FAITHFUL WAITING

"Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near."  (James 5:7–8 NIV)

In a world of instant results and endless urgency, James draws us into the quiet strength of a farmer waiting for the rains. No crop matures overnight. No growth unfolds without trust in what’s unseen.

This is the rhythm of faith -- not passive resignation, but faithful anticipation. Patience and perseverance are not weak, but deeply courageous. We wait with hope. We endure with resolve. Because we know the harvest is promised by a God who never forgets His Word. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™

#6363

GOD HIMSELF WILL BE WITH THEM

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’”  (Revelation 21:3-5 NKJV)

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come again in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; He simply stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of those horrors, that the Father’s love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it. 

-- Brennan Manning in “Reflections of a Ragamuffin” 

#5762

ADVENT WAITING

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:12 NIV)

Sometimes it seems as though we spend our lives waiting. Daydreaming about an upcoming vacation, worrying over a medical test, preparing for the birth of a child or grandchild -- our days are filled with anticipation and anxiety over what the future holds. As Christians, we, too, spend our lives waiting. But we are waiting for something much bigger than a trip, bigger even than retirement or a wedding: We are waiting for the return of Jesus in glory. Advent heightens this sense of waiting, because it marks not only our remembrance of Jesus’ arrival into our world more than 2,000 years ago – the Word made flesh -- but also our anticipation of His final coming. 

-- Author Unknown

#5482

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

“For God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  (Colossians 1:13-14 NIV)

God is at work carefully bringing about His Kingdom. He is working to bring all creation unto Himself. The Holy Spirit’s work in each believer’s heart is certainly a part of that greater work of God, but God is also about the cosmic business of completing creation and bringing everything to consummation. We humans can merely wait and anticipate.

What a blessing that day will be when Jesus arrives for His children. When God ushers in His Kingdom once and for all. When [evil is] swept away and impurity is banished from the world. When we are restored to our eternal place near the throne of God to be joined with believers from all times and all places in singing the praises of our Lord and our God. What a day! Come, Lord Jesus, come. 

– Allen R. Hunt in “Nine Words”

#5459

STAYING READY

"But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." (Matthew 24:43-44 NRSV)

I remember reading a story Dr. Charles Swindoll told in a book called “Rise and Shine” some years ago.  Chuck talked about a time when he was in school, working in a machine shop.  He worked with an old-timer named Tex.  Ol' Tex had a kind of invisible sensor down inside.  He seldom had to look at the clock.  He always knew when it was getting close to that last whistle.  Without fail, Tex was all washed up and ready to punch out a couple of minutes before the whistle blew.  On one occasion, Swindoll reminded him that it was about time to start getting ready for quittin' time, and he never forgot the man's reply.  He told Chuck, "I stay ready to keep from getting' ready for quittin' time."

I like that.  How do you prepare for the Lord's return?  You stay ready to keep from getting ready.  Because if you do stay ready, you never have to scramble around to get ready, do you?  And that's the impact the thought of the Lord's return ought to have on us.  Because He may return at any time, we should live our lives as the book of Titus tells us -- in a godly righteous way, so that we might always be ready. 

-- David Jeremiah in “Jesus' Final Warning” 

#5281

WE DO HAVE A PART

“And this gospel of the kingdom swill be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  (Matthew 24:14)

Some of us may like to think we really don't play a part in the overall scheme of things. That is, we feel as though this ol' world will just continue with or without my help. In fact, we feel rather insignificant in the overall picture. However, the truth is that we do have a part in the world and in fact God entrusts us to deliver His message of salvation to a lost and dying world. The New Testament commands - not suggests - that we share our faith and warn the lost. Could there be any greater job? Is anything more important than sharing the message of Jesus Christ? 

-- Pastor Gary Stone 

#5271

LIVING IN A SENSE OF ANTICIPATION

“So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of My return.”  (Matthew 25:13 NLT)

Every generation of Christians has expected Christ to return in their lifetime. And they have had one thing in common: They have all be wrong…

Supposing Jesus had said, “I’ll give you three millennia to evangelize the world, and them, on January 1, A.D. 3001, I will return at precisely 9:00 GMT.” What would the promise of His return have meant to generations of believers who lived in the preceding centuries? In the midst of their suffering, exiles, and martyrdom, what comfort would they have derived from His promise, knowing that He would not come soon? And what would have been the effect on the church if they had known that they still had a little time to do what they wanted to do before getting around to doing what He had told them to do? Where would have been the sense of urgency, the challenge of holiness, and the keen sense of tiptoe anticipation?

Jesus’ point was that all His disciples should be living in a sense of anticipation, actively on the job, working hard to bring about the consummation of His purposes and living consistent lives so they would not be ashamed at His coming.

-- Stuart Briscoe


#4798

SOMETHING ON THE HORIZON

“’The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; He will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD Our Righteous Savior.'”  (Jeremiah 33:14-16 NIV)

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before ... What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.

-- Jan L. Richardson

#4728

O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.”

St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes of three advents. One is in the PAST: Christ was born to the Blessed Virgin Mary when God Incarnate came to rescue the world. One is in the PRESENT: now is the time to prepare our hearts for Christ’s dwelling. And one is in the FUTURE: Christ will come again in glory. During the Advent season I usually only consider the past Advent, Christ’s Nativity. After all, it’s complete and all that I need to do is remember what has happened and celebrate on Christmas morning what Our Lord has done. The other two advents require more of me. How do I prepare my heart for the Son of God to enter it? And perhaps even more difficult: How can I bear waiting for Christ’s return in exile, amidst grief, pain, and uncertainty?

In the advent carol the first step is to long for Christ. O come, O come, Emmanuel, God with us. We long for Him because we have come to understand the difficult reality of our situation. Until we realize that placing our security in anything of this life is fruitless, we will not be able to long for Christ as we ought.

“Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel” 

-- Haley Stewart, excerpted from her blog carrotsformichaelmas.com


#4489

ALL CREATION WAITS

“No more let sins and sorrows grow
nor thorns infest the ground:
He comes to make His blessings flow
far as the curse is found.”  (From “Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts)

Any careful reading of the Bible provides a lot of evidence to support the claim that trying to make all things good and beautiful is very much a part of being God's people.  When Jesus saved us, He called us to be partners with Him in the work that He wanted to do in the world.  There is little doubt that our Lord very much wants to recreate this world through us and make it like new.  Part of the reason why Jesus came into the world and saved us from sin was for just that purpose.  Through us who are saved and sanctified by His grace, He wants to renew the earth.  God's will is that everything, ourselves included, should be made new and beautiful again.  The Bible says as much in Romans 8:19ff:

"For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering.  We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as His children, including the new bodies He has promised us." (Romans 8:19-23 NLT) 

-- Tony Campolo in “Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God” 


#4485

LIFE’S GREATEST GIFT

"To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God…" (John 1:12 NRSV)

Advent marks the beginning of the church year and lays before us the pathway of faith for the year ahead.  Advent initiates once again remembering, retelling, and celebrating the whole drama of God's revelation.

Four weeks is the limit to this season that declares the truth about a God whose love and resourcefulness have no limits.  "Advent" has its roots in the Latin word "adventus," or coming. This season proclaims the coming of Christ in the birth of Jesus, in the Word and Spirit, and in the final victory when God's kingdom shall be complete. 

Our privilege as Christians is to receive the gracious gifts of God's presence in Christ.  Our task is to prepare for His coming so that we will not miss life's greatest gift. 

-- Norman Sawchuck and Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God” (Nashville, Tenn.: Upper Room Books, 2003) 


#4476

THE SEED AND THE TREE

“See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory].”  (1 John 3:1-2 Amplified)

Christianity teaches that salvation is not merely a posthumous experience, but starts here in this life on earth; the life of grace is incipient already in our earthly sojourn; it sprouts here though it blossoms and fructifies in heaven. The relation between the “this-world life of grace” and “the next-world life of heaven” is that of the seed and the tree. 

-- Jacob Kattackal


#4419

COME, LORD JESUS

“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city… I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”  (Revelation 22:12-17 NIV)

So, for many there is no emotional yearning for the return of Jesus. The best hope they know is a kind of intellectual, theological hope. But an intellectual knowledge of what the New Testament teaches about the return of Christ is surely a poor substitute for a love-inflamed desire to look on His face!… The crux of the whole matter is this: our wonderful, created world will be restored to its rightful Owner.

I for one look forward to that day. I want to live here when Jesus Christ owns and rules the world. Until that hour, there will be conflict, distress and war among the nations. We will hear of suffering and terror and fear and failure. But the God who has promised a better world is the God who cannot lie. He will shake loose Satan’s hold on this world and its society and systems. Our heavenly Father will put this world into the hands that were once nailed to a cross for our race of proud and alienated sinners.

It is a fact. Jesus Christ is returning to earth.…

I bow my head and continue to pray with the humble writer of the Revelation: “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

--  A.W. Tozer in “The Tozer Topical Reader”

#4325

A PLACE FOR YOU

Jesus said, “There are many rooms in My Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly.”  (John 14:2 NLT)

Soon Jesus would die on the cross, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, leaving His disciples on earth. To help prepare them for life without Him, Jesus explained that He would be going to His Father in heaven and would be preparing a place for them there. He also promised to return.

His disciples were confused, not really believing that Jesus would have to die, not realizing that He would come back to life, and thus not understanding at all what He meant by going to the Father and “preparing a place” for them.

But we have the perspective of history. We know that Jesus died on the cross. And we know that He rose from the grave and later ascended into heaven. Thus, we can be confident that He is there now preparing for us.

What a great promise! If you have trusted in Christ as your Savior, your future is secure -- He has a place for you in the “Father’s house.” No one can stop you; nothing can deter you; no one can steal your hope… because Jesus has promised.

And He’s coming back to take you there.

-- Dave Veerman, as quoted in “His Passion: Christ’s Journey to the Resurrection”

#4295

ALREADY BUT NOT YET

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”  (Philippians 1:6 NIV)

It has been said that Charles Wesley’s hymns always begin on earth and end in heaven. So it is with John Wesley’s theology. He was firmly convinced of the coming day of Christ, which is not yet, but toward which humankind, with the whole of creation, is moving. For Wesley, it was necessary to stress God’s ultimate victory; but it was also important to affirm the penultimate reality of God’s presence, now experienced as life that is drawn to God in increasingly focused love. John Wesley had a doctrine of final things, an eschatology, in which God’s Kingdom is being presently realized even as it points toward a consummating future. The Christian lives with the lively hope that God, who has begun a good thing, will fulfill it in the day of Jesus Christ.

-- Thomas Langford in “Practical Divinity”


#4167

TAKING A KNEE

Some football players, when they break away for a go-ahead score or cause a key third-down sack, want to be sure they get their full ESPN's worth -- the dances, the struts, the jerky moves they've been saving up for just such an opportunity.

Then there's the other approach -- the guy who rips off a long touchdown run, flips the ball back to the referee, and trots to the sideline without all the show and the secret handshakes. He lives by this code: Don't act like it's the first time you've ever seen the inside of the end zone. Look like you've been there . . . like you never expected to be anywhere else.

When Jesus returns, you can be sure there will be a lot of people doing a lot of tap dancing, trying hard to prove why their occasional big plays should be enough to earn them a spot on His team. But eventually, "every knee" will bow, "in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). That's when the people who'd already humbled themselves before Him on earth will have no hesitation taking a knee and giving Him praise in heaven. It'll be like they've been there... like they never expected to be anywhere else. And where they'll be thankful now that there's no more penalty for excessive celebration.

-- Joe Gibbs in Two Minute Drills online devotional


#3589

PLANT A TREE

Martin Luther was once asked what he would do if he knew that the world was coming to an end tomorrow, and he said: “I would plant an apple tree.” In other words, Luther, trusting in God’s gracious, unmerited mercy would live life just as he had been living it. When John Wesley was asked the same thing, being an obsessive-compulsive type, he said that he would arise at 4:00 AM, preach at 5:00, visit the sick at 7:00, go to communion at 8:00...etc., until the questioner realized that that was exactly what Wesley had planned to do tomorrow anyway! Because we believe that God is like Christ, we can dare to live in faith and hope and love now; trusting God for whatever the future holds, because we believe that God holds the future, and that God’s Name and God’s Nature are love.

-- Donald B. Strobe in Collected Words


#3422

THE PROMISE OF RESURRECTION

Recently I read an article written by Joni Eareckson Tada.  Joni is no stranger to tragedy and difficulty.  Paralyzed in a diving accident at age seventeen, she has since ministered to millions across the world with the message of hope in Christ.

In an article she told about saying to her assistant one day, "File this, Francie, and make copies of this letter, would you?  And, oh yes, would you please pull out the sofa bed one more time?"  Her paralysis blocks her body from feeling pain, and the only way she knows something is wrong is when her temperature and blood pressure begin to rise.  She intuitively senses something is wrong.  Oftentimes it's because she has unknowingly punctured her body or has rubbed against something and suffered a bruise or laceration.  Sometimes she has to ask her assistant to undress her and examine her body to see what's wrong.

In the article Joni said she was in the midst of one of these episodes -- they happen three or four times a month -- and looked up to the ceiling and said aloud, "I want to quit this.  Where do I go to resign from this stupid paralysis?"

As Francie was leaving the office that day she ducked out the door, then stuck her head back in and said, "I bet you can't wait for the Resurrection."

Joni wrote, "My eyes dampened again, but this time they were tears of relief and hope.  I squeezed back my tears and dreamed what I've dreamed of a thousand times -- the promise of the Resurrection.  A flood of other hopeful promises filled my mind.  When we see Him we shall be like Him . . . The perishable shall put on the imperishable . . . The corruptible, that which is incorruptible . . . That which is sown in weakness will be raised in power . . . He has given us an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.  I opened my eyes and said out loud with a smile, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus."

This hope of ours isn't merely "pie in the sky in the great by and by."  It isn't merely that if we believe hard enough, things will get better.  This is not "hope-so" hope; this is know-so hope.  This is knowing the Person Who has done what no one else has ever done.

By virtue of that accomplishment, Jesus has laid claim to our faith and says, "If I came out of the grave victorious over death, and you put your trust in Me, you can have that same victory - - not only over death, but in your life, day by day." 

-- David Jeremiah in Jesus' Final Warning


#3193

ABOUT "THE DAY"

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)
We must never speak to simple, excitable people about "the Day" without emphasizing again and again the utter impossibility of prediction. We must try to show them that that impossibility is an essential part of the doctrine. If you do not believe our Lord's words, why do you believe in His return at all? And if you do believe them, must you not put away from you, utterly and forever, any hope of dating that return?

-- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The World's Last Night

 
#2772