Are you a Just in Time Christian?

Bible Verse: 2 Corinthians 6

King James Version (KJV)

6 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

² (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

When I left Colorado and returned to Kentucky, it had been too long to return to police work here without going through their academy again. Frankly, my body at that time was already worn out. Working night shifts for most of my life, a busted up back, a bad knee, results from injuries on the job and so on just did not lend itself to passing the physical aspect of the academy again. So I took a job my friend offered me at a factory in New Albany.

During this time, I wasn’t going to allow myself to stay on an assembly line, so I made some choices that got me into management and finally an office job.

While in management, I took some of the new fangled manufacturing ideas that came and went. One was called J. I. T., or Just In Time manufacturing. The idea was not to keep a storeroom full of raw material and a warehouse full of stock waiting to move, there by tying up capital, but to make it just as the order was ready and ship it out the door. As usual, this is all well and good in theory, but practicing it is another story. Your vendors, those who supply you with the parts or raw material necessary must also be in a working program of JIT, not getting your material on time will result in you being late manufacturing and shipping.

Then we have employees involved. They get sick, come in late or leave early. They quit and new ones have a training curve. Machinery breaks down or goes offline for maintenance. Inspection or Quality Control finds defects that were missed in the line and now there aren’t enough parts for the shipment. If anything can go wrong, it will. But the inventors and engineers will always say that it is a wonderful production plan, the employees just aren’t smart enough to do it right.

But see, they don’t live in the real world of manufacturing. They come up with these wonderful processes for a perfect industrial world were nothing throws a wrench in the plans. It’s funny, but the poor guy on the assembly line, if he or she stays there long enough, will see many such “ideas” and new miracle innovations come and go. 

Sighing and shaking their head at each one, because no one asked them if it will always be possible to have a perfect timing on the production process.

In the real human world, there is no such thing as “Perfect” timing, or even just in time.

Remember, the bible teaches there are two worlds, the world we see with our human eyes, and the spiritual world, which we can on occasion catch a shadowy glimpse as if we are looking through a frosted up window.

God the father operates in the spiritual world, but Jesus and the Holy Spirit operate in both worlds. Jesus was born to Mary in our world, but returned to the Father in Heaven, but he returned to talk to others before his final assent, as seen in the gospels. Then He sent the Holy Spirit to us, and He abides in all true believers. Jesus did all his works in God’s time, not just in time. The Holy Spirit came in God’s time, not just in time. Calvary happened in God’s time, and Jesus will return in God’s time, not just in time.

See the devil will fight us every inch of the way to keep us from being saved JUST IN TIME. Many will walk out of a church service convinced they will have until next week to come to the altar. But death will find them before that next Sunday.

Romans 13:10-12

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁰ Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
¹¹ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

You are not promised next Sunday, nor tomorrow nor even another minute. The Lord says cast off the works of darkness, cast off your sins, and put on the armor of light, that is Jesus Christ, for the time is closer than you think.

Today I’m giving out tough love. If I didn’t love each and every one of you I would just shrug my shoulders and let you not hear the word of God concerning your state of salvation. See, you either have salvation through Jesus Christ, or you don’t. You either know Jesus as your personal savior and King, or you don’t. There is no middle ground. The middle ground will get you to Hell just as fast as the wide path.

My friends, there is not just in time salvation. If you are waiting for a specific time then it isn’t going to happen. But you say, Bro. Terry, how can you say that; look how old you were before you came to Christ. And I say yes, by the grace of God he allowed me to live long enough to come to my senses, but do you know the things I’ve seen I wish I never had? Do you know the hurt and anguish I’ve been through? Do you know the loves I’ve lost, the regrets I have, the hurt I did to others, all because I refused to come to an alter, when He spoke to me at practically every church I walked into, saying “Come to me”? I’m telling you young person, there may come a time when he may withdraw His calling. He will no longer tug at your heart, he will turn you over to a reprobate mind and harden your heart.

He did it to King Saul in 1 Samuel Chapter 15 verses:

²⁴ And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
²⁵ Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
²⁶ And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel

God turned away from Saul, and not long after, King Saul was dead upon his own sword.

If God is calling you, today is the day to answer. Sin has dragged your soul to hell already and Jesus is the only one who can restore you. You cannot leave here today, and expect God to hear your prayers if you are living a sinful, Godless life. Until you repent of your sins and ask Jesus for forgiveness, your prayers are bouncing off the floor of Heaven. The only prayer God will hear from an unforgiven sinner is a heartfelt prayer for forgiveness and acceptance of Jesus. Then the Heavens and God’s ears will be open to you.

Are you a Just in Time Christian? Thinking you will give in when you are done doing whatever it is you are doing? Maybe when you get older, or if your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife does it? You think you can make it just in time? You are playing with literal fire and eternity to think that my beloved. When you’re young, you think your invincible and life will go on forever. In one sense you’re correct, life will go on forever, but where, heaven or hell?

See, Jesus loves you, that’s why He came. He knows there is no such thing as Just In Time. That’s your time, your idea, not His. I tell you a truth, playing games with your soul and Salvation like that is mocking God, and soon the door could be closed.

Don’t think so?

When the Trumpet for your life blows, when death comes for you, or if Our Lord returns tomorrow, will your words be the words from Jeremiah 8: ²⁰ The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.?

Today is the day of salvation, today is the day of the Lord, today is the day to decide for all eternity which path you choose, for there are no tomorrows, no Just in Time, but NOW IS THE TIME>