Happy New Year from Christopher and Jewel Pearson! We are very grateful for your thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.
As I think about a new year beginning, I laugh to myself because, where I am, I celebrate three. Working in a direct way with a school makes you think about your year in terms of a fall and spring. Your year begins when new teachers arrive, new students enroll, old students return, and new books are used. Americans celebrate their new year traditionally on the first of January. This is a celebration of the solar year. It takes the earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45.51 seconds to orbit the sun. (Yes, of course, I just looked that up! :) ) The Chinese, on the other hand, celebrate their new year based on a lunisolar calendar. Their new year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. With these three new beginnings fresh on our minds, it is easy to remember Dr. Sexton’s quote, “The Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
One such beginning has just been brought into our lives through certain events. I will outline them for you in a moment, but, first, I want to explain the impact it is having on my heart and mind. See, today, we were reading through Luke 12 and I had to re-read verses 35-40.
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
This has impacted my heart deeply for a couple of reasons.
I am a steward of LJIA during the administrator’s absence.
I take this very seriously. While Bro. Dom is away, I have the responsibility of watching over the workings, teachers, and students of the school. I know that God has placed me here to serve by helping Bro. Dom. I do not want to fail him upon his return. I want to be a faithful steward of the opportunities and time I have here. I want to be ready for his return!
We have been robbed for the second time.
We are fine, and no harm was done besides some money being stolen. However, this made me think about what I could do to be PREPARED for what might come. The brothers and sisters here have helped us greatly by helping us to interpret conversations with our guards, local police, etc. They have also helped me to find a video camera that I can place in my house to alert me if/when someone breaks in.
These two things together have been heavy on my heart recently. The desire to be a faithful steward, and the desire to be prepared for someone to enter my house at a time when I will not know. So when this passage was a part of my reading today, it really stuck with me. I have been meditating on the challenges set forth in this passage, and they are greatly magnified by the reality of these things in my life at the present time.
The return of the Lord is said to be like a thief in the night. No man knows the day or hour. I am putting this video camera in my house because I want to be as prepared as I can for the possible thrice return of our unknown thief. But there will not be two precursor returns of our Lord. He will come, and I am to be found faithful at THAT time. The video camera does not come free, and neither will our preparation for the return of Jesus Christ. It will cost our lives. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Will we prepare? Will our lights be found burning? Or will we be the ungodly servants who do not the will of their Lord. See, the wicked and slothful servant of Matthew 25 still had what his lord had given him, but he had not invested in preparation for his return.
My challenge to you this new year is the same challenge that the Lord has laid on my heart. Invest in preparation for His return! Let your light so shine before men TODAY! Stop putting off your resolution for time spent feasting on the goodness of God’s Word. Stop deceiving yourself by being a hearer and not a doer of the Word. Allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in your heart TODAY! Invest in preparation for the Lord Jesus Christ cometh at an hour when you think not.
Love in Christ,
Christopher and Jewel Pearson
