Straight Thinking 122467 His Return

Straight Thinking

122467

HIS RETURN

Sunday. CERTAIN. Jesus promised, “I’ll come back.” The time is not specified, but the promise is sure. Every attempt to predict the date of Christ’s return has utterly failed. The Lord himself did not know when it would be; we don’t need to know either. The time is not important because the fact is certain. (Read Mark 13:26-27, 32.)

Monday. UNIVERSAL It is no secret, “Every eye will see him.” For the first time in history, every person living and dead will see the same thing at the same time. The very soldiers that hammered the spikes through Christ’s hands and feet will watch him come down from the clouds. It will be a moment to remember—forever. (Read Matthew 25:44-51:1.)

Tuesday. UNEXPECTED. The proof of a servant’s loyalty is whether he serves when he has a chance to do as he pleases and whether he cares when the master’s gone away. Grown weary with righteousness, a Christian might seek an interlude of drunkenness and sensuous living, expecting the Lord to tarry a long while. What a pitiful picture as he staggers off to hell with the rest. When a man gets careless, he gets caught. (Read Matthew 24:44-51.)

Wednesday. FINAL. God destroyed people of Noah’s day, not because they were “eating and . . . marrying,” but because that’s all they were doing. They were like those at Christ’s return: absorbed in daily routines and the search for pleasure. God won’t give them a second chance when he shuts the door of deliverance. (Read Matthew 24:37-42.)

Thursday. FEARFUL In the fall of 1939, residents north of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, panicked under the midnight sky. High in the distant heavens a radiant light appeared and spread in a funnel-shaped illumination that lit up the countryside with its shimmering brilliance. People were on their knees begging God to save their souls. The effects of the northern lights that night were nothing compared to what will grip people’s hearts when Christ does come. (Read Revelation 6:15-16.)

Friday. GLORIOUS. The glory of the Lord will exceed the brightness of the sun when he comes with legions of angels to assemble the saints of all the ages. What a gathering that will be, and what a joy to be part of it! How happy we will be to see all those who have lived and died in the faith, and to meet the founder of that faith face to face! (Read 1 Corinthians 15:23, 51-55.)

Saturday. SOON. The fact that Christ did not come today doesn’t mean he’ll never come. Instead, it means that his return is one day nearer than it was yesterday. The only way to prepare is to figure on today’s being the last day to get ready. Don’t wait for tomorrow to make a believer out of you. (Read 2 Peter 3:10-13; James 5:8-9.)

Virgil Warren, Straight, December 24, 1967, p13                                                                             christir.org