What To Think Of A “Check Please” Christian

by Kevin Burton

   God knows this, so you might as well know it too. 

   Right now, you could call me a “check please” Christian.

   You get the reference, right?  In American situation comedies there is this line that writers use. I’ve seen the line delivered over and over in any number of shows.
   There is a dinner date. For the male lead, this date is going either very badly, or very well. Whichever, the idea is to move on quickly to whatever is coming next, to get away from this woman or to get more comfortable with this woman in another setting.

   The actor sticks one hand in the air and says, “check please!”

    That’s me. My country has been turned over to Nazis. I was extremely pessimistic when this happened. Amazingly the start of this has gone even worse than I thought. I want out, the sooner the better.

   You know who else was a check please follower of God? Jonah. God told Jonah to witness to the Ninevites, a Nazi-like nation at the time that had been exceedingly cruel to the people of Israel. Jonah said no.

   To put the geography of what happened in an American context, it’s as if God told Jonah to go to Augusta, Maine to witness, whereupon he immediately set out for Honolulu.

   But God put a storm in Jonah’s way, so he couldn’t get away from God’s will. You know the story. Jonah told the sailors he was travelling with to throw him into the sea so the storm would subside. He was  not expecting to be swallowed by a whale. He was expecting to die.

   In essence Jonah said, “check please.”

   Well God had other plans for Jonah. Chances are he has other plans for me as well.

   In a different context, the Apostle Paul was torn between staying with believers on earth to help with their development and to continue to spread the gospel of Christ, and to go on to Heaven to be with Christ.

    “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

    “But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:”

   “Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith” (Phil. 1 21-25, KJV).

   When Christ was persecuted and killed unjustly, He stayed the course, He didn’t bail. On a cruel Roman cross, He fulfilled God’s plan for your salvation and mine. So though I feel like checking out on life, I don’t have that prerogative.

   “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price,” Paul wrote to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 6:19b-20a).

   So I need to be about God’s business, even though it is unpleasant just now, until such time as he calls me home.

   So we don’t have a check please move we can make. But the good news is, a grand event is coming in which believers will be called up to Heaven to meet Jesus.  For some reason this event is called the rapture, even though the word rapture does not appear in the Bible.

   Nevertheless, the rapture is when Jesus says in effect, “that’s enough.”

    Here is what www.gotquestions.org has to say about the rapture. It’s a great comfort for believers, a great warning for the unsaved:
   “The rapture is coming, and we should all make sure we are ready for it. Being ready for the rapture is much simpler than you may think. In short, you must receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. The rapture is for believers.”

    “Here is a clear prophecy of the rapture of the church:

    “For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

   “Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.Therefore, ^[c]comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18 NASB).

   Note that Paul is writing to believers concerning those who are “in Christ” and thus have the promise of resurrection. Those who are saved are ready for the rapture.
   The unsaved are not ready for the rapture. In fact, that day of the Lord (which begins with the rapture) will come upon the unsaved “like a thief in the night”  (1 Thess. 5:2. Those who are left behind in the rapture will be those who do not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within them.”

   “Believers are ready: ‘You, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4).
   “Are you ready for the rapture?” is the very important question in the passage. “Jesus knows His own, and He will come for them (John 10:14 and John 14:1-3). The only way you will be left behind in the rapture is if you have not received Christ as your Savior.

   If you are not saved, then today is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).  Do not delay another moment. Trust Christ now.