Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 106, a section given to one of Oliver Cowdery's older brothers. In the section he is advised to preach the gospel and that is the best use of his time. I have often wondered about the people that are called to preach the gospel full time for their entire lives. Is it because they are the best suited for the work and will reach the most people, or because they have the most growing to do and serving a mission full time is what will cause them to grow? Perhaps it is a hybrid of both?
I have also often wondered why the Lord warns the people to prepare for His second coming. We have discussed in the past that the judgment is actually just a deep, unabashed look at who we really are and what type of person we have become. It is about examining who we are most comfortable around and what we want out of our existence. So I wonder, why does the Lord tell us to prepare for His second coming? Why does He not instead tell us to prepare for the judgment? I know that at times in the scriptures He does tell us to prepare for the judgment and that this life is the time to prepare to meet God and that we should not procrastinate the day of our repentance, but most of the time, especially in the Doctrine and Covenants, we are told to prepare for the Second Coming. Usually by some analogy such as the Lord coming as a thief in the night.
Perhaps it is because it is more tangible for us. The judgment seems so far away and seems so distant that it feels like we have all the time in the world to prepare for it. Truth be told we do have all the time on THIS world to prepare for it, the only problem with that is we don't know how much time we actually have on this world. We also know that the judgment will take place after we die. The second coming however, has been something that all believers have looked forward to for almost 2000 years. We have also been told for the last almost 200 years that it is just around the corner and that this is the dispensation of the fullness of times. So maybe because we feel it is going to happen anytime now, even though the Lord tells us we do not know the hour or the day, we feel it is so close and it is more effective to prepare now.
Really though preparing for the Second Coming IS preparing for the judgment. When Christ comes again, there will be those who cannot abide His presence. Those are the same people that will not want to be in His presence when they stand before Him for an open examination of their lives. So perhaps to the Lord telling us to prepare for the Second Coming and to repent of our ways to prepare for the judgment are synonymous. What ever the reason behind it we need to make sure that we are cultivating the right habits so that when the Lord does come again, or we stand before Him at the judgment seat, we are ready to see within ourselves our darkest secrets and have revealed to ourselves, just what type of a person we are. I hope and pray that we will all take advantage of this time that we have to make the right changes in ourselves so that we like what we will see at that day. Until tomorrow.
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