Ezekiel 30.1-5 warns, God, the Master, spoke to me: “Son of man, preach. Give them the Message of God, the Master. Wail: “‘Doomsday!’ Time’s up! God’s big day of judgment is near. Thick clouds are rolling in. It’s doomsday for the nations. Death will rain down on Egypt. Terror will paralyze Ethiopia When they see the Egyptians killed, their wealth hauled off, their foundations demolished, And Ethiopia, Put, Lud, Arabia, Libya —all of Egypt’s old allies— killed right along with them. MSG

So many believe the end of days are near. So many hope Jesus will return soon. I suppose the latter is Biblical for Paul himself appears to have prayed the same when ending his letters ‘Maranatha.’ This ‘end times’ belief drove Paul to share Christ with the nations.

Yet I wonder if God will not raise up evangelists in His church when that day truly is near? Like the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah before the destruction of Jerusalem, will God raise up evangelists to shout repent for the kingdom is near? Instead of evangelists might He pour out His Spirit so abundantly upon His people that all of the church is driven to call men to repentance before the Lord comes?

While many talk of His soon return, and many hope for its arrival, I do not see a resurgence in effort to win the lost. The Lord delays that He might save more. He takes no delight in the death of anyone. God desires all men to be saved. When will His desire become ours? When will we stop lamenting our difficulties and start working toward the salvation of all men?

Our world suffers with men undiscipled, disobedient to the will of God as recorded in the word of God. This is the church’s fault not God’s fault, for He has commanded us to teach obedience to everything He commanded us to obey. Our world is broken because men disobey God and men disobey God because they are not reconciled to God.

Reconciling men to God is the work of the church, the work of every Christian. Whenever the Lord returns, blessed is the man found faithful doing the Master’s work but woe to him who is found idle, asleep at the Master’s business.