A friend of mine has a spouse who works in law enforcement. She said her husband told her there were over 100 accidents yesterday due to the snow and ice on the roads. I saw a few of these on my way in to the office. I saw people driving from one extreme to the other. I got behind a car that was cruising at a blistering 15 mph with nowhere for me to pass and a few minutes later I had a car fly by me at close to 50 miles per hour on an icy strip of road. The second car had to eventually slow down and when he did his car began to fishtail and he almost put it in the ditch. My wife is from Milwaukee and when I told her this she just laughed and said people in the South are just not use to this. Up North they have this type of weather weeks on end and know how to drive in adverse weather conditions. She was right, our state is not prepared for this type of weather. Florence county may have one or two trucks that can shovel snow off the roads, we may have one or two trucks that can spread sand or salt on the bridges but for the most part we are unprepared for the type of weather we experienced yesterday. As I was driving to work this morning the thought came to mind, Are we prepared spiritually for what life throws at us from time to time? As long as the weather is good we are fine but if something or someone we are not expecting enters our life are we prepared?
II Timothy 4: 2,3 - 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Paul tells Timothy to be prepared at any time to preach the Word. Are we prepared to do this? Are we spending time in God's Word preparing ourselves to preach if called on. It may not be in front of a large crowd, it could be to the family around the dinner table one night.
I Peter 3: 15, 16 - 15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Peter says to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. Are we prepared for this? If a coworker or neighbor says to you "There is something different about you, what is it?" Are we going to say "Well I'm just a good-natured person. It's just my personality to be kind." Or are we going to be prepared to share the true reason we are "different", do we have verses tucked away in our mind that we can use to explain our beliefs. Do we even know why we believe what we believe. Are we going to say something like "I believe Jesus is the way because my pastor says He is. or I believe Jesus is the way because that is the way I was raised."
I hope we can spend time studying the Word of God so we can be prepared to share the Good News with those God sends into our lives.
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