God Said So

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

GOD SAID SO

1 Thess 5:1-3

5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

NIV

First, we know without any doubt whatsoever, that Jesus is coming for us. We know whether we are asleep, or dead, or still alive on that day, He is coming to get us and we will float up in the air to meet him. But, just as Paul says here not a single person knows when that will be. Men have waited for over two thousand years plus for his return and many of them expected him to come during their lifetime. But he has not come for us yet and we just do not know when he will return. Now, again, there is the idea of thought that we each experience our own return of the lord or rapture the moment we take our last breath. That is when our body dies, our spirit goes to be with Jesus. But then we would be without our bodies, so then how do the dead in Christ rise first and those still alive would meet him in the air. Another thought which has to include us having our bodies in eternity is the new creation, the new heaven, and the new earth with the new city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven. We are going to live in this new city, Jesus has prepared this place for us, and there we will have an abode, a place to live and walk about on those streets of gold, and eat from the trees that bear fruit all the time. In addition, in this is a place there will be no more tears, it would make sense that we would have eyes that could tear, so we would have a body for those eyes. How all this happens is still a mystery as is the day when all of it will happen. No one knows and so we should live as though it could be today, for, in fact, it could be today. That would be absolutely all right with me, I am ready to leave right now, but at the same time if today is not the day, then I am ready to do that which he has set before me, the path he has me on. His word is a lamp onto my feet, he lights the path, just enough for me to see the next step. We cannot even know our own future must less the future of the whole world or when the destruction will come upon all those who either have not heard or refused to listen. But then Jesus said the gospel will be preached to the whole world, therefor somehow, everyone will have heard, so it simply comes down to those who refuse to accept Jesus will experience the destruction. We will have been taken out, gone, raptured. We have no idea when, but we have the assurance it will be, for it is a reality because Jesus said so, God said so.