“The next sound you’ll hear is Lewis White knocking on the door.”
It was bedtime when George said that. We were about to turn in for the night and he needed to sleep fast if he was to be ready when his friend picked him up for the early morning prayer meeting. In those days we could go to bed at an appropriate time and sleep soundly until dawn. But even in sleep there seems to be an inner alert that something special is going to happen. And, indeed, it truly is.
The next thing anticipated on God’s calendar for mankind is His knock on the door.
Angels asserted the truth of this heavenly summons as they spoke to the Lord’s disciples. Christ was ascending into the clouds on the fortieth day after His resurrection. The angels proclaimed, “He will come in like manner as you see Him go.” There were no advanced notices, no rousing public fanfare. He simply went into the heavens.
With renewed anticipation and purposeful haste the eleven returned to Jerusalem to await the fulfillment of one promise, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and to ready themselves for the time when their Lord would gather them to Himself. That second promise became the hope of the body of new believers soon to assemble in Jerusalem and then to spread across the known world.
To followers of the Way in Thessalonica, their mentor the Apostle Paul, wrote concerning the promise of Christ’s return. He assured them that the time would come when believers would be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
The next promised sound we hear will be the trumpet’s call piercing the heavens. “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed -- in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."--- 1 Cor.15:51-52 (NKJV)
It was bedtime when George said that. We were about to turn in for the night and he needed to sleep fast if he was to be ready when his friend picked him up for the early morning prayer meeting. In those days we could go to bed at an appropriate time and sleep soundly until dawn. But even in sleep there seems to be an inner alert that something special is going to happen. And, indeed, it truly is.
The next thing anticipated on God’s calendar for mankind is His knock on the door.
Angels asserted the truth of this heavenly summons as they spoke to the Lord’s disciples. Christ was ascending into the clouds on the fortieth day after His resurrection. The angels proclaimed, “He will come in like manner as you see Him go.” There were no advanced notices, no rousing public fanfare. He simply went into the heavens.
With renewed anticipation and purposeful haste the eleven returned to Jerusalem to await the fulfillment of one promise, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and to ready themselves for the time when their Lord would gather them to Himself. That second promise became the hope of the body of new believers soon to assemble in Jerusalem and then to spread across the known world.
To followers of the Way in Thessalonica, their mentor the Apostle Paul, wrote concerning the promise of Christ’s return. He assured them that the time would come when believers would be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
The next promised sound we hear will be the trumpet’s call piercing the heavens. “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed -- in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."--- 1 Cor.15:51-52 (NKJV)