitation to each and every one, and that is the invitation to salvation, and it is up to each individual whether they receive that invitation. The next part after receiving free salvation, is the preparation time and everything it entails for each one to get ready for when we meet the one and only "King of Kings" face to face. Are we ready for that day? Have we allowed Jesus to clean us up in the way we would want to be presented to Him on that glorious day? It's not just about us getting cleaned up on the outside but it's the inside that Jesus is looking at 1 Sam. 16:7. The Lord wants us to get rid of any hatred, bitterness, resentfulness, unforgiveness that we may be holding onto. Not only that are we holding onto any bondage that would hold us back from pleasing the Lord such as any kind of addictions and that can be a list in itself such as drug, alcohol, sexual, food, gossip, lying, murmuring and complaining, each one would not be pleasing to the Lord and it is certainly not healthy for us as well.

It is time for us to get serious about getting cleaned up and ready for that final day when He sounds the trumpet and calls His people home. Let's get serious about the Lord, and work hard on getting things done, so that we can say that we have worked diligently to get ourselves ready for our Lord and Savior, I know I do not want to be left behind.

Let's Pray,

Father God, I thank You for the invitation of salvation. Lord, I pray that if there is even one soul who has not excepted Your invitation, that today would be their day. Lord help each one of us to allow You to do the clean up job in each of our hearts, Lord give us the strength to allow you to clean out every corner of our hearts so that nothing is left undone, every corner is swept out and clean of every piece of dirt of any kind. I thank You Lord for being petient with us in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.

Be blessed and pass the blessings on, and thank you for passing this message on.