Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. – 2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
How do you preach the word? Do you believe you are called to such a thing? What does it mean to be prepared in and out of season? Have you corrected someone? Rebuked someone? Encouraged someone? Have you been corrected, rebuked or encouraged?
The following story is an Aesop Fable called “The Horse and His Rider”:
A horse soldier took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, he looked upon him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment.
War was again proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his standard, the soldier put on his charger its military accouterments, and mounted, being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The horse fell down right away under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master, “You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a horse into an ass; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from an ass to a horse.”
Toward the end of his life Jesus shared a story about 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom and falling asleep. Half brought oil and half did not. As the story goes the bridegroom was long in coming and they all fell asleep. He arrived at the midnight hour and the half without oil found out they were not ready. These parables about being prepared share a great truth of life. We never know when we will be needed to participate in the Gospel! Keep reading up on scriptures, keep praying and studying, keep practicing because one day Jesus will need us. Let us pray that we are ready.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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