Expecting His Return

by Gene Easley  

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel; and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: And so shall we ever be with the Lord”          (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).  

    When we see new fightings and uprisings in the land of Israel, our focus seems to turn again to Bible prophecy and God's plan for the last days.  And especially when, as from time to time we hear some of the Jewish people begin to declare their interest in reclaiming the old temple site, we know that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is near at hand.  Jesus said, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up; and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28).

    How close are we to the coming of Christ? Jesus said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times" (Matthew 16:3)?  We may not know exactly how close we are to the coming of the Lord, but Jesus seems to be telling us that we should be able to discern the fact that we are very close.  If we have any spiritual discernment at all, we should recognize the signs of the times.  I realize that there are those who laugh at and ridicule those of us who look forward to the sound of that last trump.  They call us "escapists."  But the Bible says He is coming for those who look for Him and for those who love His appearing.

    There is nothing in this world worth clinging to.  There should be no possessions that make us want to linger until we can obtain them.  Yes, we want to win souls for Christ.  We want to fulfill His will in our lives.  But the really essential thing on this journey (for which our hearts long) is going home.

    The Greek word for church, "ekklesia," means "called out."  By our very definition as the church, we were not meant to stay around.  We have not been assigned to remain here and make this world a haven in which to live.  We are pilgrims, passing through; we are called out to be caught up--destined for the rapture of the body of Christ.  Destined for an eternal home.

    May God restore to the church that expectancy of His coming.  May we again learn the joy of looking up, lifting up our heads toward heaven, and expecting to hear a trumpet sound.  We really have no time to bemoan our failures or gloat in our successes.  Jesus warned that we need to change our focus from building our kingdoms here to that of laying up treasures in heaven.

    There will soon be a great tribulation come upon this world.  The nation of Israel will again play a part in God's plan for this earth.  Shortly, this world will see trouble as it has never seen before.  Men's hearts will fail them as they look at the coming events.  This world will be turned upside down.

    Even so, we are looking for the coming of the Lord who will descend from heaven with a shout.  And the Bible says, "…the dead in Christ shall rise first" (1 Thessalonians 5:16b).  Then we who are alive are going to be caught up.  May God help us to keep an expectancy for Christ’s soon return.  That's what this life is all about! Glory!

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"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).