General News
13 November, 2026
In Good Faith
Are you ready? If someone were to ask you that, naturally you’d have to ask yourself, ‘What for?’
Are you ready?
If someone were to ask you that, naturally you’d have to ask yourself, ‘What for?’
We have to be ready for all sorts of things each day, some things important and others not quite so important.
Are you ready for school? Are you ready for dinner? Are you ready for the harvest?
… Are you ready to meet God?
Jesus tells a story of ten young ladies, waiting to greet a bridegroom on his way to his new wife’s house.
Five were wise – they were ready to meet the groom when he unexpectedly arrived.
Five were foolish – they neglected their readiness to meet the groom and were denied entry to the wedding feast.
This is an image of what it will be like when Jesus returns.
It’s curious, don’t you think, that we spend so much time and effort getting ready for any number of things, but getting ready to meet the Lord of all falls off the end of our list of priorities!
To be ready for Jesus means only one thing: To believe that He is the Son of God, our Saviour from death.
That’s all being ready for Him means.
Simple, isn’t it? Not good works, not being holier-than-thou, nothing like that.
Faith is what He seeks – faith that accepts Him for who He is.
But to believe in Jesus is beyond our control.
Faith in Christ is not a work of our own, it’s not something we can accomplish.
But this doesn’t mean that we must be unready to meet Jesus.
Rather, God prepares us to meet Himself by granting us the faith we need!
God is a God of order.
He works through chosen means.
If we wish to be ready to meet Him, then we absolutely must use the means He has provided for that purpose.
These are the Word of God – the Bible – and the Sacraments.
These are God’s chosen means to give us faith in Jesus as our Saviour.
The wise take up the means God has granted to make us ready to meet Him.
They hear the Word of God and receive the Sacraments – Baptism and Holy Communion.
They are made ready to meet the Lord when He returns.
This is wisdom!
The foolish ignore the Lord, pretend He isn’t important, or treat Him as if He doesn’t exist.
These are not ready to meet the Lord.
They may be baptised or confirmed.
They may hold membership in a congregation, but they never hear the Word, never
allow God to do His work in them.
This is not wisdom – this is foolishness of the most dangerous kind!
Will you be ready to meet the Lord? He wants nothing else than to make you ready
to meet Him and enter His heavenly banquet.
Don’t be a fool.
Hear the Word of God and receive Holy Communion when it is offered, so you too may believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, our Saviour from death.
Let God do His work in you – for this is the highest wisdom!