Tag: second coming

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Devotion January 19th

THURSDAY 19th

 

We come over the next two devotions to look at the final verses in Peter’s second epistle, 2 Peter 3:14-17, for this devotion we will read verses 14-16

 

‘Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.’

 

In his closing remarks, Peter says to the readers of his letter, and to us who read it today, because you are waiting for these future promises to be fulfilled, be diligent to be found by him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes again,

 without spot or blemish, and at peace.

 

Peter started this letter off by talking about ‘his (that is Jesus’) precious and very great promises’ (2 Peter 1:4) this would have inspired the recipients of the letter to have thought much about all the great promises that Jesus had made and what is entailed in them for every believer, and I trust that as we have gone through this epistle that we too have thought about these great promises which are or should be precious to each and every one of us, and at the same time they should have spurred us and encouraged us to make sure that we are living in expectancy for the second coming of Jesus, ensuring that we are not getting entangled in anything that would cause us to be caught off guard when Jesus comes again.

 

Peter talks of being found without spot and blemish, now, we know that we cannot and do not attain sinless perfection in this life, but what he is encouraging is that we seek to live as close to what it is humanly possible to be with the help of the Holy Spirit in Christlikeness, seeking at all times to not follow the desires of the flesh, but to live and walk according to the Spirit, we live by allowing the ongoing work of sanctification to take place in our lives.

 

He reminds them again as he did in the second chapter of this letter of those who would seek to distort the truth, let us make sure that we hold onto not only the precious and very great promises found within the word of God, but also onto the truthfulness of the word of God. Live in readiness, live according to the word of God, live just as if today might be the actual day when Jesus will come again. Live in such a way that when he does come, you will not be ashamed, but will be ready.

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Devotion January 18th

WEDNESDAY 18th

 

2 Peter 3:8-13

 

V10, 13 ‘But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed . . . But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.’

 

The  verses we have arrived at today are the verses that mark for us the events in the future that will decide the moment when time as we know it will eventually come to an end. The first part, ‘but the day of the Lord will come like a thief’, marks the return of the Lord to the earth and the events that will follow, that is his reign on the earth and then the final judgement, but the events of the next phrase ‘and then the heavens will pass away with a roar . . .’ will happen at least 1000 years after Christ has returned. For after Christ’s millennial reign upon the earth and after the final judgement has taken place everything as we see it today will be completely renewed, there will be a purging of everything that is evil in the world and of all the consequences of evil upon and within the world.

 

There will be the recreating of the heavens and the earth, in Revelation 21:1-4

we read these wonderful verses that speak of what things will be like after this purging, all things will be made new in readiness for that which will be eternally pure, to recreate the environment in which God will dwell among his people, that is those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The former things will have passed away and we will then be eternally secure in all that God has prepared and planned for those who love him. This is what these verses say, ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”’ If you have the time and want to discover more about all of this continue to read Revelation chapter 21 and verses 9-27.

 

To all who read or listen to the devotion, if you want to be there, in this wonderfully prepared place, eternally in the presence of God, you need to make sure that you have committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, for the only ones who will be found there are those whose names have been written down in the Lamb’s book of life, in fact this is the warning of Scripture, ‘If anyone’s name was NOT FOUND IN THE BOOK OF LIFE, he was thrown into the lake of fire.’ (Emphasis mine) Revelation 20:15

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Devotion November 15th

TUESDAY 15th

 

2 Peter 1:4

 

‘. . . by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises’

 

The continuation of what we have been reading and going through in these opening verses lead us to notice that through God and by his power, and through our deepening knowledge of him we are enabled to live in godliness and as a result something of the glory and excellence of Christ is shared with us which further leads to us being granted his precious and very great promises.

 

This automatically dictates that all that God has prepared in the future eternal glory is only prepared for and to be received and shared by those who have obtained as we read in the first verse, ‘a faith of equal standing . . . by the righteousness of our God and saviour Jesus Christ’.

 

This surely means that there must also be something prepared for those who have not come to the position of obtaining the righteousness that comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For, to miss out on God’s precious and very great promises means that something else must take its place and the sad news, the negative side of the positive news is that God has prepared a place for those who have rejected him, and it is a place of eternal separation from God, the same place that has been prepared for the devil and the hosts of darkness, a place that Scripture refers to as the lake of fire. It will be a place of eternal lostness, eternal suffering and eternal torment. We read of it in Revelation 20 verses 11-15. We must not shy away from warning men and woman of the eternal damnation of all who have not come to a real and dynamic faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

But for us who are saved, we rejoice in this that God has precious and great promises for us in this life as we place our trust in him, but there is that which is to do with eternity as well.

 

We know that the Scriptures contain many promises,  and we can perhaps recall many of them, but I want to remind us of the great promises to do with our future state. Firstly, there is the promise that Christ will come again, what a great and wonderful promise. ‘I will come again’, Jesus told his disciples, ‘and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also’ (John 14:3). Hold onto this precious and great promise. And then there is the promise of the resurrection from the grave, relating to those who have died in Christ and the corresponding rapture of those who are alive at that time, ‘Behold! I tell you a mystery’, Paul writes, he continues,  ‘We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet’ (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Again I say, hold on to this precious and great promise and then there are the promises concerning our eternal state, as an example we cut into what John records for us in Revelation 21, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away . . .’ (verses 2-4).

 

Put together these are precious and very great promises, for they give to us a present assurance in our hearts and a hope that is eternal, that because we have placed our faith in Jesus, as we remain in him, we are eternally secure.

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Daily Devotion June 28th

SUNDAY 28th

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

We will return to where I left off yesterday, the amazing transformation that is going to take place at the moment of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Incidentally, if in doubt about a possible future rapture or being caught up as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, do not forget it has happened before! Remember a few weeks ago we looked at Enoch, who was not, because God took him. (Genesis 5:24) Elijah who was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, witnessed by Elisha (2 Kings 2:11-12) and Jesus was taken up (Acts 1:11) – Jesus knew the wonder of resurrection and rapture! As a result, we who believe in him will experience one or the other, depending on whether we are dead in Christ (resurrection) or living in Christ when he returns. (Rapture)

What is the transformation that is going to take place? Read what Paul has to say, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 ‘Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.’

Paul says ‘we shall be changed’ in these few verses he is saying or declaring what is to be factual in the future, that is that the perishable shall be transformed into imperishable, and the mortal shall be transformed into immortality. It will be the final moment when death will be ultimately defeated, swallowed up in victory. Understand this, that once we have gone through this transformation, death will never haunt us again, we will live for ever, spiritually, and in the new resurrection body.

In the Scripture we read the accounts of men and woman who had died but through the means of a miracle had been raised from the dead, but the problem was that they would all have to face death again! When Lazarus came out of the tomb all wrapped up, once the grave clothes had been taken off he might just as well have washed them and packed them in a bag and kept them in a cupboard, because he would have to use them again one day. When Jesus arose from the dead, the grave clothes were folded and left where his body had lain, Jesus could have put a note on them, free to anyone who wants them, because I will not need them again, because he was raised to the power of an endless life.

Let us remind ourselves regarding our loved ones who have died in Christ, the place where we have laid their earthly remains is only temporal! They will rise again, and we will meet them in that meeting in the air.

And this incredible transformation that will take place when Jesus comes again, means that we will be transformed or changed from the earthly and natural to the heavenly and spiritual. From perishable to imperishable, from immortal to immortality. As in Adam we all die, so in Christ shall we all be made alive.

In verse 42-44 of 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says, ‘So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.’ And the same transformation will happen to the bodies of those who are alive when Jesus comes again.

I want us to note the word used there in those verses, ‘it is raised in glory’. This is where I had intended to be back three days ago when I mentioned in the devotion those words ‘from glory to glory he’s changing me’ but I have got carried away with the excitement of it all!

Here on earth we have bodies that are fallen, fragile, life is futile (especially outside of Christ). Should the Lord tarry we will all go the same way, the way of death, and Paul says when we are buried, we are sown in dishonour. But the good news is that we will be raised in GLORY!

We are going to know the fullness or the completion of our redemption!

Face to face with Christ, my Saviour,

Face to face—what will it be,

When with rapture I behold him,

Jesus Christ who died for me?

Face to face I shall behold him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all his glory,

I shall see him by and by!

Only faintly now I see him,

With the darkened veil between,

But a blessed day is coming,

When his glory shall be seen.

What rejoicing in his presence,

When are banished grief and pain;

Death is swallowed up in vict’ry,

And the dark things shall be plain.

Face to face—oh, blissful moment!

Face to face—to see and know;

Face to face with my Redeemer,

Jesus Christ who loves me so.

Mrs Frank Beck CCLI788682

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Daily Devotion June 27th

SATURDAY 27th

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Does anyone remember this old song?

‘There’s going to be a meeting in the air,

in the sweet, sweet bye and bye,

I’m going to meet you, meet you over there,

in the home beyond the sky,

such singing there will be,

never heard by mortal ear,

‘twill be glorious I do declare,

for God’s own Son, will be the leading one,

in the meeting in the air!

I remember it vividly, being sang especially at the annual conventions we used to have in Hereford, because my late grandfather used to be the song leader, and I can see him waving his arms around with all the effort he could to get the song sung with full gusto. The song speaks of something future, it is a song that is seeking to portray something of what will happen after the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when the redeemed of the Lord will be assembled in praise and worship around the throne. (Revelation 5) It is going to be amazing, but immediately prior to that meeting in the air something else is going to happen and to quote Scripture it will happen ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye’. (1 Corinthians 15:52) (‘in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye’ NIV)

It is what we call the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the rapture of the living believers at the second coming of Jesus. Now, I am not going to use this devotion to go through all the varying views concerning the timing of the second coming, except to say that my personal view is that of pre-tribulation and pre-millennial.

Jesus is coming again, he promised he would and that is good enough for me, he also said that when he came again he would take the disciples to be where he was going to, which was to where his Father was. (John 14) This promise also stands for those of us who have subsequently come to faith. Paul tells us how Jesus is coming again and what will happen, or how he will take us to be with himself, it is either via resurrection from the grave or by being snatched, taken up. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 ‘For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.’

During the week, I was having a conversation with a man who I had never met before, I was out walking and videoing the birds and he had seen me with my camera and enquired what the bird was up in the top of the tree. After telling him, the conversation continued, and he recommended to me a place to go to for a walk with the camera. I said I would need to write it down as I didn’t really know the area and would forget and so I got my phone out and typed the place in. The conversation continued and a few minutes later, he said, ‘I don’t think you have heard me right, it must be our accents,’ and proceeded to tell me the name of the place again. ‘Ah,’ I said, and repeated it and so the place name was changed. However a few minutes later he said ‘I still don’t think you have heard me correctly,’ and again sought to tell me the name of the place and yes he was right I had heard it wrong so a third attempt was made and I finally had the correct name. Initially I heard him say with his ‘very difficult’ to understand northern accent (difficult to me!) something like ‘Cler Bank’ He had actually said Clay Bank, I heard Claire Bank, then Clear Bank before finally getting to Clay Bank.

When it comes to what Paul has to say in 1 Thessalonians 4 concerning the second coming, we cannot mishear it, we do not need Paul to repeat it two or three times, the information is very clear and precise. Let us break it up:

The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel

At the same time there will be the sound of the trumpet of God

The dead in Christ will rise first

We who are alive, who are left will be caught up into the clouds

Together (the dead that have just been raised and the alive who have been caught up) will meet the Lord in the air

And so we will always be – that is with the Lord

That’s cler, ah no, that’s Claire, oh no, that’s clay, silly me, that is clear!

What will happen, which we reminded ourselves earlier will happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and will be incredible. Imagine it, the dead being raised. I’m one of those who likes to walk around graveyards reading the tomb stones, and am amazed at the amount of effort that has gone into some of the massive slabs of stone or concrete covering them, and in a jiffy, at the shout and trumpet blast the bodies of those who have died in Christ are going to break through whatever has been placed upon the tomb, and as they ascend through the soil, concrete or stone, we the living believers are going to join with them and ascend into the presence of Jesus. Surely this is something worth getting excited about! And, in that instant an incredible transformation is going to take place. It is this transformation which was intended to be my subject today but I have gone the way I have and so we will have to continue tomorrow.

Let us get excited about the amazing future we have in Christ, a future that will last throughout the countless ages of eternity. There is going to be a meeting in the air, will I see you there?

You have heard of little Moses in the bulrush,

You have heard of fearless David and his sling,

You have heard the story told of dreaming Joseph,

And of Jonah and the whale you often sing.

There are many, many others through the Bible.

I should like to meet them all, I do declare!

By and by the Lord will surely let us meet them

At the meeting in the air.

There is going to be a meeting in the air,

In the sweet, sweet by and by,

I am going to meet you, meet you over there

In that home beyond the sky.

Such singing you will hear, never heard by mortal ear,

‘Twill be glorious, I do declare!

And God’s own Son will be the leading one

At the meeting in the air.

Many things will there be missing, in that meeting,

For the mourner’s bench will have no place at all,

There will never be a sermon preached to sinners,

For the sinner had refused to heed the call.

There will be no mourning over wayward loved ones,

There will be no lonely nights of pleading prayer,

All our burdens and our anguish will be lifted

At the meeting in the air.

There the doubters will be missing altogether,

All the sceptic will be absent on that day,

There will be no grumblers present to disturb us,

And the Achans will be busy far away.

There the saints will have His seal upon their foreheads,

Dressed in raiment none but ransomed ones can wear,

All who have the wedding garments will be present

At the meeting in the air.

CCLI788682

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Daily Devotion May 12th

TUESDAY 12th

The Parable of the Ten Virgins – Matthew 25:1-13

The placement of this parable that we are considering today is within the conversation Jesus had with his disciples regarding the end times. In the previous chapter 24, we read in verse 1 that the disciples had drawn the attention of Jesus to the temple buildings. No doubt it was a splendid building, but Jesus makes a startling statement to the disciples that suggested that the temple buildings would be destroyed, with not one stone being left on another. We don’t know how long the gap is between verse 2 and 3, but by now Jesus and the disciples are sitting on the mount of Olives, the disciples had obviously been mulling over what Jesus had said and so they ask him, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ The whole of the remainder of this chapter is the answer that Jesus gave to them, which then leads into the parable before us today.

To summarize what Jesus had said in Matthew 24 is not the purpose of this devotion, but what we do learn is this, in his answer Jesus gives sufficient warning that his second coming would be sudden and at a time least expected. (see 24:42 and 44) This is then confirmed at the end of our parable, 25 verse 13 ‘Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’

Let us remind ourselves today in the midst of the turmoil, trouble and testing that is shaking the world at this moment as a result of the virus, we who are Christians need not fear, God is in control, and these things will happen before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 24:4-8) We need as it were to keep our eye on the ball, be watchful, be ready, for he could come at any moment.

Jesus uses a wedding scene in his parable, ten virgins who were supposed to be ready to go out to meet the bridegroom, we learn that five were wise, five were foolish. What then made the difference between whether they were wise or foolish? It all came down to whether they had oil with them to keep their lamps burning, so that when the bridegroom arrived, they would be ready.

We are told that the bridegroom was delayed, during the delay their lamps had been burning, but for five of the virgins their lamps were running out of oil and they had no spare oil to top their lamps up. They asked the other five to give them some oil, but they had to answer in the negative, for ‘if we give you some of our oil, there will not be enough for us as well.’ So, the foolish five went off to buy some oil, but alas, too late for while they were gone the bridegroom arrived and the wise five went into the feast and the door was shut. On their return the cry was made from the foolish five, ‘let us in’, but it was too late.

The purpose of the parable is to warn us to be ready for when Jesus comes again, by keeping our lamps trimmed and having a fresh supply of oil. If the wick of a lamp wasn’t trimmed regularly, the light would eventually diminish, give off an unpleasant smell and weaken, so keeping our lamps trimmed speaks to me of cutting off from our lives anything that is likely to frustrate our walk and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There are so many things today that could hinder our walk, or our alertness and our readiness for our Bridegrooms arrival. Lacking oil could be symbolic of several things, it could refer to becoming spiritually dry and barren, through our lack of prayer, fellowship, and the reading of the Word. It could refer to our lack of dependency upon the Holy Spirit, it could simply be our loss of interest and desire for the things of God, even maybe a flirtation with the things of the world! In the parable it led to the five foolish not being ready!

The parable is all about ensuring that we watch our lives in the light of his impending coming, ensuring that we are in continual fellowship and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, being spiritually fed and spiritually alert as we wait for his arrival.

In Luke’s account of the second coming teaching of Jesus, he doesn’t include this parable, but in an earlier chapter he gives a similar warning, Luke 12:35-40 ‘Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’

In bringing this devotion to an end, as you are reading this, are you ready? Is your lamp trimmed and burning bright? Do you have some fresh oil? Are you looking up in readiness for the arrival of our Saviour?

Do you know him personally as your Saviour, if not make yourself ready by allowing him to come into your life as your Lord and Master, come to the cross and repent of your sin, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

A final point, the five foolish virgins could not use the oil that belonged to the five wise virgins. When it comes to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot depend on someone else’s relationship to get us into heaven! Each one of us needs to make a personal decision to trust him as Lord and Saviour.

We will have an old Sunday school classis as our song for today

Give me oil in my lamp,

Keep me burning,

Give me oil in my lamp, I pray.

Give me oil in my lamp,

Keep me burning,

Keep me burning

Till the break of day.

Sing Hosanna! sing hosanna!

Sing hosanna to the King of kings!

Sing Hosanna! sing hosanna!

Sing hosanna to the King!

Give me joy in my heart,

Keep me singing.

Give me joy in my heart, I pray.

Give me joy in my heart,

Keep me singing.

Keep me singing

Till the break of day.

Give me peace in my heart,

Keep me resting,

Give me peace In my heart, I pray.

Give me peace in my heart,

Keep me resting.

Keep me resting

Till the break of day.

Give me love in my heart,

Keep me serving.

Give me love in my heart, I pray.

Give me love in my heart,

Keep me serving.

Keep me serving

Till the break of day.

CCLI 788682