Cool morning out there today. Kind of hard to believe that this is still early autumn and a hurricane is off the east coast. In my former life as a slave of sin, I recall being terrified of the Rapture. The suddenness and swiftness of the 'thief in the night' part bothered me a lot. When would be my last moment? What would be the warning signs? You can see that I didn't quite get it. Jesus used the metaphor because a thief does not leave a note in the mailbox letting us know that tonight is his appointed night to burgle our house. Not one of us will get some feeling that today is the day that Jesus will call us home. You won't be in the grocery store buying a case of noodles and then put it back because a message from above said that you won't be needing it. I won't stop working on the next novel because a dream tells me that today is the big day for our departure. Jesus told the disciples that everything would be going on as it did in Noah's day when the doors of the ark were shut by God. We might be attending a wedding, and then we are called home instantly. Well, that thought frightened me more than any Halloween horror movie back in the day. No time to repent, no time to say 'I'm sorry, Lord', just the knowledge in my head that I would probably perish in the Tribulation.
That is a problem of knowledge of the Bible without the salvation of Christ. There is no comfort to the terror of the coming Tribulation when the Comforter is on the outside. The Rapture scared my little knowledgeable head to no end. In Christ, all of that changed. Now, I like it. The Rapture requires no preparation such as having a suitcase ready at all times. I don't need some RapturePass card that I must carry with me and never lose. 'Cuz we know how easy it is to lose important stuff in this world. God did not issue me a Christian ID card that I might misplace just before the Rapture arrives. The seal of Christ is placed on us in a way that nothing can remove, and perhaps best of all, I can't drop it in my life's clutter. Our salvation is based on Christ alone, so I don't have some set of rapture exercises that I must complete before I am allowed to go on the trip. And, I don't have some date and time to track on my calendar. God keeps the date and hour, I don't need to worry about the timing. I don't know how many times I have planned to go somewhere and suddenly recalled, "Oh, that was yesterday!" Imagine saying that about the Rapture.
Today, I go on with my work in Christ. If the Rapture happens, then my next 'Praise God!' will be spoken in Heaven, I won't have time to say it during that blink of an eye.
Bucky
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