1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
A week ago our family here had an interesting discussion about prophetic things and the amazing events that are going on in the world even now. My dad read some very thought provoking letters from a friend of his. Among other things, the brother was admonishing Christians to live above the fear and trembling and chaos that is developing, knowing that for us this is merely an observation seat. We are not in the seat of condemnation.
In the course of our discussion, and it may have been mentioned in one of the letters, we touched upon the fact that so many Christians are looking for the wrong things right now. They are watching for catastrophe, persecutions, troubles, famine, war, etc. – anything and everything except Jesus Christ! Our joy, our hope, our desire should always and foremost be the Lord Jesus Christ. While the events and labor pains of the world around us may be interesting, shocking and fearful; we should always and ever be looking for one thing alone – God’s Son from heaven.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
--------------------
The Lord Himself
It is not for a sign we are watching...
For wonders above and below
The pouring of vials of judgment,
The sounding of trumpets of woe;
It is not for a Day we are looking
Not even the time yet to be
When the earth shall be filled with God's glory
As the waters cover the sea;
It is not for a King we are longing
To make the world-kingdoms His own;
It is not for a Judge who shall summon
The nations of earth to His throne.
Not for these, though we know they are coming;
For they are but adjuncts of Him,
Before whom all glory is clouded,
Beside whom all splendor grows dim.
We wait for the Lord, our Beloved,
Our Comforter, Master and Friend,
The substance of all that we hope for,
Beginning of faith and its end;
We watch for our Saviour and Bridegroom,
Who loved us and made us His own;
For Him we are looking and longing;
For Jesus, and Jesus alone.
Annie Johnson Flint
Philippians 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
No comments:
Post a Comment