The Gathering

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

THE GATHERING

Mark 13:24-27

24 "But in those days, following that distress, "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'   26 "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

NIV

This is the day in which we leave this place once and for all, except of course when we return to rule and reign with Christ for those one thousand years. If we took the time to read the whole of the section of Isaiah which Jesus is quoting from we would see a horrible day for those who are classified as sinners, or those who have refused to accept Jesus as they Lord and Savior. We, of course are part of his elect which will be gathered by his angels from all over the world where we will meet our Lord in the clouds. This is what is referred to as the rapture of the church, which of course those words do not appear in the scripture, but nevertheless, that is what is going to happen. We will be gathered, or collected in one place, taken up to where Jesus is. Certainly some people might use this passage to claim we will go through the times of distress, and maybe we will, but there have been times of distress for the people of Israel many times from the time of Christ to the present day. They have been taken in to captivity and they have been slathered by the thousands. They might say they have experienced many years of distress but they will survive until the day of the Lord. We might also consider they are the ones who are the elect or the favorite who are gathered, as the Jews have been his chosen people, if it were not for the fact that God has told us through Paul that the true Jews are not those who are merely circumcised in the flesh, but the true Israel is made us of those who are circumcised of the heart. Thus we would have to conclude the elect are those who have been circumcised of the heart. That is for each of us to determine for ourselves whether we have allowed God to circumcise our hearts, to cut away that portion which covers the most sensitive portion of the body. This is the core of who we are, the heart, the center of our being, our very inner most self. Are we truly looking for this day of the Lord to come, or do we still want more of our own life, to accomplish more for our own self, to gather more things, to still improve our lot in life, to strive for a greater amount of material goods, to desire, to lust, to want? Have we truly been circumcised of the heart? Can we say with confidence that we are God’s favorite people? Have we put our whole heart into trusting Jesus or have we kept a portion of it for our self? It may well take the whole heart to make it into the gathering.