Liz wrote:
 
<<That time just before dawn is the hardest
to stay awake!  That's where I feel we are right now and I really need
your help to stay watchful.  That brings me to my question.  Can any of
you help me with a verse in Matthew 25 that has always troubled me?
Verse 5  says they *all* (wise and foolish) slumbered and slept before
the bridegroom arrived. Will we all fall into a state of slumber eventually?  I hope my fellow
watchers can ease my fears on this!>>
 
This is just my thoughts on this. I have thought also a lot on this subject as I'm sure we all have. Every time that a very good candidate for a possible date comes along and we all build up our collective hopes, (and some of us have been doing this for a long long time...) only to watch the day come and go again... It can get very discouraging to say the least. But I suddenly think to myself what did we expect, He said the Bridegroom tarried. Meaning we are going to be looking for Him at an expected time and He will not come then, but will be "later" than we expected. So much so that it will feel like "midnight" as in way past the time we would have thought would be normal... I really think that Jesus was actually speaking specifically about us - each of us - He knew who we would be and how we would be watching right here on the Five Doves and so forth... Okay, so He wanted to encourage us that everything is just as He said it would be and not to give ! ;up so He gave us this example to consider.
 
Just imagine the scenario He painted. Suppose that you went out somewhere to meet someone and they did not show up at the expected time, Just as Jesus described. You know that they are coming so you don't just leave. But you start to get tired so you look for a place to sit down. Then after a longer time you feel like you'd like to recline a little bit so you find a spot on the lawn or something and lie down. Without meaning to you drift off into a light slumber. It is in this state that the shout finally happens "Behold the Bridegroom, Go ye out to meet Him..." I feel that the point that Jesus wanted us all to understand is this. He never says that it was wrong that we all fall asleep. I don't believe that the sleep even refers to or indicates a state of unwatchfulness, but rather to a state of being unaccustomed to the miraculous. In other words I think it means that if you consider who we are today, even the most enlightened amon! g us, the most sincere and most faithful, those of us who have been longing for Jesus for many years, no matter how much we have been preparing our hearts and lives for this colossal event, we simply are not going to be able to keep from being totally surprised anyway! Just because of the day in which we live. It's a technological world and most of us have never really seen the kinds of miracles that Jesus can do, ya know? There is simply nothing in my entire life's experience that can compare to or prepare me for seeing a Man floating down out of the clouds to invite me to come up and join Him. The idea is that the place where they fell asleep was not a normal place like their bed at home, but rather some unfamiliar roadside or something. To be in a state like that, having drifted off to sleep and then suddenly be awakened by a shout  (Wha.ha..!? Where am I...?") that the one whom you are awaiting has just arrived is no doubt going to cause you to be somewhat dis! oriented and cause you to have to scramble for your bearings. It is only at this particular moment the the difference between the wise and foolish becomes apparent. The wise are those who are able to come to grips with this moment because they brought the oil of the Holy Spirit with them to enlighten their path at this dark midnight hour. The foolish are those who suddenly find that they are unable to come to grips with this event and they begin asking the wise to help them see as clearly as they do. Just think how you will really feel if all of the sudden a noise like a trumpet of God fills the entire sky and there's a shout and the voice of an archangel announces Jesus and suddenly graves start opening all over the world at once and you realize that this is it! Will you run towards The Man floating down from the sky or away from Him? Remember Joshua to the stranger just before entering the promised land, He asked Him are you for us of for our adversary? The answer was, "Take ! off your shoes this is Holy Ground..." See, Joshua didn't know just by looking and had to ask but once informed he was able to accept it. May we all be so able at His appearing for us.
Barry Amundsen