Your church prepares you for judgment day

_This week, I’m getting away with the family for a few days for some rest and refreshing. I’ve picked a few blog posts from the archives to run this week until I am back in the saddle.

Here’s one from a couple years ago about the church preparing us for Judgment Day._ One reason that Christians need to be part of a church too often goes unmentioned. Advertise on TGC I need

the church in order to be prepared for the Day of Judgment! It is frightening to think that I would allow myself to be the sole judge of my spiritual condition here on earth. I know how

easily I deceive myself. Am I so bold as to say I am the best judge of my spiritual character? No… I need the church to affirm my faith in Christ, to assure me when I doubt, and to lovingly

rebuke me when I err. Judgment day is coming! Have you ever noticed that older people tend be more faithful to church than young people? This isn’t true everywhere, of course. But even in

multi-generational churches, it’s often the older people who are the most faithful. There may be a variety of reasons for this fact, but I think one reason is clear: _people who are older

know that the Day of the Lord is drawing near._ Either Jesus will soon come back, or they will soon go see Jesus. And the closer you get to the end of your life, the more likely a Christian

is going to realize the seriousness of walking with Christ. Why is that so many people showed up at church after September 11? Why is the youth group room filled whenever a young person is

killed in a car crash? Because, for a moment, we are shaken out of our slumber. The brevity of life hits us hard. We realize that life is short and that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. If

you live for Christ well, you will die with him well. One aspect of the Christian life is preparation for dying well. One of the benefits of answering the summons of King Jesus to gather

with the church – to be shaped by our confession and our practices, to be strengthened by the Body of Christ – is that it prepares you to be the kind of person who can face death boldly. You

are shaped into someone who can deal with death. When your wife has the sudden car crash, when your child dies of swine flu, when you get the bad diagnosis… The Christian can boldly look

death in the eye and say, “You’re an enemy of God’s good creation. I’ll fight you with every fiber of my being. But even if I succumb to the cold clutches of death, I know that you are

defeated. Your sting is gone. I will soon be with my Savior who has conquered you, and even my grave will one day release my glorified body.” And it’s your fellow church members who will

minister to you, comfort you, cry with you, and – eventually – mourn your death and rejoice over your life. _first posted in August 2010_ TREVIN WAX is vice president of research and

resource development at the North American Mission Board and a visiting professor at Cedarville University. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin is a regular columnist at The Gospel

Coalition and has contributed to _The Washington Post_, _World_, and _Christianity Today_. He has taught courses on mission and ministry at Wheaton College and has lectured on Christianity

and culture at Oxford University. He is a founding editor of The Gospel Project, has served as publisher for the Christian Standard Bible, and is currently a fellow for The Keller Center for

Cultural Apologetics. He is the author of multiple books, including _The Thrill of Orthodoxy_, _The Multi-Directional Leader_, _Rethink Your Self_, _This Is Our Time_, and _Gospel Centered

Teaching_. His podcast is _Reconstructing Faith_. He and his wife, Corina, have three children. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook, or receive his columns via email.