The Return

 "And someday, just as you saw Him go, He will return." Acts 1:11...."It won't be possible to convince our world that Jesus is coming again unless we live like He is coming again." Chris Tiegreen

The words in Acts 1:11 were spoken by an angel to the disciples as they witnessed Christ's ascension into heaven after His resurrection. In the full address the angel exhorted them to obey Christ and be about the business of the Kingdom taking the Good News of Jesus to all who would receive it. They were to live out the message and life of Christ while all the while they were to watch for His return. He would be coming back. He is coming back. If we, you and I, are followers of Christ, are we living like He is coming back?

As the world system we live in steadily decays, it is more common than ever, at least in our lifetime, to hear proclamations that His return is right "at the door." I don't know if it is or not. Scripture says that only the Father knows the time of His Son's return, so it's foolish to try and predict any kind of timing. One thing I do know, today, His return is another day closer than it was yesterday. Am I ready? Are you?

Are we who profess Christ and His return living lives that are ready for it? Whose business are we about in our daily lives, ours or His? Even in professional ministry, we can have our own agendas and goals. We can be all about ourselves while saying we are representing Him. How many of us have prayed the Lord's Prayer without ever really living it out? We pray "Hallowed be Your name," but do we treat His Name and Person as holy in our words and conduct? Do we honor Him in all the things we do and are? As husbands and wives, as parents, as servants of the risen Christ?  We pray "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done," but is it our hearts desire that this would be our reality? Do we spend more time seeing that our wills and desires are realized than whatever His might be? Do we even seek to know what His will is?

What care do we take about how our lives look to a watching world that is without Him? What's really different about us, other than that they see us get into our car on a Sunday morning and go to some local church that they know nothing about, likely because we've lived in such a way before them that they don't want to know about it?

In short, do we live with a sense of urgency? Are we really conscious of all that's at stake? The souls of those without Him, and our own souls as well. Jesus asked if when He returned, would He find faith on the earth? He was directing His question to His church. Will He find us, you and me, faithful? Faithful to His name, to our calling, to the life He created us for. Faithful to be the carriers of His message of life. When He returns, how will He find us? How will He find you....and how will He find me?

Blessings,
Pastor O