On Awaiting Christ's Return (this is big)

I've been out of town the past couple of days at a state Evangelism Conference (hence my absence). It was a really good conference, and I learned a lot there. Obviously, the focus of the conference was evangelism, and we were encouraged to evaluate our current evangelical situation and discuss ways that we could more effectively reach the people around us who have no relationship with Christ.

During this afternoon's session, after being challenged to make more intentional efforts in personal evangelism, we had a short musical worship time.

As soon as we started the first song a simple, but profound thought hit me.

I don't even know what the song was, just that it was an older hymn about the Second Coming of Christ. It was something along the lines of "I can't wait until Jesus comes back so that we can live with him forever." I honestly can't remember which one it was, but all I know was that I sat there looking at the words, and then I got floored by a truth:

How can we sit there singing about how we can't wait for Jesus to come back when we haven't been sharing the Gospel with the people around us?

As that thought hit me, I sat down and wept.

Don't we realize that while the return of Christ is a joyous occasion for us as believers, it is the impending doom of people who do not know him in as Lord and Savior? In other words, while we get to spend eternity in heaven with our Lord, there are millions of people who would spend eternity without him.

I don't think there's anything wrong with looking forward to going to heaven. I don't think there's anything wrong with looking forward to Jesus' return (which he promised us and told us to look forward to). However, there is something wrong with looking forward to the return of Christ when we haven't been sharing the Gospel.

How can we sit there, comfortable in our salvation, awaiting the return of our King when we haven't shared the truth with those around us? It's so selfish. It's so lazy. It's so arrogant.

Jesus wants us to love him and look forward to spending eternity with him, but until that happens, he's left us here on the earth for a purpose: to bring him glory by making disciples of all nations. And that starts by telling the people around us about Jesus.

Yes, let's look forward to the return of Christ. But let that thought encourage us to get urgent in sharing our faith, not complacent in the security of eternity.