Truth gets our attention in all sorts of ways.
A Chicago suburbanite put on a last spurt of speed to catch his train but missed it. A bystander remarked, “If you’d run a little faster you would have made it.” “No,” the suburbanite replied, “it wasn’t a case of running faster, but of starting sooner.”
The truth: get ready and start now.
We are at the intersection of a year on our calendars, 2022/2023. We’ve celebrated Christmas, the coming of Christ into the word, and Christians know He is coming again.
The New Testament tells us the apostles and the early church expected Christ to return soon. Jesus had been crucified but rose from death, ascended into heaven, promising to come again. So his return was not perceived as something that might happen; it was a certainty that was expected to occur at any time, any day, any hour. There was a sense of urgency as these early Christians waited to see Jesus again.
Nearly 2,000 years have gone since, and still, Jesus has not returned and Christians have lost the sense of urgency. The second coming of Christ seems to be taking so long that many of us rarely even think about it anymore. How often do you think about the end of this world? Do you ever imagine what it will be like? Do you look forward to it? Are you afraid? Do you even care whether or not it comes in your lifetime?
When Jesus described the kingdom of God or taught about
judgment, he often used the image of someone or something coming and the need to be prepared. The Kingdom comes like a thief in the night, like a flood, like a master returning from a journey, or like a long-delayed bridegroom.
The race we are on is the fact that Christ is coming again to establish his “kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We need to be ready.
Two dynamics will feed our readiness. One, live with Scripture. If you are not presently living with Scripture, find a way to practice the discipline of reading Scripture daily.
Two, deliberately cultivate awareness of the indwelling Christ. Christ has called us to abide in him, and he says he will abide in us. Claim that promise and allow the indwelling Christ to shape your life.
As we wait for the second coming of the Lord, we don’t have to be fearful, or pay too much attention to would-be “prophets” who use every world event to give the date of Jesus’ second coming. Empowered by the Indwelling Christ, we can seek to live as Kingdom People, expecting his daily coming, and looking joyfully to the day he will come “in all his glory.”