Going back to my previous post, no one knows the day of
Christ’s return. We long for it. We wait for it. We even pray for it. But no
one knows because it comes as a thief in the night. In fact, when the day
comes, everyone will be saying, “Peace and safety!” It’s going to be a time
when people are living their lives as if everything is going well. They will be
going about their daily business with no thought for the future. And then it
happens! Sudden destruction.
Wait a second. Weren’t we just talking about the rapture of
the church? Christians going to Paradise? Yes, we were. But when the rapture
occurs, billions of lost people will be left behind to endure tribulation.
Seven years of tribulation. And the Bible calls the last 3 ½ year Great
Tribulation. Read about it in Daniel and Revelation. This is the four horsemen
of the apocalypse. Hail stones as big as a truck. And so much more. Billions of
people will die, and there will be no escape.
Look at v. 4 in 1 Thessalonians again. “But you, brethren,
are not in darkness….” This day, even though we don’t know when it will be,
will not overtake Christians as a thief. Why? Because we are watching and
waiting. Because we know the signs of the times (Read Matthew 24 and
following). Because we are called to be ready for that day. What do I mean by
that? We are sons and daughters of the light, not darkness. Of the day, not
night. In other words, every day of our lives should be lived walking in holiness
– living for Jesus. So when the day comes, we will hear the shout and the
trumpet blast, and then we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye. And we will join our Messiah in the sky.
Paul describes this in a way as watching and waiting with
all of our senses keenly aware that at any moment Jesus will return. And what
should we be doing? Living lives of faith and love, filled with hope because we
are the sons and daughters of God.
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