Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Gordon Mote singing … Don’t Let Me Miss The Glory, declaring how we should live to prepare for the glory of His coming to retrieve His Bride.
Highlight Passage: 1st Thessalonians 4:17 [NKJV] …
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
… How exciting is that for Christians?!! Could this be the year?
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Highlight Context – 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul visualizes Jesus’ return for His Bride.
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Reference Passage #1 - John 3: 16 [NKJV] …
16 [I sure hope we all know this one!]
… He’s come once to save us. Next … He’s coming to get us.
Reference Passage #2 - Romans 12: 1-2 [NKJV] …
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
… Living sacrifice in anticipation of Christ coming for His Bride, the Church. Maybe today!
Reference Passage #3 - Revelation 19:7-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Bride preparing for the wedding feast of the Lamb as her Bridegroom.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Joe Stowell, on this New Year’s Day related a person story about his dad. He wrote, My dad was a pastor, and on the first Sunday of each new year he preached about the return of Christ, often quoting from 1 Thessalonians 4. His point was always the same: “This could be the year that Jesus will return. Are you ready to meet Him?” I’ll never forget hearing that sermon at age 6, thinking, If that’s true, I’m not sure I will be among those He’s coming for. … I felt certain that my parents would be going to heaven, and I wanted to go too.
Joe Stowell was led by his dad into a saving relationship with Jesus; and now he, along with all the Saints, await Christ’s coming again as the Bridegroom to retrieve His Bride; and it’s an exciting prospect that this very year, 2016, could be that year. But the question is … for all who are in Christ, … are we ready for Him to come? Are we living each year, … each day, … each moment … in anticipation of our Lord descending to take His Bride home to glory?
And the answer to those questions lies in how we are living in preparation for that imminent return. The Apostle Paul taught, in the 1st Thessalonians 4 passage, linked above, that one day, MAYBE TODAY!, Jesus will come for us. And in preparation for that, Paul also taught that we should live as “living sacrifices,” avoiding worldly influences and living as a sacrifice to the coming Lord. And in Revelation 19, the Apostle John shared a vision of the wedding feast of the Lamb with The Bridegroom, Christ, and His Bride, the Church, … the Bride all adorned in the linens she had prepared for her Groom, which were the righteous acts she had committed, waiting for Jesus to return for His Bride.
So, are we ready for His coming? If it were today, have we been committed enough to prepare our linens for the Bridegroom? Today will we live as a living sacrifice to honor the coming of our Lord?
I don’t know about you; … but I’m getting ready for Him to come today.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Help me to be ready today if You’ve decided to come for me. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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