Living In The Light Of His Coming

LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF HIS COMING

I Thess. 5:1-11 "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

Jesus is coming again! Just as surely as the members of that first church saw the resurrected Christ ascend into the heavens in the company of two heavenly escorts, we can have confidence in the validity of His promise to return. The surety of His coming was confirmed by the proclamation of His heavenly escort and messenger, "Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." One of His last precious and infallible promises given to reassure His followers on the night preceding His crucifixion was, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I WILL COME AGAIN, to receive unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." His very last Words on the subject are found in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible. The fact of His Second Coming and the need to affirm it seems so important that He repeated his promise three times. "Behold I come quickly: blessed is he that keepth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." (Rev. 22:7) "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Verse 12) "He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Verse 20)

Is Jesus coming again? I believe so. People are thinking about the end of the world today more than ever before. Many books are being written about matters of the end time. Popular secular movies focus on apocalyptic events. New Age gurus with Messiah complexes mix a little fact with a lot of fancy to manipulate followers to participate in terrible, tragic and futile acts. Every earthquake, natural disaster, shocking crime, political or military disaster, mass famine, threat of world-wide disease or plague; reminds us of the signs of the end times so clearly outlined by our Saviour. Every news report of the increase and continuation of conflict, violence and terrorism in our world, especially in the Middle East,; seems to herald the soon coming of our Savior.

I believe His return is imminent. The prophetic clock of God’s eternal time table is ticking. No angel or demon can hinder or stop it’s progress. Man has a date with destiny. God’s eternal purpose will be consummated. No mortal man, priest or potentate, rich or poor, popular or powerful, can stop the ticking of God’s prophetic clock. Every grain of sand trickling through the hour glass of time brings us closer to the climatic events predicted in the Word of God. We cannot stop time, but we can put it to good use. We can do as the prophet said, "Prepare to meet our God.." We can follow the advice of the wise man and, "..redeem the time." Or as one poet has said, "In time, take time, while time does last. For time is not time, when time is past." In order to wisely live in these times we are commanded to be watchful. In order to be watchful we need to be informed about future events of the Second Coming. We need to know some scriptural answers to some simple questions. But more than this, we need to know how we should respond to the fact of His imminent return. We not only need to know, but we should be LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF HIS COMING!