The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Philippians 1:9-11,
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in
knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern
what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus
Christ—to the glory and praise of God."
Among the requests in Paul's prayer for his readers is that they be
"pure and blameless for the day of Christ." This part of his prayer
points to the calender of events we look ahead to in God's workings.
There is a day we look forward to, a day Paul refers to as "the day of
Christ" that grows closer as our calendars tick off the days, one by
one. There are only so many days remaining in this life as we know it
before we come to this day marked on God's calendar. The Lord is
coming back to planet Earth, just as certainly as he visited here over
two thousand years ago. His visit will be markedly different, however.
The writer of Hebrews tells us, "Just as people are destined to die
once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once
to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not
to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."
Hebrews 9:27-28.
I am certain most all of us believers look forward with very excited
anticipation as we await the Lord's calendar of events. We may not
know the dates, but we do know of some things that are marked on that
calendar. We know the Lord is coming back for us, with his salvation
in hand. We know our current bodies are going to undergo a
transformation. A little later in this letter Paul says, "Our
citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring
everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that
they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21.
A pointed and much beloved text on the Lord's return for us comes from
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17, "We believe that Jesus died and rose again,
and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen
asleep in him. According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who
are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will
certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord
himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the
voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead
in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are
left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." Whether we
are dead by that time or are still alive and remaining, it will be an
amazing event, exciting beyond anything that could possibly be
imagined!
Something I never forget is the atmosphere, what kind of an experience
it will be for us all. In Jude 24-25 we read, "To him who is able to
keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious
presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior
be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."
Without fault (whew!!!) and with great joy!!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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