Awesome Yet Awful

DEVOTION
2 THESSALONIANS
AWESOME YET AWFUL
2 Thess 1:6-7
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. NIV
He could be nothing else but just. I know some of my un-believing friends would say that a loving caring merciful God could not be just as well. To them he has to be one or the other. Yet he is both. He is just and he will pay back but he has given everyone the opportunity to not get paid back. He has given me relief, rest, relaxation. Jesus has told me that if I was weary and burdened he would give me rest. I have that rest, I have that relief. I do not have to be concerned about the pay back one little bit. Now having said that I am concerned about some of those people who I care about that have refused his relief and are going to be paid back. But how can I change that? It is up to them, not me. I have told them, I have fulfilled my obligation and it is in their court not. Do I keep telling them? I think I am like a broken record, saying the same thing over and over again. It is up to God now. I do think about the coming day when Jesus is revealed. What is it actually going to look like? Will the sky actually be filled with a blazing fire and hoards of powerful angels? What a vision that is. I wonder if it will happen in my lifetime here on earth, or will I witness it from within the heavenly kingdom. Having knowledge of this event does present me with the concept of being ready even now. It is easy to get distracted from this coming event and get so involved in life and what I am going to do tomorrow or next week, next month, next year, or in 5 years that I sometimes hope he will wait until I get all I want to get done completed. Then I remember I need to live as though he is coming back tonight or even right now before I finish this devotion. It is going to happen, of this I am sure. History is not wrong, Jesus ascended and he is coming back, this time filled with glory and power and might to avenge all those who were wronged and belong to him. It will be an awesome, yet awful sight.