Always…With The Lord

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. 

I Thessalonians 4:17 

After our emphasis last week upon the First Advent of Christ, and our emphasis this week upon His Second Advent, we want to close the year with words of hope and encouragement which tie these two Advents together and help us, to look forward to the future. When Christ came the first time, He came to accomplish all that was necessary for our Redemption from the perspective of fulfilling the Law in precept and in penalty. Because He did so successfully, God, His Father raised Him from the dead. For all these years, the Ascended Christ has ever lived to make intercession for all of His Blood-bought people. Also, as of now, ‘He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.’ As we said yesterday, when Christ returns, ‘the dead in Christ will rise first.’ To that statement the Apostle Paul adds our text for today, ‘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.’ Here was the desire of the first disciples who said, ‘Master, where do you dwell?’ It is the desire of every child of God, bought with the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant, to be with Christ. This is the beginning of the blessed eternity for which we so long have waited. This is our longing and our expectation. We have long desired it and prayed earnestly for it. For us, heaven is the hope, not of streets of gold and gates of pearl, but the glorious state, that ‘we shall always be with the Lord.’ 

High King of Heaven, 
we look forward to the hour when we shall ascend to the very throne of God. 
We praise You, that we shall spend all our eternity, 
in the light of Your Presence, in God’s Eternal Day. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning