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DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

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Luke 17:22-25

22 Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

NIV

Jesus is telling his disciples there is a day coming when he is going to no longer be with them in the flesh, and from the time he leaves until he comes back there are going to be all sorts of false reports of someone being him or of his return. There is much more Jesus tells his disciples about his return but we need to parcel it in order the get all the truth. Here we see that Jesus assures them although he is going away, he will return and when he does the whole sky is going light up, flashes and lighting will cover the whole sky, all over the earth. They is not going to be any mistaking his return. The question is whether Jesus is taking about his ultimate return to earth to destroy evil once and for all, or his return in the sky to call the saints. When the rest of what he says especially about two in bed or in the field and one will be taken and one left, we have to conclude this return he is speaking about is to gather the believers in the sky to himself or as we have named it, the rapture. It is not going to be as if the day is just a normal day and all of a sudden all the believers disappear and the rest of the world wonders what happened. The day of the rapture is going to be like no other day mankind has ever seen. Those who do not believe will see the event which will be larger than life. The complete sky is going to be filled with lighting flashes, believers who have already died, they bodies will be coming out of the graves and we who are still alive will begin to float off this planet, much in the same way Jesus ascended into heaven with people staring, watching him disappear into the clouds. It will be a sight which everyone will see, no one will miss it, and they will all know they have been left behind. In some sense that will be sad, for everyone has the opportunity to know and accept Jesus, because God has declared it so. Religion will not save us, church will not save us, and good deeds, even perfection, will not save us, only Jesus can save us. The truth remains, he is coming back for the believers, for those who put their faith in him for salvation. Jesus is also going to say the he who tries to keep his life will lose it, but who loses his life will preserve it. We need to ensure we are not distracted by anything while we are waiting and watching for the sky to be filled with lighting from one end to the other. That is when he will be in the sky calling us to come to him. Although we might enjoy some of the things of this world, they pale in comparison to the day we wait for. We need to ensure we are truly waiting for that day, not getting overly attached to the things, whatever they are, however much or little they are, or perhaps even our pattern of life, our religious life. No, we need to always be keeping our eyes upon the eastern sky, for our redemption draweth nigh, look up.