[Darris McNeely] How suddenly is sudden? Or, how sudden is suddenly? Well, as we've learned in this COVID-19 pandemic, it can be very quickly, it can be virtually overnight. Think back to January, when we began to hear of a virus that came out of China reported out of Wuhan Province and the whole city over there shutdown. Thinking though, it can't and won't get to us, won't be in America, won't be in Britain, won't be in our parts of the world and then February comes and we began to see reports of it and then, the calendar turns to March and it's in our neighborhood. And suddenly, things change virtually overnight. President Trump went on and locked down our borders with all flights out coming in from Europe. The NBA changed its schedule, and ultimately soccer and other sporting events around the world were canceled as well as the Tokyo Olympics. And suddenly, we were working from home. Suddenly we were quarantined and in lockdown and all that we think about is this pandemic and its impact upon our life. And as we learned, suddenly means sudden, it means very quickly.

Christ talked about this and one of His key prophecies, really the key prophecy of the Olivet prophecy that He gave. The interesting passage is in Mark 13 beginning of verse 33, where He tells His disciples to take heed to watch and pray because you do not know when the time is, the time of the events of His coming. And as we look at what we're going through, we have a big lesson to learn from this. He goes on to say, "It's like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to each his work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch." Christ is the man going into the far country here, the servants are His disciples and they are to keep watching, to keep doing and working under his authority. He goes on in verse 35, "Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster or in the morning. Lest he come in and suddenly he finds you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all, watch."

Suddenly, the master could come back and if the disciples were not careful, they will not be watching and they would be sleeping. So, again, I ask, how sudden is suddenly?

Well, it's pretty quick as we have learned in what we're living through right now with this virus. And there's a big lesson for us to take from Christ's words. And that is to watch, to understand our times, to understand the Bible, Bible prophecy, to understand even our own life in relation to God and the relationship that we have.

How are you coping with what has taken place? How is it impacting your life? Is there fear? Is there courage? Is there uncertainty? Were you prepared? Most of us probably weren't as prepared as we would like to be, but I think that most of us want to think that if something happens again, we will be better prepared.

We can take certain steps because emotionally and spiritually, we do want to be careful and we want to be prepared for any type of trial that comes and certainly something that is as large as what this pandemic is.

The prophecies that Jesus was speaking to here are bigger prophecies to come before His coming at the end of the age and what we're living through right now is giving us an opportunity to pause and to consider. I think God is testing us and wanting us to learn. And one of the big lessons is to watch and to pray, to be vigilant because when things happen, they can happen suddenly. And that's exactly what it means. So be aware, be watchful.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.