Be ready for the biggest deadline of all

I just received a phone message from the Nevada Appeal. I was informed that I missed my deadline for getting this column to them. OOPS!

A couple of times a year the city publishes the names of people who missed the deadline for paying property taxes. OOPS!

Often I follow an online auction and wait to place my bid, only to miss the deadline. OOPS!

There are two deadlines that none of us will miss.

In speaking of His Second Coming, Jesus said in Matthew 25:13, "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." If we are still living, we won't miss that deadline.

The ultimate deadline is made up of the first four letters of that word. DEAD! We won't miss that deadline either. The facts are laid out in Hebrews 9:27. "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment."

The apostle John heard a voice from Heaven that he recorded in Revelation 14:13. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!"

The key to those ultimate deadlines is to be ready. Because of Jesus, and only because of Him, we can be ready.

• Bruce Henderson is pastor of Airport Road Church of Christ in Carson City.