Where is Everyone?

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.  
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NLT)
My son John lives in Avon Park, a small community in central Florida. When he heard that I planned to spend Easter weekend with him, he went online to see just how far we would have to travel to find a special Easter service. Don’t get me wrong, every service that exalts our Lord and Savior is special. John and I are just spoiled from years of attending mega-churches.
   John decided that we should attend the 9 AM service at Grace Bible Church in Sebring, Florida. He arrived at my motel which was just about a mile from the church at 9:40. We were in the church parking lot by 9:45.
   The problem was there were no other cars. There were no other people, and there was no sign on the door to explain what happened.
   “John, I said, “The rapture happened, and we missed it!”
   I paused to consider the frightening consequences of being left behind. John interrupted my cogitation with an explanation: the Easter service had been moved to a coliseum on the other side of town. It was only a ten-minute drive, so we were in our seats before the service began. The music was familiar, there were baptisms, and the pastor gave a memorable message in which he started with Genesis and touched on all the books of the Bible, giving a short explanation of how all 66 of them point to Jesus.
   As we left the service I thought about my comment, “The rapture happened, and we missed it.” Of course, we didn’t. But what if it happens tomorrow, or the next day? Am I ready? Are you ready? Is anyone ready?  
The Bible tells us there is a way to be sure we are ready:
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  Romans 10:9 
The message from Romans is, “Don’t be bashful about your faith. Better to be embarrassed, criticized, mocked, or condemned than to one day find yourself standing in an empty parking lot wondering where all the Christians went.