Coming Back!

Does the God of heaven occupy your thoughts?  Do you think about the Lord’s return?   Are you yearning, longing to go home?  Do you think of the Lord’s return ushering you into a whole new life.  The key to peace and happiness in this life is that another, better life waits for those who are in Christ Jesus.    Yet, the Lord’s return to this earth is often viewed by Christians with anxiety, or even worse fear, focusing on judgment, punishment, and destruction.   Why is that?   I believe it is Satan’s attempt to rob us of the hope and peace that are inherent in His coming.   Satan’s greatest weapon is to deceive us to fear that day rather than long for it. 

Literally each moment we must choose our priorities and where we allow our thoughts to take us.  This is a real battle that competes for our minds in wanting to please ourselves, wanting the things we see, and being too proud of what we have.   Christians living in comfort are at great risk of choosing this world.  Don’t let Satan fool you. 

Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about those Christians who have died so you will not be sad, as others who have no hope.¹⁴ We believe that Jesus died and that he rose again. So, because of him, God will raise with Jesus those who have died.¹⁵ What we tell you now is the Lord's own message. We who are living when the Lord comes again will not go before those who have already died.¹⁶ 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 those who have died believing in Christ will rise first.¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.¹⁸ So encourage each other with these words.  I Thessalonians 4:13-18

Our Lord is coming back and the promise of His return is a source of hope, a light to look to, and an anchor to hold us firm IF, we allow it to be.   Choose it, accept it at face value, meditate on it, and encourage one another with the reminder that He is coming back.  When Christ comes again, those who belong to Him will be raised to life.  The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.  The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed.  Death is destroyed forever in victory.   (I Corinthians 15 NCV)   Choose to make His return your joy, your song, your peace, and your hope.   Let this promise cause us to be people whose heart-felt prayer is summed up in the words “Come Lord Jesus”.

Scotty Elston
Shallowater, Texas