Are you ready to meet the Lord? Are you ready to stand before His throne? I think these are important questions to answer during such perilous times. Many Christians throughout the Middle East have been killed for Jesus. Young children have refused to renounce the Lord and been murdered by Islamist terrorists. They were ready to meet Jesus. They knew who they trusted in. They proclaimed the name of Jesus in the face of death—but it was only physical death. Those Christians are with the Lord now, for eternity. They were ready to stand before His throne.

I believe they knew God’s Word and heeded the warnings. The Bible tells us:

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another” (Matthew 24:9-10).

“But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake” (Luke 21:12).

These words came from Christ Himself. He knew His followers would be persecuted, and He knew we would be killed. He warned them and He warns us. Because we know we will be persecuted, we need to be ready to meet the Lord at any time. We cannot be part-time Christians. We have to walk with Christ every day, according to God’s Word. Paul the Apostle told the church:

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, (Hebrews 9:27)

With this knowledge, it is apparent, we may experience great persecution, even unto death, but we may just die. Either way, we have to be ready; because once we die we will stand before the Lord. We are appointed to die once and then there will be no second chance. We have to be ready to stand before the Lord. We have to live each day as if it were our last.

It seems as if many Christians in America have gone to sleep. They are compromising, embracing the things of this world, and not truly standing upon the Word of God. I would say they are not ready to meet the Lord.

As the world grows smaller and smaller and radical Islam spreads further and further abroad, we cannot look at these terrorist attacks and think they will not reach our shores. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was not an anomaly, an isolated event. It served to only embolden those who see America as an enemy.

We need to stand with Israel, stand with France and stand with all free nations around the world, knowing the evil of these fanatics can touch any one of us at any time. The question is not if it will happen but when it will happen, because our borders are no longer secure.

Knowing all this brings us back to the first question I asked. Are you ready to meet the Lord? The men, women and children in Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, Israel, France, England, Canada and around the world, who have faced Islamic terrorists, did not know it would be their last day. As I pray for those they left behind, I also pray they knew Jesus and were ready to meet the Lord—for eternity!

~Staff Writer