Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2022 20:21:24 GMT -5
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Post by watchful on Feb 28, 2022 7:40:13 GMT -5
The church has not handled the topic of the rapture very well in my opinion brother. They've sensationalized it and made it a selfish thing...making it all about "us" escaping painful times. They've made it all about the relative few who will remain and be alive at the coming of Christ, almost forgetting that the blessed hope is still our blessed hope whether we wake or sleep. And it's almost as though they've forgotten compassion for a lost world in their selfish zeal to escape....that it means irrevocable judgment for the lost....that the lost need to be warned of the return of Christ for that reason. And many spend a lot of time and energy trying to outdo one another in being accurate predictors of when the tribulation will start and when Jesus will come, etc. It's just all been wrong headed, inward looking, and overemphasized to be all about those who will still be alive.
Some years ago the Lord saw fit to speak to me of my passing from this life. I know in my mind that I will not be alive and remain at the end of the world. But it has made no difference at all in the blessed hope I have in my HEART that Jesus is coming for me and will not leave me in the grave. I'm 64 with very so-so health, memory problems and feeling my age and burned out, and having to rely on the Lord much more than in my youth. Even for strength to post. Even though I know I won't be alive when this age wraps up, I am still looking for His appearing to take me home. That knowledge has made no difference at all in my hope. My heart is directed into the patient waiting for Christ (such a beautiful verse) and I only look for Him all the more facing death. It's a hope and looking to the Lord that is ALIVE in my heart. This is not about head knowledge, it's about the heart. If it were about head knowledge and taking things literally, we would have to consider the apostles were false prophets for saying the day of the Lord is at hand since two thousand years have gone by since then. It is indeed at hand for everyone because our earthly lives are so short in any case, and it is at hand because it could happen at any time, and it is at hand in light of eternity.
"Rapture" is not our blessed hope per se, it will happen suddenly and nobody will even have time to take it in or wrap their heads around it, or 'enjoy the moment' or much less make something out of it or write a book about it, that's for sure. Having eternal life and forever being with the Lord is the blessed hope, that is the point....having the hope and faith that He has power to save us from mortality and that He will.
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Post by watchful on Mar 4, 2022 9:05:18 GMT -5
Here is Paul, still loving the appearing of Christ, still looking for Him and having the blessed hope upon his heart, even though he knew his time on earth was up. Jesus is coming for us whether we're dead or alive. (If anything it's even more of a blessed hope for those who die beforehand, having faith that He will raise us up.)
2Ti 4:6-8 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2022 20:14:38 GMT -5
My your the hardest worker on this forum!!, where the rest of the Bunch?? Just a few rejoice > rejoice on the shoutbox and thats it!
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