Second coming

P 3244 Father God is for us!

/ DVH

Isaiah 64:4,5a AMP. “For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and acts in behalf of the one who [gladly] waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing that which is morally right, Who remembers You in Your ways.”

Our Heavenly Father, clearly wants us to know His will – that’s why He gave us a book! In this book the Lord has put so many incredible testimonies of His activities – plus His interactions with very different people. We have a record of His people’s glorious victories, plus their ignominious defeats. Some people burst across the sky like a shooting star, others fizzled out like dying fireworks. At the same time we have a clear and comprehensive record of what Jesus is like, and what He valued most – His Father’s Presence and His Father’s will.

The part of this scripture I want to accentuate today is the bit that says: …”a God like You Who works for those who wait for Him.”  In every other world religion human beings have to do the work to achieve some sort of spirituality. But our God works for us, as we wait for Him… Let’s pause and reflect about that…the God of the Universe also waits for us to choose Him.. We can now see how important waiting is! Jesus has already done all the work for us – however, that does not mean we can coast along blowing smoke rings, drinking like a fish and doing whatever we like! Faith isn’t presumption, it is a deliberate interaction between a Holy God and His people. He has earned the right to tell us what to do – but He won’t make us. 

The bible tells us that the Jewish people waited several centuries for their Messiah — they were longing for Him to come, because He was the One prophesied Who would set all things right for them. But when Jesus came they didn’t recognise Him! His words and miracles caused a stir, but His only recognisable parade consisted of Him, sitting on a donkey. Perhaps the Israelites expected grandeur and excitement — but the Lord arrived without pomp or ceremony and He left the same way. That thought ought to teach us something about Almighty God. He is not averse to doing things in secret.… a-n-d … ya might want to think about that!

The church today desperately needs eyes to see Him, or we can totally miss whatever He is doing. Our fallibility to distraction is legendary! Only people with active faith, who are looking, waiting, and wanting Him, will notice whatever He does. Here’s a little bit of advice … be very wary of anyone who tells you they know what’s coming next. The bible tells us that no-one knows the time or the hour of things like the Second Coming. The first time around, Jesus came and went and many people did not even identify Him. Like I said, our God is great at keeping things secret! 

Back in His time, ordinary people saw those miracles, they probably even ate the multiplied bread and fish … but what happened did not touch their hearts. We have to leave our hearts open to hear from Him – continually hitting the refresh button, even when it comes to reading the bible. One of Jesus’ twelve disciples did not appear to understand His ministry and purpose, despite the fact that this man walked around with Him for over three years! Our biggest danger as Christians is that we read in the bible about what He wants us to do, but then we go out and continue to live our lives thinking we can postpone our response, without applying these truths to ourselves! That is not how you get to know Him.

Our God loves loyal people, and at the same time, He cherishes each personal relationship with every one of us. It isn’t about praying at Him – it is about enjoying the time we spend with Him. Awareness of His goodness needs to be present with us in the everyday hustle and bustle we face. As we honour His wishes, by living the Way He has asked us to live, we will keep His Presence before our eyes. Everyday life gets bigger when we choose to make Him a part of it! Even the fact that the Lord has given us a choice in these things, is such an incredible privilege. Think about it. He made us, He quite obviously could have used force, yet He didn’t. Instead, He woos us with His loving kindness. Our choices reflect how much we take Him seriously as our Lord and Saviour.

Other so-called gods threaten people or lull them into a false sense of security. They appeal to physicality, or mental gymnastics – concepts and words that seem to have truth in them, manageable stuff!  But God’s truth always leaves me astonished. His way of looking at other people goes right round my brain! Some of the things that are done in the name of other gods are meaningless, even brutal, or vicious, self-serving and demanding. Eventually those things impinge upon the person’s freedom, not to mention scaring people half to death with their reprisal threats!  Father God cherishes our freedom to choose – He respects our choices even when they are not good for us. 

Let’s live like this: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, you are now made holy, and each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling. So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus, Whom we embrace as our Apostle and King-Priest.” Hebrews 3:1 TPT. Our God is not like any other – our Heavenly Father is for us. What other god would die in place of His followers so they can have the freedom to choose Him …or not? Bye. 👋

P 3046 We need to focus on what matters.

/ DVH

I’ve noticed online recently, a pretty big subtext of chatter about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That thought seems to ramp up whenever the Christian world is not coping or unhappy with its lot. It seems that we are looking for Jesus to: “Get us out of here please Lord, because it’s getting too hard and we don’t like it!”  Meanwhile I am permanently glued to the fact that the Lord said:  that the whole world needs to hear the gospel first… so in my mind, the second thing can’t happen until we’ve completed the first! Here are some other thoughts on the Second Coming.. My short response is this: I dunno!

Now here’s my longer one: Jesus says this in Matthew 24:35,36. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” I’m a no-one, so I think that includes me! Matthew 24:24.“For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and they will show great signs and wonders so as to deceive and lead astray, if possible, even the elect (God’s chosen ones).” Matthew 24:6: “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

Those scriptures are one of the reasons you will never hear end-times stuff on this blog. I quite simply don’t know, and, to be truthful, I don’t particularly want to know either!  We can spend way too much time focussing on stuff we have no control of any of it. If Father God did not tell the Lord Jesus back then, He must have a reason. To me that is a nun-ya! (None of ya business.) Rest in the mystery. I refuse to panic when this war and that war happens, instead I pray for the poor people trapped by them and in them. I pray for workers to be thrust out into the harvest!

At the same time, I would never willingly want any of my decisions to be influenced by FEAR, and all this talk about when He’s coming … and what this means – or what that means … is worse than going on holidays! We passionately look forward to the holiday event, and pretty much zone out everything else that is going on around us while we are longing for it to happen!  We are talking about eternity here. Let’s not zone out of what IS going on, by sitting about waiting to be rescued. Newsflash! WE are the cavalry! If you aren’t on your horse by now those other people are sunk!

Because Jesus lives in us, He will always throw fear out wherever He finds it. He wants us to know His perfect love not fear! The Holy Spirit will expose that sneaky little devil, and together – He and I will find the source. At the same time, He will help us to renew our minds! And if we don’t yet understand how perfect His love is right now – we can be utterly reassured that it is His quest to get rid of doubt and fear wherever we have accidentally cherished it or hidden it. Meanwhile, if Jesus Himself doesn’t know when He is coming again, why should WE? 

Someone said this to me when I was a much younger Christian – live this life ready to go at any minute! That thought impacted me to the point where I still think like that today. It means that I can’t afford to just let things lie. especially if I have been out-of-sorts with somebody during the course of the day. The fact is, we only have today. Actually, we only have this minute. Anything else is presumption and an illusion born out of ego.  Back to today’s point …

We need to focus on what matters, in the here and now. I know that I know, that Jesus will come and collect us all when God says: “Now!” I once had a dream I’ve never forgotten about this subject, when I was a much younger woman,  but I refuse to trust in that dream. Maybe I just had too much pizza! All I know is that if it is not my concern, then I can cheerfully leave it with the One Who will come for me, whether I die first or He comes back first! Whatever!!

We can often obsess over things that don’t matter, things we can’t control. Maybe we don’t like the way our pastor preaches. Tough! The reality is this – our pastor is God’s gift to the body. Would you like to tell the Lord He made a mistake? Not me!! Our opinion on whether that person is doing the job well or not, is another nun-ya! What’s it got to do with me? Here’s another scripture to chew on …John 21:20-22: “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; … …when Peter saw him, he asked Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man [what is in his future]?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you? You follow Me!”

Now, that sounds like really good advice to live by! Focussing on what matters, means we will stay on the cusp of what the Holy Spirit wants to do next. You might want to meditate on that  thought. It is a better subject than what this grumpy world leader says or does this or that thing we can’t influence! Take a good look at the misinformation on the news – it is all about making people scared and grumpy. I’d rather talk with the Holy Spirit, He is always incredibly positive and reliable. Let’s set our minds on the things that matter. Bye 👋