"For the Lord Himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet
of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the
Lord. Therefore comfort one another with
these words" (I
Thess. 4:16-18).
Hey Gang: I believe all, who have their head screwed on
and their brain active, would agree there are very ominous clouds gathering
over our world, And the Word tells us that the days ahead are not going to be
times when we want to be here. But, as I
read the Word, I find so much more to rejoice and sing praises for -BUT we have
to dig them out!
This morning I
read a neat article in the ‘Israel My Glory’ monthly newsletter rand it rang my
bell. The thing that caught my attention
was the very first sentence in the article, "Imagine someone loving you so much He wants you to live in a place He
has prepared for you in His presence forever.
His name is Jesus; and as the troubles and trials of life oppress us, we
need to remember what the early believers knew:
Jesus is coming for His church". Now if that does not ring the cockles of your
heart you best check to see if you have a pulse.
Several months
back our Pastor, whose message theme for the morning was
"Expectations", used an interesting illustration that we should all
take to heart. The Word is very clear: one
day we will all stand before Father God. How would you answer God's question,
"Why should I allow you to spend eternity with me? Something to ponder as your go through your
day.
Getting back
to the subject at hand, what an awesome reality for the Believer/Christ
follower is a day is coming, and most Bible guru's believe that day is near,
when the believing church will be caught up - snatched away, to be with the
Lord. The early church believed so
strongly that Jesus would return during their life- times that they greeted each
other with the word 'Maranatha', meaning "O Lord, Come" (1 Cor.
16:22).
Jesus said, “Listen up sheep, I do not want you to be unaware of what is
going to come when it appears that everything that can be shaken is going to be
shaken, "If (notice that little trigger word - "IF") “IF I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also"
(John 14:3).
My mother was
known as a traveler. It was said that
she should have been buried in her 1963 Pontiac because she spent large
portions of her later years traveling from one coast to the other. My bride and I adopted her modus operandi and made a vow that we
would see as much of this great country as we can before we became too infirmed
to drive. We have seen fabulously
beautiful places like the Grand Teton Mountains, Ice bergs of Alaska,
Jerusalem
– the Holy City, but I assure you, not one of them is even a teeny-weeny bit as
wonderful as the heavenly home prepared for the His Church, which is also
called the Bride of Christ.
So, my
brothers and sisters in Christ make sure your lamps are full and your eyes
focused on the One who said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” Have you got your wedding dresses or tuxedos
prepared for that day when we, God's children, will be invited to the wedding
feast of the Lamb.
Blessings,
Gramps
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