Greetings all and Happy Sabbath!  And Happy Feast of Trumpets beginning Monday evening as well!

Tuning up

I played in a band for several years with some brethren in Cincinnati.  We played at variety shows, Winter Family Weekends, and even a charity concert to benefit an orphanage in the Ukraine!  It was a lot of fun and I hope to be able to do it again some day.

Of course, before we would start playing, we would 'tune up.'  For some instruments, such as guitars, this would mean literally tuning our instruments.  For others, like the keyboard player, it was making sure everything was plugged in and turned on.  For all of us, we usually ran through a few chords/notes to make sure our fingers (and brains!) were warmed up and ready to go.

I hear something...

Next Tuesday is the Feast of Trumpets, which represents the return of Jesus Christ.  With it, the dead in Christ will be resurrected and the Kingdom will be established on Earth!  And while we very much anticipate that, we know that there is some 'unfinished business' Christ will attend to as well.

At His return, Christ will crush all forms of existing government, and deliver the consequences of the human race's history of sinful rebellion.  This isn't pleasant to think about, but it is a necessary step in God's plan.  This step will be announced by the blast of the 7th Trumpet (compare 1 Thessalonians 4: 16, Revelation 11:15).  While that trumpet has not yet sounded, I think I hear it tuning up in the distance...

Getting ready

Before we got to a show and began tuning up our instruments, the individual members of the band would practice on their own right up until it was time to leave the house.  Not only did we want to play and sound our best, but it was a responsibility we had to our band mates to be thoroughly prepared.

Likewise, as Christians, we need to be practicing at home to get ready for that Trumpet blast.  Practicing what you ask? Living a Christ-like life!  We want to be ready so that we can rise in the air to join Christ at His return.  We also want to fulfill our responsibility to those who died in faith before us, that we be there when they are resurrected.  

While no one knows when that 7th Trumpet will blast, we can be certain that it's getting closer every day.  Redeem the days we have left, so we we will be ready when the music starts!