Keeping the Watch

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There once were two young men back during the Roman Empire, their jobs were to patrol the walls of their small city and keep watch for any suspicious movement and upon sighting of an enemy force would sound the alarm to alert the city so everyone could get prepared.

 Day after day they would attend their training's and day after day their overseeing commander would remind them that they always much keep watch no matter how calm the times were. And indeed times were at a calm, there was a great peace through much of the Empire.

As time went on the young men started to become complacent and very relaxed about their duties. "There were no enemies this side of the empire," they would say to themselves. "We are at peace, there is no danger."

Within the next few weeks mumblings began spreading through the people of the small city, some were un-content and others had heard that some of the surrounding villages were being stirred up by a shaman of sorts to rebel and attack the city. The commanders warned their men to stay diligent and to keep a sharp eye out.

But they young paid it no mind, "It's just local gossip, nothing more than something from a traveler to scare the folk of this fine city." And they continued to patrol their wall as they always did. 

One day, several weeks later, as they were patrolling their section of the wall they looked around quickly to make sure that none of their officers were nearby. Seeing that they were alone and no one was watching, they sat down and proceeded to have a few drinks. As they were sitting down they could not see over the wall and could not see that there was a large force of the surrounding villages creeping out of the fields and woodlands coming to attack the city.

They came closer and closer, keeping as quiet as they could. The young men stood up thinking they had heard something, they looked over the wall and saw the force just coming upon it! They quickly went to sound the alarms, but several archers took aim and killed the young men. 

The army breached the wall with their ladders and stormed the city, in a few hours the city was in ruins and it's inhabitants slaughtered. 

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In our daily walks as Christians, there has become an atmosphere of laziness within this last generation. Time and time again in the Bible we have been warned that we need and that we must "Keep Watch", but time and again in this day and age we have allowed ourselves to become complacent and comfortable with where we are when in reality we should be very uncomfortable and ever diligent to keeping a sharp eye out.

"I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint." Habakkuk 2:1

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." Matthew 25:13

"But understand this:If the owner of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into." Matthew 24:43

"But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat." Nehemiah 4:9

We need to wake up from the complacent people that we've allowed ourselves to become. The Devil is at our door waiting to consume who he can.

We need to wake up to the sin that is all around us, and call out the warning call to those that walk among it. 

Time to keep a watch, for we "do not know the day or hour of the second coming." 

Think about it.

God Bless, 

     Ryan