[Darris McNeely] On a recent Beyond Today program "When Predictions Fail" we were talking about the return of Jesus Christ. Gary Petty made a statement in the third segment of the program as he was talking, and he said, "If we die today, Christ will come for us today." Now one of our astute viewers picked up on that statement and knowing what we teach on Beyond Today and what the Bible says regarding death, resurrection, the return of Jesus Christ he got the impression perhaps that we had strayed just a bit from the teaching that death is a sleep awaiting the resurrection of the dead at the time of Christ's return as the Bible describes. And after some correspondence back and forth with this viewer we were able to clarify exactly what we were talking about in the program. And essentially what Gary was saying was that we should be living our lives each day, every day in anticipation that it could be our last. And at the time that we do die the next waking moment we have, our next conscious thought will be in a resurrection. And for those who die in Christ it will be at the time of Christ's return.

And so when you live your life with that approach, then you can live a fuller life. You can live a richer life, and you can live a life that's closer to God. You understand death, the resurrection, and how it all fits together. We were able to clear up that impression, but it left a question in my mind as I read through the correspondence back and forth with our viewer.

A larger question, how shall we then live? How shall we live? When we consider that life is very short, and at times as David said that there's not much between us and death, a very short distance. It does remind us to number our days and to think very carefully about every aspect of our relationships with the people that we interact with, those we love, and most importantly our relationship with our Creator and our God because life can be very brief, and things can happen very quickly, and we don't know when we will look into the eyes of Jesus Christ at His coming and at a time of judgment and be given an account of our life.

It brought to mind a scripture from Micah 6:8 that I think answers the question how then shall we live. Micah 6:8. God is taking the Israelites on a journey through a line of thinking that shows it's not what you have, it's not what you own, but it comes down to some very essential spiritual qualities that one must have in walking before God. In verse 8 He says that, "He has shown you O man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Justice, mercy, and humility. Three very important spiritual qualities.

I think that if we can live by those qualities, that if we can live each day as if that's the last day we have to love mercy, to seek justice, and to be humble before God then we're going to be ready when Christ returns. We're going to be ready for the resurrection. We're going to be ready for that time of judgment. And we're going to be able to look into the eyes of our Creator and hear those words from Him, "Well done good and faithful servant."

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.