The Fourth Quarter Is Ours 2/18/2019 Good Morning World

Good Morning,

I just started my day with prayer and a mug of Door County Peanut Butter Crunch Coffee. It's time to write.

When I was in high school, our varsity football team started practicing a couple weeks before school started in September. All the schools in our conference did the same. Most, but not all of the schools had two practices a day or only one. Our school announced one year that we would be going to three practices a day. The coaches said that the third practice would help us to be prepared to win in the fourth quarter in a close game. We would have more steam left to play hard and own the last quarter. We would chant while running " The Fourth Quarter Is Ours" I only recall two times when it happened that we were in a dog fight and needed that extra energy to beat two opponents in the fourth quarter.  But it was true, we wore them down and came out on top in the last few minutes.

Friends as I get older, I realize that I am in the fourth quarter of my life. I also acknowledge that all the work I put in on mission trips and other church activities has prepared me to keep going and finish strong. There is coming a day and no one knows when  Jesus will return and take those who belong to Him back to heaven. Some will not go and be reunited body to spirit. That is on them, and it was their choice to not follow Jesus as Lord and Savior.

So we need to own all four quarters of our life and apply what God has done through us and tell others of the saving grace of Jesus. We can't slow down because of age. Once retired from work, you have more time to work at spreading the Good News of Jesus. The Fourth Quarter Is Ours.

 Thessalonians 4:13-5:1-9 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Hope of the Resurrection

¹³ And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

¹⁵ We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. ¹⁷ Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ So encourage each other with these words.

5 Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you. ² For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. ³ When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.

⁴ But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.⁵ For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. ⁶ So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. ⁷ Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. ⁸ But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
⁹ For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. ¹⁰ Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. ¹¹ So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

Friends, it doesn't get an plainer than the verses above. It's just how it is going to happen. And when the end comes there will be no over time extra quarter. Keep that in mind when someone asks you to teach Sunday school and you say no. Maybe one kid, will listen to you while teaching. But in the end, that one kid will be grateful for whatever you taught that led them to Jesus.

Food for thought,

Marty