“For the Lord Himself
will descend
from heaven with a
shout, with the
voice of an
archangel, and with the
trumpet of God. And
the dead in
Christ shall rise
first. Then we who
are alive and remain
shall be caught
up together with them
in the clouds
to meet the Lord in
the air. And thus
we shall always be
with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one
another
with these words.”
1 Thessalonians
4:16-18 (NKJV)
The older I get, the more
I think about heaven and that’s understandable. But the return of Christ
should be on the minds of all believers, young and old alike! It’s so
exciting to think about when the Lord will descend from heaven and we will be
caught up with Him and never leave!
We’re told to comfort one
another with these truths, and that’s what one dear sister and I do after
church almost every Sunday. For example, she’ll say, when the roll is called up
yonder, I’ll be there – and I’ll smile and say me too! Or I’ll say, we need to
keep looking up, it could be any day now — and she’ll smile and say amen!
Remembering the promise of
Christ’s return is encouraging not only on good days but especially on days
that are a struggle. When you can hardly bear to read the headlines in
the news anymore, when you see the moral decline in our society getting worse,
when you're weary of all the sin and pain in this world ---that’s when it’s
truly a comfort to think about the Lord coming for us.
We should be waiting with
expectation for Christ to come again, but that doesn’t mean we check out and
just sit around until His return. No, this is a time to be busy serving the
Lord and sharing His good news to a lost world. Because we don’t want to
be ashamed when He comes; we want to be found busy doing His work.
So watch for Him and work
while there is still time. Come Lord Jesus, come!