“Blessed is he who watches” (Revelation 16:15)  

Christ warned the Church: "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame" (Revelation 16:12). "We die daily," the Apostle Paul said. That was the life of the early Christians; they could be yanked out of their homes at any moment, and be forced to recant their faith or watch their families be tortured and killed. But the Church grew. Today, we have the opposite problem. Most ministers don’t hold Biblical standards, and tell people their saved if they repeat a salvation prayer, so most people think they’re saved, despite all Biblical evidence to the contrary. 

 If you are saved, you’ll tell people about your relationship with Christ. “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). If you’re saved, you’ll do what the Word of God commands. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4). If you’re saved, you’ll love God more than the world. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17). 

 Christ still warns the Church today: “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:7-8). Oh Lord, help us to “examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Amen.