Today's promise: Christ will return
Everyone will see
[Jesus said], "Then
everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with power and great
glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up,
for your salvation is near!"
Luke 21:27-28 NLT
No fear of judgment
What images come to mind
when you think of "end times prophecies"?…Most people, if they were
honest, would admit that their view of the end times is a frightening one.…They
imagine an angry and vengeful God hovering high above it all, bent on
destruction and raining terror on all who have rejected him.
Have we missed
something? In many ways I think we have. God didn't reveal these graphic images
of the coming judgment to express his wrath or even to frighten us into
believing. He revealed them to show us his wonderful grace and mercy in the
midst of our sin and unworthiness. The story isn't about pending gloom and
doom, but it's about a loving Father who will do anything he can to help people
escape the consequences of evil.
Bible prophecy isn't
intended to frighten us, but it's to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God
is real and omnipotent and active in our lives; to warn us of the very real
danger lying ahead for those who reject his love and mercy; and to encourage us
to accept his gracious and free offer of salvation through his Son, Jesus.
In his first letter to
Timothy, Paul tells us that God "wants everyone to be saved and to
understand the truth" (2:4).…Time and again in Scripture we are told that
God longs for his people to be with him in heaven. The Bible is not a story of
wrath and judgment but of unconditional love and redemption. God longs to be
with us and wants desperately for us to accept his hand of salvation. What we
do is up to us.
Adapted from Embracing Eternity by Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins
and Frank M. Martin, Tyndale House Publishers (2004), entry for January 3.
Content is derived
from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale
Publishing House
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