Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
God warned rebellious Israel through Amos that because of all their iniquities He would bring judgment upon them, and therefore they must prepare to meet Him. To meet God in that sense was to come into the presence of the divine Being in majesty and glory as an offended Judge executing retribution upon the impenitent. The same call now gives the message for the age just before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven, to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. True readiness is repentance and conversion to God, turning from sin so as to meet Him in peace and be welcomed among the redeemed. That preparation must be made now, with constant watchfulness over the heart and life, because the end of all things is at hand and there will be no time to get ready once He appears.
Original Warning to Israel
Through Amos God clearly revealed His purpose to bring judgments upon His impenitent people Israel for all their iniquities, calling them to prepare to meet their God because He would do this unto them. That coming judgment included destruction of houses, deaths by the sword, loss of the land, and captivity. Israel was His favored people, yet they persisted in impenitent rebellion despite the warnings and reproofs He sent through His appointed agents with message after message that they despised and rejected.
In that setting to prepare to meet God meant to prepare to meet His retributive judgments as an offended judge executing judgment upon His impenitent people, against whom they cannot prevail. Escape from His vengeance requires humbling the heart and confessing sins. What God has announced will come to pass, and those who refuse to obey Him will face ruin.
Meeting God means coming into the presence of the divine Being in majesty and glory. The God to be met is the great Head of the church, the living Presence of a living Being, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.
Meaning of True Readiness
Readiness to meet God means repentance and conversion to Him and a deeper Christian experience, turning from sin so as to meet Him in peace. It is readiness for Christ's soon return, that His people may meet Him in peace, be welcomed among the redeemed, and go with Him to their eternal home. The message to be borne before that second coming is this direct call to turn from sin and be ready for the great day of the Lord.
Readiness is more than professing faith or being listed as a church member. God's truth must be in the heart and His converting power must shape the life, including a self-sacrificing willingness to serve. That inward order is to be lived out in the home, seeking God and His Word together as families with hearts set in order, with a work done both for parents' own souls and for their children's conversion. Those who are thus ready, because the end is near, let the light of truth shine and warn the world.
Each person must set aside sin, lay aside every weight and the sin that easily besets, yoke up with Christ, build on the secure rock foundation, and not risk eternity on a probability. Preparation requires constant watchfulness and close examination of the spiritual condition: whether the heart is renewed, the soul transformed, sins pardoned through faith in Christ, the new birth experienced, and what eternity will be. No one's life is assured for any time, and perilous scenes are now entering that one may not live to see. Getting ready therefore means opening the Scriptures and listening to God's voice, refusing voices that invite to wrong, running the race with patience, and watching, because the time is now very short.
The needed preparation includes receiving the Holy Spirit, represented by oil in the wise virgins' lamps, since the Lord's coming makes such preparation essential. Readiness depends on knowing that Christ is formed within as the hope of glory and that God's Spirit abides in the heart in sustaining communion with Him, whether Christ comes suddenly or life ends unexpectedly. To be ready is to heed the light given, give the heart to God, and let Jesus mold, convert, and shape the soul.
Preparation means being converted and becoming a Christian by taking Christ's yoke, learning His meekness and lowliness daily, and gaining a living personal experience of rest in Him. It includes being conformed to Christ's image and revealing the reality of truth to others as His representative. Readiness requires learning from Jesus so as to gain power that takes hold of hearts and speaks words that are life to the hearers, shaking off the worldly spirit, and praying with believing earnestness, for the fervent prayer of a righteous person has great power.
Meeting the Lord in peace requires being fitted for that encounter through growth in faith, truth, and righteousness, with the heart prepared and this spiritual readiness not neglected. That fitting is coming up to a higher plan of action with the whole religious experience molded to the divine likeness, a work to be carried on in churches and schools, in every sanitarium, and especially by sanitarium workers meeting together in church capacity. Israel must so prepare because His people are not ready to meet Him.
To be prepared before life closes and before probation closes means using the present precious opportunity that decides whether a person can join the family above and enter through the gates into the city when the Lord gathers His saints. It means forgiving everyone, ceasing to look at others' faults, humbly coming to the Saviour asking pardon for transgressions, being received and covered with the robe of His righteousness, and coming as humble penitents to lay the burden of sin at Jesus' feet. Readiness means leaving the side of the great rebel by repentance and conversion into obedience to the law of God, the ten precepts given from Mount Sinai that declare the principles ruling in heaven and the terms of entrance into the holy city, New Jerusalem. Only those who so turn to a life of obedience are assured of happiness and peace in the Father's home, of having the gates opened to them, receiving the eternal substance, and inheriting all things, and the call is addressed personally to the careless and impenitent who have had great light to use the present opportunity.
Preparation in this short life means guarding the spirit, overcoming evil, avoiding strange doctrines, and seeking Christ's peace so as to be ready to join the redeemed, for God's announced action will come to pass. It means having peace made with God and perfecting Christian character now, because death can come suddenly without warning and a person must not be found unready.
Proclaiming the Final Warning
“Prepare to meet thy God” is the message for the age just before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven, to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord and to herald that the great day and Christ’s second coming are near. It is an urgent message for the end of all things, to be proclaimed so the world understands that His return is near. The work of heralding that coming is like the work of John the Baptist as forerunner before Christ’s public ministry at His first advent. As John called publicans, Pharisees and Sadducees to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand, so this call to preparation must be given, and much still remains to be done in giving it.
Like John’s message it must be given as directly and faithfully, with strong decided utterance and words of power. It must rebuke iniquity and even rulers for wrongdoing as plainly as John rebuked kings and Herod’s adultery, even when life is imperiled. Those who bear it need the same spiritual experience John had of beholding God until self is lost sight of. It is not a message of peace and safety but a direct, forthright call to heed God’s warnings and admonitions, repent, and be faithful in order to stand in the great day.
The warning belongs to the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages and to the proclamation of the law of God, the ten commandments written with the finger of God. Their light shines in clear steady rays to the world from the ark as the symbol of God’s presence. It belongs to the time when the temple of God is opened in heaven in answer to His people’s prayers and God reveals His power by terrible things in righteousness. Lifting up the standard in this message means bearing the third angel’s message of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, holding those truths aloft. It means refusing theories opposed to God’s Word, refusing to unite with worldlings, and standing firmly in defense of truth and its principles.
God delays the death penalty for lawbreakers until they have been warned and given opportunity to see the result of rebellion and to recognize the error of their beliefs. His patience does not mean acquittal of the wicked, and His displeasure will soon be awakened after transgressors have heard the warning. The message is therefore to be proclaimed everywhere now, clearly and distinctly with a certain sound and unflagging zeal. It is to be given in every place where truth is introduced, in new territories and foreign fields that have not yet received the last warning, in unentered towns and cities, and in every city without delay, including Washington, D.C., where the kingdom of God is to be proclaimed.
The world is nearing the limit of its impenitence and disregard for God’s law, and its inhabitants are soon to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God to answer for deeds done in the body and to face the final test of decisive choice. God empowers sincere, humble workers and sets agencies, even mighty agencies, in action to carry the warning to those who have not heard it. Servants are to work in harmony with Him in one heart and one mind as a danger signal. Only those who improve the light already received are prepared to receive the message with an unprejudiced mind.
Wherever the light penetrates and the message is received, souls are converted, men are raised up who advance the truth, and the same reforming results follow. Every Christian is to act as a Bible worker to impart the great present truth for this time by telling, singing, praying, and working while it is still day, with urgent, decided, self-sacrificing hard work now in new and neglected fields. The warning is to be given to unbelievers to impress, convince, and convert minds, because the day of the Lord is upon us and those perishing for lack of knowledge must get ready through eternal truth as it is in Christ Jesus. It shows them that there is strength in God, sowing seeds of truth by all waters and waking the watchmen to bear the message in words of power.
Such exercise makes faith in eternal realities stronger and firmer, while personal experience increases in proportion to trust and confidence in God. Preparation is done by the gospel message for this time, so books filled with that present gospel prepare people, and circulating such books, publications, and literature with personal testimony and prayer for the Holy Spirit fulfills the call and lets the world understand that the end of all things is near and Christ’s return is near. Preparing people for Christ’s second coming follows John’s pattern also by awakening through warnings, calling to repentance, freeing from false teaching by clear truth, directing toward obedience to God’s commandments, and upholding the Sabbath as a witness that draws people to their Creator.
Coming Judgment and Urgency
The end is near, the end of all things is at hand, the world is nearing the limit of its impenitence and disregard for God's law, and the great day of the Lord is near. The inhabitants of the world are soon to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God to answer for deeds done in the body, facing the coming judgment and the final test when people make decisive choices. The first message aimed to turn people to God and prepare their hearts to meet Him in peace for that judgment.
The present time before probation closes is a precious opportunity to prepare, deciding whether a person can join the family above and enter through the gates into the city when the Lord gathers His saints; there is no future probation and no second trial after this life is neglected. Preparation must happen now because Christ will come suddenly with power and great glory, and there will be no time to get ready once He appears. There is none too much and very little time left to prepare, so readiness is urgent because the tempter tracks everyone to lead them to eternal destruction; time here is short and Christians must proclaim the warning energetically.
People must recognize the urgency of their time and prepare to meet the soon-coming Saviour, living as rational beings on the borders of the eternal world with sober awareness that life is on the borders of eternity. It is dangerous to live unprepared and rely on a bed of sickness to make ready; sudden deaths show why matters of eternal importance must not be neglected, for death can come suddenly without warning and fatal sickness can take away consciousness so nothing more can be done. No one's life is assured for any time, perilous scenes are now entering that one may not live to see, and readiness matters whether Christ comes suddenly or life ends unexpectedly.
The verse is an urgent appeal to wake up, seek the Lord while He may be found, make readiness for the great day the chief concern, accept God's truth and mercy, and turn from resistance before it is too late; cold unbelief must not keep the heart from God but His love must burn within it. Continued rejection can pass beyond the limit of God's forbearance, leaving the sinner to the consequences of rejecting His law. Many are deplorably unready to meet Him, with schemes of their own devising placing them more surely under the cloud of disobedience, and God's professed people are not ready to meet Him. Facing God unprepared brings fear: the speaker did not wish to live and dared not die because she was not ready to meet God and her Saviour.
Readiness in Home and Life
Preparation to meet God is a personal work that no one else can do for another, resting alike upon husband and wife, requiring the undoing of wrong done to others, refusing longer to make others an excuse for defective religious experience, giving time and attention to save a companion's soul as well as one's own, and leading and guiding the family in the right way, for until thorough conversion and true righteousness are gained no one is qualified to give the right mold to God's work where every impression made must be in accordance with Bible truth. Urgent thorough readiness means trimmed lamps filled with holy oil and hearts filled with sacred zeal, minds girded and sober and hoping to the end, attention turned wholly to self until there is no disposition to criticize others, life unbound from worldly interests, and means put into circulation to establish memorials for the Lord and warn places that have never heard the message for this time. It takes Israel's girded departure from bondage as the pattern for study, and calls for arousing others as well as being aroused, because the time to do work long neglected will soon be past and the unready will be found unprepared.
There is none too much and very little time left to prepare, and readiness is urgent because the tempter tracks everyone to lead to eternal destruction. Being ready means stopping talk of unimportant subjects and drawing near to God under His converting power, purifying the soul through the truth, and keeping the eyes on Jesus as author and finisher of faith. He is holy and imparts His holiness to His true followers, making them tenderhearted, pitiful, and courteous, so that those in important positions, including publishing house work, set an example that helps others purify their souls. Getting ready means working diligently to make calling and election sure, bringing the peace of Christ into the heart, learning of Christ, and becoming fitted to unite with the family of the redeemed as a happy representation of what a minister of Christ should be.
Professed Christian families who cherish criticism, faultfinding, scandal, and unkindness are called to be ready, for the sacred peace of the home must not be marred by this spirit, especially when seated at the meal table. Those who continue in it are unready for Christ to come today and unready to unite with the family above, and such home discord leads to discord in the church through the mischief of the unruly tongue, so the heart must be cleansed from evil thinking and evil speaking and the talent of speech used to honor the Saviour. The call is urgent in view of God's judgments and the signs of the times, requiring God's professed people to live the truth rather than remain in contention. Parents and children must get ready to meet the Lord in peace by bringing truth into their homes to sanctify and purify them, with gracious Christlike words and conduct helping children prepare for Christ's return and translation to heaven.
Parents bear definite responsibility to make definite efforts to warn and save their children, and must not leave families unprepared for the Lord while focusing on lesser matters or carrying the message to others. Being listed as a church member or professing conversion is not enough; people must live the truth in their homes, seek God and His Word together as families, have their hearts set in order, and do a work for parents' souls and children's conversion. Families not ready to meet the Lord need close searching of heart and earnestness of purpose in seeking Him. Preparing is giving the heart to God and not resting a day without knowing love for Jesus, heeding faithful warning so that prayers offered for salvation do not fall useless. Those who so prepare will be well and will meet faithful loved ones who have died again to never be parted, and children are urged to make this preparation so they can meet their mother again.
The call applies to ministers, physicians, and other workers who need real conversion, changed hearts, and lives brought under God's control, waking from spiritual unpreparedness and repenting while opportunity remains. It is to be carried on in churches and schools, in every sanitarium, and especially by sanitarium workers meeting together in church capacity, by coming up to a higher plan of action with the whole religious experience molded to the divine likeness, because His people are not ready to meet Him. Teachers, educators, and their families must be converted and prepared for the Lord's coming in the final stage of earth's history, with hearts purified by God's grace, for preparation cannot be delayed or shifted from parents to others. Students especially are to get ready through deep and thorough understanding of the Scriptures, under a school standard kept high and pure and elevated, with education keeping God's wonderful works before the mind, magnifying the law and making it honorable, teaching how to keep the way of the Lord and to do justice and judgment, preserving the soul in obedience amid prevailing idolatry, living as a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, and telling men plainly what they must do to be saved so that all who feel their need come to Christ for a broken heart and contrite soul and receive a new heart.
Those who meet many people through restaurant work may suddenly be called to account for stewardship and must be ready to meet Christ, purified and clothed in His righteousness. They must not withhold the warning but lead souls to Christ and urge them to be ready to meet God. The same warning rests on those who refuse to obey God and on those who ignore appeals to help carry the gospel to places where it has not been preached, for refusal brings ruin. Those who know the truth but fail to warn friends and neighbors leave them to face judgment unwarned and unsaved and will be confronted with that failure, for readiness includes knowing the way of salvation and being prepared to meet God in peace in judgment. Therefore people must be stirred to face God and the message carried to believers and unbelievers while the unwarned can still be reached.
Preparing people to meet Him in peace is an urgent work calling for self-denial, simple living, earnest service, and surrendering plans and desires to God for guidance. It calls for readiness for Christ's coming and faithful work in sharing the truth and warning others while living in the light, grace, and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is an urgent message to humble proud hearts, take hold of the hope offered in the gospel, and become one with Christ. As the end of time draws near people are to seek spirituality, humble their hearts, and become one with Christ, with leaving the cities for country places and spending time in nature providing retirement to seek God, learn His will, and receive spiritual blessing.
God warned rebellious Israel through Amos that because of all their iniquities He would bring judgment upon them, and therefore they must prepare to meet Him. To meet God in that sense was to come into the presence of the divine Being in majesty and glory as an offended Judge executing retribution upon the impenitent. The same call now gives the message for the age just before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven, to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. True readiness is repentance and conversion to God, turning from sin so as to meet Him in peace and be welcomed among the redeemed. That preparation must be made now, with constant watchfulness over the heart and life, because the end of all things is at hand and there will be no time to get ready once He appears.
Original Warning to Israel
Through Amos God clearly revealed His purpose to bring judgments upon His impenitent people Israel for all their iniquities, calling them to prepare to meet their God because He would do this unto them. That coming judgment included destruction of houses, deaths by the sword, loss of the land, and captivity. Israel was His favored people, yet they persisted in impenitent rebellion despite the warnings and reproofs He sent through His appointed agents with message after message that they despised and rejected.
In that setting to prepare to meet God meant to prepare to meet His retributive judgments as an offended judge executing judgment upon His impenitent people, against whom they cannot prevail. Escape from His vengeance requires humbling the heart and confessing sins. What God has announced will come to pass, and those who refuse to obey Him will face ruin.
Meeting God means coming into the presence of the divine Being in majesty and glory. The God to be met is the great Head of the church, the living Presence of a living Being, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.
Meaning of True Readiness
Readiness to meet God means repentance and conversion to Him and a deeper Christian experience, turning from sin so as to meet Him in peace. It is readiness for Christ's soon return, that His people may meet Him in peace, be welcomed among the redeemed, and go with Him to their eternal home. The message to be borne before that second coming is this direct call to turn from sin and be ready for the great day of the Lord.
Readiness is more than professing faith or being listed as a church member. God's truth must be in the heart and His converting power must shape the life, including a self-sacrificing willingness to serve. That inward order is to be lived out in the home, seeking God and His Word together as families with hearts set in order, with a work done both for parents' own souls and for their children's conversion. Those who are thus ready, because the end is near, let the light of truth shine and warn the world.
Each person must set aside sin, lay aside every weight and the sin that easily besets, yoke up with Christ, build on the secure rock foundation, and not risk eternity on a probability. Preparation requires constant watchfulness and close examination of the spiritual condition: whether the heart is renewed, the soul transformed, sins pardoned through faith in Christ, the new birth experienced, and what eternity will be. No one's life is assured for any time, and perilous scenes are now entering that one may not live to see. Getting ready therefore means opening the Scriptures and listening to God's voice, refusing voices that invite to wrong, running the race with patience, and watching, because the time is now very short.
The needed preparation includes receiving the Holy Spirit, represented by oil in the wise virgins' lamps, since the Lord's coming makes such preparation essential. Readiness depends on knowing that Christ is formed within as the hope of glory and that God's Spirit abides in the heart in sustaining communion with Him, whether Christ comes suddenly or life ends unexpectedly. To be ready is to heed the light given, give the heart to God, and let Jesus mold, convert, and shape the soul.
Preparation means being converted and becoming a Christian by taking Christ's yoke, learning His meekness and lowliness daily, and gaining a living personal experience of rest in Him. It includes being conformed to Christ's image and revealing the reality of truth to others as His representative. Readiness requires learning from Jesus so as to gain power that takes hold of hearts and speaks words that are life to the hearers, shaking off the worldly spirit, and praying with believing earnestness, for the fervent prayer of a righteous person has great power.
Meeting the Lord in peace requires being fitted for that encounter through growth in faith, truth, and righteousness, with the heart prepared and this spiritual readiness not neglected. That fitting is coming up to a higher plan of action with the whole religious experience molded to the divine likeness, a work to be carried on in churches and schools, in every sanitarium, and especially by sanitarium workers meeting together in church capacity. Israel must so prepare because His people are not ready to meet Him.
To be prepared before life closes and before probation closes means using the present precious opportunity that decides whether a person can join the family above and enter through the gates into the city when the Lord gathers His saints. It means forgiving everyone, ceasing to look at others' faults, humbly coming to the Saviour asking pardon for transgressions, being received and covered with the robe of His righteousness, and coming as humble penitents to lay the burden of sin at Jesus' feet. Readiness means leaving the side of the great rebel by repentance and conversion into obedience to the law of God, the ten precepts given from Mount Sinai that declare the principles ruling in heaven and the terms of entrance into the holy city, New Jerusalem. Only those who so turn to a life of obedience are assured of happiness and peace in the Father's home, of having the gates opened to them, receiving the eternal substance, and inheriting all things, and the call is addressed personally to the careless and impenitent who have had great light to use the present opportunity.
Preparation in this short life means guarding the spirit, overcoming evil, avoiding strange doctrines, and seeking Christ's peace so as to be ready to join the redeemed, for God's announced action will come to pass. It means having peace made with God and perfecting Christian character now, because death can come suddenly without warning and a person must not be found unready.
Proclaiming the Final Warning
“Prepare to meet thy God” is the message for the age just before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven, to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord and to herald that the great day and Christ’s second coming are near. It is an urgent message for the end of all things, to be proclaimed so the world understands that His return is near. The work of heralding that coming is like the work of John the Baptist as forerunner before Christ’s public ministry at His first advent. As John called publicans, Pharisees and Sadducees to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand, so this call to preparation must be given, and much still remains to be done in giving it.
Like John’s message it must be given as directly and faithfully, with strong decided utterance and words of power. It must rebuke iniquity and even rulers for wrongdoing as plainly as John rebuked kings and Herod’s adultery, even when life is imperiled. Those who bear it need the same spiritual experience John had of beholding God until self is lost sight of. It is not a message of peace and safety but a direct, forthright call to heed God’s warnings and admonitions, repent, and be faithful in order to stand in the great day.
The warning belongs to the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages and to the proclamation of the law of God, the ten commandments written with the finger of God. Their light shines in clear steady rays to the world from the ark as the symbol of God’s presence. It belongs to the time when the temple of God is opened in heaven in answer to His people’s prayers and God reveals His power by terrible things in righteousness. Lifting up the standard in this message means bearing the third angel’s message of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, holding those truths aloft. It means refusing theories opposed to God’s Word, refusing to unite with worldlings, and standing firmly in defense of truth and its principles.
God delays the death penalty for lawbreakers until they have been warned and given opportunity to see the result of rebellion and to recognize the error of their beliefs. His patience does not mean acquittal of the wicked, and His displeasure will soon be awakened after transgressors have heard the warning. The message is therefore to be proclaimed everywhere now, clearly and distinctly with a certain sound and unflagging zeal. It is to be given in every place where truth is introduced, in new territories and foreign fields that have not yet received the last warning, in unentered towns and cities, and in every city without delay, including Washington, D.C., where the kingdom of God is to be proclaimed.
The world is nearing the limit of its impenitence and disregard for God’s law, and its inhabitants are soon to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God to answer for deeds done in the body and to face the final test of decisive choice. God empowers sincere, humble workers and sets agencies, even mighty agencies, in action to carry the warning to those who have not heard it. Servants are to work in harmony with Him in one heart and one mind as a danger signal. Only those who improve the light already received are prepared to receive the message with an unprejudiced mind.
Wherever the light penetrates and the message is received, souls are converted, men are raised up who advance the truth, and the same reforming results follow. Every Christian is to act as a Bible worker to impart the great present truth for this time by telling, singing, praying, and working while it is still day, with urgent, decided, self-sacrificing hard work now in new and neglected fields. The warning is to be given to unbelievers to impress, convince, and convert minds, because the day of the Lord is upon us and those perishing for lack of knowledge must get ready through eternal truth as it is in Christ Jesus. It shows them that there is strength in God, sowing seeds of truth by all waters and waking the watchmen to bear the message in words of power.
Such exercise makes faith in eternal realities stronger and firmer, while personal experience increases in proportion to trust and confidence in God. Preparation is done by the gospel message for this time, so books filled with that present gospel prepare people, and circulating such books, publications, and literature with personal testimony and prayer for the Holy Spirit fulfills the call and lets the world understand that the end of all things is near and Christ’s return is near. Preparing people for Christ’s second coming follows John’s pattern also by awakening through warnings, calling to repentance, freeing from false teaching by clear truth, directing toward obedience to God’s commandments, and upholding the Sabbath as a witness that draws people to their Creator.
Coming Judgment and Urgency
The end is near, the end of all things is at hand, the world is nearing the limit of its impenitence and disregard for God's law, and the great day of the Lord is near. The inhabitants of the world are soon to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God to answer for deeds done in the body, facing the coming judgment and the final test when people make decisive choices. The first message aimed to turn people to God and prepare their hearts to meet Him in peace for that judgment.
The present time before probation closes is a precious opportunity to prepare, deciding whether a person can join the family above and enter through the gates into the city when the Lord gathers His saints; there is no future probation and no second trial after this life is neglected. Preparation must happen now because Christ will come suddenly with power and great glory, and there will be no time to get ready once He appears. There is none too much and very little time left to prepare, so readiness is urgent because the tempter tracks everyone to lead them to eternal destruction; time here is short and Christians must proclaim the warning energetically.
People must recognize the urgency of their time and prepare to meet the soon-coming Saviour, living as rational beings on the borders of the eternal world with sober awareness that life is on the borders of eternity. It is dangerous to live unprepared and rely on a bed of sickness to make ready; sudden deaths show why matters of eternal importance must not be neglected, for death can come suddenly without warning and fatal sickness can take away consciousness so nothing more can be done. No one's life is assured for any time, perilous scenes are now entering that one may not live to see, and readiness matters whether Christ comes suddenly or life ends unexpectedly.
The verse is an urgent appeal to wake up, seek the Lord while He may be found, make readiness for the great day the chief concern, accept God's truth and mercy, and turn from resistance before it is too late; cold unbelief must not keep the heart from God but His love must burn within it. Continued rejection can pass beyond the limit of God's forbearance, leaving the sinner to the consequences of rejecting His law. Many are deplorably unready to meet Him, with schemes of their own devising placing them more surely under the cloud of disobedience, and God's professed people are not ready to meet Him. Facing God unprepared brings fear: the speaker did not wish to live and dared not die because she was not ready to meet God and her Saviour.
Readiness in Home and Life
Preparation to meet God is a personal work that no one else can do for another, resting alike upon husband and wife, requiring the undoing of wrong done to others, refusing longer to make others an excuse for defective religious experience, giving time and attention to save a companion's soul as well as one's own, and leading and guiding the family in the right way, for until thorough conversion and true righteousness are gained no one is qualified to give the right mold to God's work where every impression made must be in accordance with Bible truth. Urgent thorough readiness means trimmed lamps filled with holy oil and hearts filled with sacred zeal, minds girded and sober and hoping to the end, attention turned wholly to self until there is no disposition to criticize others, life unbound from worldly interests, and means put into circulation to establish memorials for the Lord and warn places that have never heard the message for this time. It takes Israel's girded departure from bondage as the pattern for study, and calls for arousing others as well as being aroused, because the time to do work long neglected will soon be past and the unready will be found unprepared.
There is none too much and very little time left to prepare, and readiness is urgent because the tempter tracks everyone to lead to eternal destruction. Being ready means stopping talk of unimportant subjects and drawing near to God under His converting power, purifying the soul through the truth, and keeping the eyes on Jesus as author and finisher of faith. He is holy and imparts His holiness to His true followers, making them tenderhearted, pitiful, and courteous, so that those in important positions, including publishing house work, set an example that helps others purify their souls. Getting ready means working diligently to make calling and election sure, bringing the peace of Christ into the heart, learning of Christ, and becoming fitted to unite with the family of the redeemed as a happy representation of what a minister of Christ should be.
Professed Christian families who cherish criticism, faultfinding, scandal, and unkindness are called to be ready, for the sacred peace of the home must not be marred by this spirit, especially when seated at the meal table. Those who continue in it are unready for Christ to come today and unready to unite with the family above, and such home discord leads to discord in the church through the mischief of the unruly tongue, so the heart must be cleansed from evil thinking and evil speaking and the talent of speech used to honor the Saviour. The call is urgent in view of God's judgments and the signs of the times, requiring God's professed people to live the truth rather than remain in contention. Parents and children must get ready to meet the Lord in peace by bringing truth into their homes to sanctify and purify them, with gracious Christlike words and conduct helping children prepare for Christ's return and translation to heaven.
Parents bear definite responsibility to make definite efforts to warn and save their children, and must not leave families unprepared for the Lord while focusing on lesser matters or carrying the message to others. Being listed as a church member or professing conversion is not enough; people must live the truth in their homes, seek God and His Word together as families, have their hearts set in order, and do a work for parents' souls and children's conversion. Families not ready to meet the Lord need close searching of heart and earnestness of purpose in seeking Him. Preparing is giving the heart to God and not resting a day without knowing love for Jesus, heeding faithful warning so that prayers offered for salvation do not fall useless. Those who so prepare will be well and will meet faithful loved ones who have died again to never be parted, and children are urged to make this preparation so they can meet their mother again.
The call applies to ministers, physicians, and other workers who need real conversion, changed hearts, and lives brought under God's control, waking from spiritual unpreparedness and repenting while opportunity remains. It is to be carried on in churches and schools, in every sanitarium, and especially by sanitarium workers meeting together in church capacity, by coming up to a higher plan of action with the whole religious experience molded to the divine likeness, because His people are not ready to meet Him. Teachers, educators, and their families must be converted and prepared for the Lord's coming in the final stage of earth's history, with hearts purified by God's grace, for preparation cannot be delayed or shifted from parents to others. Students especially are to get ready through deep and thorough understanding of the Scriptures, under a school standard kept high and pure and elevated, with education keeping God's wonderful works before the mind, magnifying the law and making it honorable, teaching how to keep the way of the Lord and to do justice and judgment, preserving the soul in obedience amid prevailing idolatry, living as a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, and telling men plainly what they must do to be saved so that all who feel their need come to Christ for a broken heart and contrite soul and receive a new heart.
Those who meet many people through restaurant work may suddenly be called to account for stewardship and must be ready to meet Christ, purified and clothed in His righteousness. They must not withhold the warning but lead souls to Christ and urge them to be ready to meet God. The same warning rests on those who refuse to obey God and on those who ignore appeals to help carry the gospel to places where it has not been preached, for refusal brings ruin. Those who know the truth but fail to warn friends and neighbors leave them to face judgment unwarned and unsaved and will be confronted with that failure, for readiness includes knowing the way of salvation and being prepared to meet God in peace in judgment. Therefore people must be stirred to face God and the message carried to believers and unbelievers while the unwarned can still be reached.
Preparing people to meet Him in peace is an urgent work calling for self-denial, simple living, earnest service, and surrendering plans and desires to God for guidance. It calls for readiness for Christ's coming and faithful work in sharing the truth and warning others while living in the light, grace, and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is an urgent message to humble proud hearts, take hold of the hope offered in the gospel, and become one with Christ. As the end of time draws near people are to seek spirituality, humble their hearts, and become one with Christ, with leaving the cities for country places and spending time in nature providing retirement to seek God, learn His will, and receive spiritual blessing.