AWAITING THE SECOND COMING

       In the late 1950’s a teacher at one of the Bible Colleges, Henry H.Janzen, wrote a seventy page booklet titled: “Jesus’ discourse about the end time.
One of the statements in the introduction is: “Often, when, at a meeting, I ask when was the last time you heard a sermon about the return of the Lord, I do not receive an answer.”
In Professor Anthony Hoekema’s book, “The Bible and the future” published in 1979 is the paragraph:                    
    “Whatever the reasons may be, the loss of a lively, vital anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ is a sign of a most serious spiritual malady in the church.
Though there may be differences between us on various aspects of eschatology, all Christians should eagerly look forward to Christ’s return, and should live in the light of that expectation every day anew.”
Are we now, many years later, in a different situation?
If you were asked the question: “Did you hear a sermon about the return of the Lord lately?” Would you be able to say yes? If so, “Praise the Lord!”
In your case a cure is on its way for this “most serious spiritual malady.”
     The gospels, in several passages, refer to the Lord’s return.
The Lord himself made many of those statements.
In their presentations and letters, the apostles also deal with the subject of the Lord’s return.
      We ought to ask ourselves the question: “Why was the Lord’s return so important in that church and why not now anymore?” Are we tired of waiting?
Indeed, it has been about two thousand years since the Lord said he would come back, a long time in anybody’s book, but the Lord’s.
    Peter in his second letter clearly explains that God’s clock runs different from our clocks. (2Peter 3:8)Jesus said that he did not know when his return would be, only the Father knows. The coming of the Lord is sure; the timing will be “like a thief in the night.”
The Lord comes back for a reason. Question and answer 52 of the Heidelberg catechism explain the reason for his return.
He is coming “to judge the living and the dead.” The verdict is either acquittal or condemnation.
The catechism does not call it acquittal it uses a word that includes the result of this acquittal; it calls it “comfort.”
Elaborating on what this comfort is, it states: “That in all affliction and persecution I may await, with head held high, the very Judge from heaven who has already submitted himself to the judgment of God for me and has removed all the curse from me… he shall take me, together with all his elect, to himself into heavenly joy and glory.”
Matthew 25: 34 is the biblical proof that the catechism is correct, it says:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”
This is why the early church was looking forward to the Lord’s return.
This kingdom is the one we have a foretaste of in this life.
This “kingdom prepared for us since the creation of the world” contains much more than this foretaste. In this kingdom, we will meet our Lord face to face and will be in his presence forever and ever. Our bodies also will be there. We will be a part of a new heaven and a new earth. What this kingdom exactly will be like the bible does not tell us, this whole change is beyond our imagination, but many things we experience here will not be there anymore.
The headlines in your newspaper and the newscasts on your TV are a good example of the many things that will not be there: murders, fires, accidents, global warming, earth quakes, sicknesses of all kinds, handicaps, homelessness, addictions and finally death itself do not exist anymore. Increasingly we realize that we do not and cannot permanently solve any of the wrongs in this world. There is no other solution than the return of the Lord
Because sin has been done away with, the consequences of sin are not there anymore either.
The bible says in Revelation 21: 4 and 5 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new!” Judgment, however, does not only mean acquittal; condemnation is the other side of the coin.
The catechism deals with condemnation in the same answer where it deals with acquittal, it says: “that he will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation” The evidence for this is in verse 41 of Matthew 25. “Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
    Are we ready to meet him as our judge?
Dare we to close our prayers with the words of Revelation 22: 20 “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Rightly, we are concerned about those who have not yet accepted God’s offer of salvation but if time does not run out now, some day it will and the words of the Lord will be fulfilled: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to day Noah entered the ark.”(Luke 17: 26, 27). Let us paraphrase the ending of this statement so it reads: “up to day the Lord returns.”
For us also is the message the “two men dressed in white” conveyed to the apostles on the day of Jesus’ ascension: “This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have him seen go into heaven.”
     Leila N. Morris wrote a hymn about the second coming of the Lord, the last verse reads:

    Faithful and true would He find us here
              if He should come today?
     Watching in gladness and not in fear,
              if He should come today?
           Signs of His coming multiply;
      morning light breaks in eastern sky.
      Watch, for the time is drawing nigh;
             what if it were today?

            Let us be: “Semper paratus!”
                          (Always prepared.)

The “faulty” word processor

   The word processor on my desk and a portable one I have, as a matter of fact a very old one, are used every day. Compared to the one on the desk, the portable one has a few problems.
It has two less keys, no hard disk, only one floppy disk and it does not have a print command anywhere. At times and in certain situations this causes problems.
   Actually it is not so much the absence of the keys and the hard disk that cause the problem; it is the operator who does not know how to control that floppy disk. If he handles it properly there is no need for the missing backspace or delete key. Once the words are out, there is no way of recalling them. The fact that you wish that there is a delete or backspace key indicates already that, sometimes, those words are inappropriate. Although they cannot be printed they do leave an imprint.
   In case you have not guessed it yet, that portable word processor is standard equipment when you are born. If not handled carefully it always has had a tendency to cause problems. The only way that the damage can be somewhat undone is by apologizing and confessing that the words were inappropriate.
   In the first century AD already there was someone who wrote, and I am only quoting the parts that have to do with your and my “floppy disk” ”the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts” and also: “The tongue ... is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.” and finally:”...but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
If you are interested in reading the whole passage take a Bible and go to the letter written by James. The third chapter has the heading: “Taming the Tongue”. Maybe your or my tongue does not always go to the extremes James mentions but we do make unfortunate and embarrassing remarks.
   In addition to the portable word processor we have another one; it is not a complete word processor but a “thought processor” only.
So what’s the danger? Nobody knows what I am thinking.
     Not so fast, Job realized that God knew everything about him.
He said: “Does he not see my ways and count my every step?” (Job 31:4). So God knows whatever goes on in your and my “thought processor”.
    There is, however, a delete key available for as well the word as the thought “processor”.
Unfortunately you and I cannot access this key. Access to this key is limited to God. He only operates this key when we come to Him and confess our sins, (do not call them mistakes, shortcomings, failures or which other softened expression you can think of). God forgives sins. What does He do with them? Listen to what David, king and psalm writer, has to say.
“...as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”(Psalm 103:12)
All our transgressions, sins, are removed this way, regardless of the way they have been produced. So let us confess our sins and admit that it was Jesus who made the payment for them.                     
     You will have a clean slate withGod.