Skip to main content

The End of the Story

             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. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)

I’ve been putting off verses like this one in my “when the going gets rough” meditations because they have the ring of a “final word” on the subject. What more do we need to say. When the going gets rough, remember that Jesus wins. Part of that winning is that He gathers us to go with Him. Dead or alive, He wants us to be with Him, and death is no obstacle for Him. He wins, therefore we win. That’s how the story ends; nothing else matters; so what’s the problem between now and then? Except...anger, fear, pain, the flesh…life. The going gets rough. Maybe that “roughness” is half-inch seas to some – barely a ripple, but for others, it’s hard. Some things might be smooth sailing for the others, and rogue waves and tsunamis to some. For each of us, it’s different, but the response is the same: this thing, whatever it is for me, or for you, is rough.

This is why it’s wrong for Christians to start in with the “think how hard it is for _______” nonsense. The thing they are facing might be easy to the one being chided. What they are facing is tough for them. They need help with it – not to be belittled and tossed aside by someone who is supposed to love them.  

At the same time, we need the encouragement of the end of the story. We need to remember that in the end, He wins, therefore we win. We need to remember that even death is not failure.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more