Anticipation!

"He's coming soon, ... with joy we welcome His returning!" The song came to mind as I walked in the early morning dawn. The streaks in the eastern sky made me think of the coming of His Kingdom. The hope of Jesus' return for His Church is as old as Christianity. In times good and bad, that blessed hope draws us to faithfulness, to serve our Lord; or does it? Have we become so settled in this life, such creatures of this present age, that little desire for the Second Coming of the Lord remains?

The Apocalypse, the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is a key to understanding our faith, yet so often we either ignore it or we torture all kinds of strange interpretations from it. In vivid picture language, John wrote to a persecuted church to encourage them to stand fast, to endure the onslaught of evil. Behind every word of encouragement there is the promise: the Day is coming when all will be set right by the coming the Lord! "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. ... He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:12-13,20, NIV) The Second Coming is not a minor doctrine, tucked into the Scripture as a footnote in the Church's doctrines! Though some of us treat it as such, it God's summation of it all: the moment when the tension of the storyline of salvation is resolved!

Jesus Christ referred to the Second Coming often. He said it meant the arrival of the Kingdom of God in perfection! "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:27-28, NIV)

Paul urged the Church to remember her hope was in the coming of the Lord. "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, NIV)

I confess that am was one of those who made this glorious truth a minor part of my faith for too long. I was put off by the kooky, spooky, goofy teachings that were wrapped around it by those more interested in attracting a crowd by spinning their myths than by urging the Church to hopeful holiness! I repent!

Now, every day I look forward to the coming of Lord. The promise does not make me less engaged with life, less concerned for the care of Creation, or without compassion for the lost and hungry around me. On the contrary! The coming of the Lord is the most powerful motivation to faithful steady discipleship. John says, "Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:2-3, NLT)

Are you looking for the coming of the Lord?
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Mystery

Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity
Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity

Bread of heaven broken for me
Cup of Salvation held out to drink
Jesus, mystery
Christ has died and
Christ is risen
Christ will come again

Celebrate His death and rising
Lift your eyes proclaim His coming
Celebrate His death and rising
Lift your eyes lift your eyes
Christ has died and
Christ is risen
Christ will come again

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