Looking Forward!

Are you anticipating Christmas? It is the most anticipated holiday on our annual calendar. Kids start to dream about Christmas gifts in October. Decorations appear in many places weeks in advance. Christians observe the season of Advent, remembering the arrival of the Baby in Bethlehem and the promise of the Second Coming of the King of Glory - or do they?  For many the lovely story of a baby’s birth, angel’s songs, and worshipping shepherds largely obscures the promise of the Return of the Lord.  Yet, there is great hope to be found when we renew our hope, looking forward.

Paul was inspired to write to the little band of Believers in Thessalonica around 55 A.D. about that very thing. They were going through tough times, rejected by friend and family for their faith, persecuted by an empire that thought of them as subversives who undermined the stability of society. They were not told to minimize their troubles or even to pray for prosperity, amazingly enough to us modern Christians. Rather, the Word tells them to focus on the promise of coming justice.  

"God will use this persecution to show his justice. For he will make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering, and in his justice he will punish those who persecute you. And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven.

He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power when he comes to receive glory and praise from his holy people. And you will be among those praising him on that day, for you believed what we testified about him." (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, NLT)

Christians anticipate the rest and reward He will bring, joyfully offering worship to Christ, the King. The Believers are assured that the Spirit will work in them to keep them secure, that He will ‘make them worthy.’  The message of the Second Coming was not and never should be a source of fear to those who are ‘in Christ.’  It is our “Blessed Hope.”  We do not save ourselves nor is the reward conditioned on our perfection. We welcome the King who is full of grace, who works in us and through us to ‘transform us into beings of light.’

But, His justice will also bring ‘destruction’ and separation for those who refuse the goodness of the Lord! What a sobering truth.

American Christians have come to believe that Jesus’ Gospel means ‘our best life now.’  We agonize about our trials and difficulties, prone to complain and wonder why. Truth is we are called to live with radical hope for a Kingdom to come, our richest and fullest reward to be found on the Day of His Return. Oh yes, Jesus does give meaning and purpose to this present life. We live in love and enjoy an ‘abundant life’ even as we deal with a world that is fallen, with evil that is real, with the ongoing complications of sin - in us and around us. But if we hope for some kind of Heaven on earth, we will grow fearful, doubtful, or disillusioned - many do and leave the faith!

Choose differently. This Advent, no matter how life is presently shaped, look forward. Let the hope of the Coming King keep you steady in faith, anticipating the good to come, even as you share the salvation of the Lord Jesus with those who have yet to know His grace.

Let’s raise our voices with Isaac Watts who wrote these words that we sing in this Season.

Joy to the world the Lord has come,
Let earth receive her King,
Let ev'ry heart, prepare Him room;
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven heaven and nature sing!

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove;
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders and wonders of His love!

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Joy to the World
*a link to enjoy the song!