Hi friends…Happy Lord’s Day! I get excited about the coming of the Lord. How about you? Yes?

Well, today, let’s focus on His coming! At times, I use Pastor Jack Hibbs’ 40-day devotional entitled, Watching Waiting, and I was recently blessed by this one. I hope you are too!

Jesus is Coming

The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 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.  (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

The Rapture is the event in which Jesus Christ will return to collect His believers in the air, the physical bodies of those living and deceased, and take them to heaven. It will happen suddenly and without warning. Though it can fall under the umbrella of the Second Coming, the Rapture is separate from Christ's physical return to Jerusalem. The Rapture is promised to us by none other than Jesus Christ Himself in John 14:1-3:

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

Jesus very clearly tells us that He's coming to get us and will bring us to the place He has prepared for us.

How do we get there? What is the vehicle? The Rapture. We will be "caught up," off of this globe and out of this world. He will collect both the living and the dead who are His in the atmosphere. And from there, He will take us into His presence in heaven, away from all that will happen on earth. That is thrilling news.

Jesus promises to descend from heaven, raise the dead in Christ, and catch us up together with Him in the air. And then He promises that we shall always be with Him. That's a promise worth placing your hope and trust in.

The Rapture will be sudden. There are no prophetic precursors or requirements for it to take place, It is imminent, and it will be without warning. There are no unfulfilled prophecies standing in the way of it. Jesus is coming! Are you ready?