SECOND COMING – RAPTURE
One day, while visiting a home for mentally handicapped children operated by a Christian friend, Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Institute, noticed the tiny handprints of children covering the window. Stowell remarked about them to his friend.
“Oh, those,” he replied. “The children here love Jesus, and they are so eager for Him to return that they lean against the windows as they look up to the sky.”
The war was over and the boys began to return. Excitement ran high in many families. One little girl was anxious to see her brother who had been gone for over three years. Everyday she wondered if today was the day he would arrive.
“You may wear your new white dress and stockings, but please do be careful. Bob will be home today.” It seemed like a long wait to little Mary. She began to feel hungry and decided to have a little lunch. As she was eating cookies and a cup of chocolate, she accidentally upset the cup and spilled the contents over her beautiful dress. She quickly ran upstairs and then into the clothes closet. At just this moment the big brother arrived. He soon called out, “Mary, Mary. Where are you?” Finally they found her, hiding in the closet, where she was crying and sobbing. “What are you doing here?” they asked her. “Oh, Bob, I’m so ashamed. My dress is all dirty, and I wanted to be clean when you came home.”
At the height of World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for taking a stand against Hitler. Yet he continued to urge fellow believers to resist Nazi tyranny. A group of Christians, believing that Hitler was the Antichrist, asked Bonhoeffer, “Why do you expose yourself to all this danger? Jesus will return any day, and all your work and suffering will be for nothing.” Bonhoeffer replied, “If Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I’ll rest from my labor. But today I have work to do. I must continue the struggle until it’s finished.”
The early believers were not looking for something to happen, they were looking for Someone to come. Looking for the train to arrive is one thing, but looking for someone we love to come on that train is another matter.
—The Vance Havner Quote Book
Arno C. Gaebelein referred to his longing for Jesus’ second coming as “the homesickness of the new life.” Someone else put it this way, “Blessed are the homesick, for they shall be called home.”
Mrs. Dave Bartlett, TEAM missionary in Japan, taught missionary children in the third grade. One day she was teaching about Jesus’ return, and the same day another class had a drama of a Bible event for which a man was dressed in Bible clothes. A third-grader walked out of class, saw the man dressed in Bible attire, and ran back into the classroom and yelled to the class, “Here he is now!”
Plan as though Christ were not coming for ten years. Live as though He were coming in ten seconds.
Francis of Assisi, hoeing in his garden, was asked, “What would you do if you knew Christ were coming back today?” He answered, “I would keep right on hoeing.”
The royal parents of Princess Victoria felt that she should be told early in life that someday she might become the queen of England. So they instructed her governess, who was a countess, to make this known to her. She in turn inserted in the girl’s history textbook a listing of the Hanoverian kings. At the end of the column she had written the name “Victoria.” The governess watched closely as the princess studied her lesson. When Victoria read down the page and came to her own name, she looked up and said, “Can it really be that I may become the queen of England?” The countess replied, “Yes, in all possibility you will.” After a pause, the princess said thoughtfully, “Then I will be good.” From then on she began to apply herself with all her ability, realizing that someday she would sit on the throne.
A man was visiting a certain school and made a promise to the pupils that he would give a prize to the one whose desk was found in the very best order when he returned. He gave no indication, however, when he might come back. Shortly after he left, a little girl, noted for her disorderly habits, announced that she meant to win the prize. Her schoolmates jeered and laughed at her, saying, “Why, Mary, your desk is always out of order. It’s never cleaned up.” “Oh,” she replied, “but starting right now, I’m going to clean it up the first of every week.” Someone questioned, “Just supposing he comes at the end of the week?” “Well then,” Mary answered, “I’ll clean it up every morning.” “What if he comes at the end of the day?” another asked. At that suggestion, Mary was silent for a moment. Then, with her face lighting up, she said, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll just keep it clean all the time!”
Frederic Farrar was a personal friend of Queen Victoria of England. On one occasion he told of a conversation he had with her Majesty after she had heard one of her chaplains preach on Christ’s second coming. She said, “Oh, Dean Farrar, how I wish that the Lord would come during my lifetime!” When he asked why she desired this, her countenance brightened, and with deep emotion she replied, “Because I would love to lay my crown at His blessed feet in reverent adoration.”
A Christian doctor was suddenly taken home to be with the Lord. His wife, who was frail and sickly, was heartbroken over her loss. But then as she turned to the Lord for comfort, she was strengthened and felt a sense of peace. To express her new confidence in the Lord and the fact that she knew she would see her husband again, she posted in her living room door a sign her husband always displayed when he left his office for a while. It read, “Gone out—Back soon.”
Both the Old and the New Testaments are filled with promises of the second coming of Christ. There are 1,845 references to it in the Old Testament, and a total of seventeen Old Testament books give it prominence.
Of the 260 chapters in the entire New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming, or one out of thirty verses. Twenty-three of the twenty-seven New Testament books refer to this great event. The four missing books include three which are single-chapter letters written to individual persons on a particular subject, and the fourth is Galatians which does imply Christ’s coming again.
For every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are eight on Christ’s second coming.
—Paul Lee Tan
Robert Murray McCheyne of Scotland was hosting a ministers’ meeting in his home. In a lull in the conversation he asked the ministers individually, “Do you think Jesus will come tonight?” All said, “No, I think not.” After going the rounds and receiving the same answer, McCheyne solemnly repeated, “Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 24:44).
—Leslie B. Flynn
Dr. John Gill was asked to speak in a series of meetings in the First Presbyterian Church in Dallas. Entering the pastor’s study, he said to Dr. William Anderson, “Do you love His appearing?” “Well, I’ve had no time for it because I’ve been studying His first coming.” “Well, I just wondered if you love His appearing,” Dr. Gill said and walked out. That got Dr. Anderson to thinking and actually revolutionized his life and preaching.
One day a traveler in Switzerland discovered a beautiful but secluded estate on the shores of a tranquil lake. Knocking at the garden gate, he was met by an aged caretaker who cordially asked him to come in. The guardian seemed glad to see another person and eagerly showed him around the garden. “How long have you been here?” the tourist asked. “A very long time,” he replied. “And how often has your master returned?” “Four times.” “When was he here last?” “Many years ago. I am almost always alone—it’s very seldom that even a stranger visits me.” “Yet you have the garden in such perfect order,” said the traveler, “and everything is flourishing as if you were expecting your master tomorrow.” “No, sir,” exclaimed the caretaker, “I have it fixed as if he were coming today!”
Hachi, a Japanese dog, would accompany his master to the railroad station every morning. And every evening Hachi would be back to greet his friend, tail wagging, as his master arrived home from work.
One night, however, the dog’s master did not return. He had traveled to another city that day and while there, he died. Hachi, unable to comprehend the situation, continued to go to the railroad station every evening, and faithfully and patiently waited for at least an hour for his master’s return. He then turned and sadly trotted home. This he did every evening—for over ten years.
Hachi’s faithfulness so impressed the Japanese people that the government erected a statue of the dog on the spot where he had so patiently waited—and then sent statuettes to all the schools in what was then the Japanese Empire.
At the beginning of World War II, when 200,000 Japanese troops forced General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. forces, to withdraw from the Philippine Islands, he promised the discouraged Filipinos and Americans, “I shall return.”
In February 1945, troops under MacArthur’s command did return to Bataan. They forced the Japanese to surrender and freed the surviving Americans and Filipinos. MacArthur kept his promise to return.
It seems to me impossible to retain in any recognizable form our belief in the divinity to Christ and the truth of the Christian revelation while abandoning, or even persistently neglecting, the promised and threatened return of Christ.
—C. S. Lewis
A shoeshine man named Sam worked in a building that put him in contact with many students of theology. Sam loved the Lord and listened intently as the young men would discuss and debate their positions. Two men especially interested Sam. These men had different opinions on the book of Revelation. Day after day, Sam listened to eloquent and often passionate discussions in defense of the various views. One day, in the middle of a debate between the two men, one jokingly looked at Sam and said, “Sam, what do you think all these things in the book of Revelation mean?” With a smile on his face, Sam looked up and said simply, “Jesus is gonna win.”
The Sultan Mohammed Ibn Daud ruled Iran during that nation’s so-called “Golden Age.” He extended the frontiers of his country through conquest and expansion, accumulating great wealth in the process. Following Daud’s death it was believed that he would rise from his tomb, mount his horse, and lead his subjects to new conquests and glory. This belief is so strong that in the centuries since his death a thoroughbred charger has been kept in readiness before his tomb in the Mosque of Kuchan. Followers still wait for the day when the dead leader will arise and resume his reign.
—Today in the Word
The sailors on a Scottish fishing vessel were returning home after many days at sea. As they neared the shore, they gazed eagerly toward the dock where a group of their loved ones had gathered. The skipper looked through his binoculars and identified some of them: “I see Bill’s Mary, and there is Tom’s Margaret, and David’s Anne.” One man became concerned because his wife was not there. Later, he left the boat with a heavy heart and hurried up the hill to his cottage. As he opened the door, she ran to meet him saying, “I have been waiting for you!” He replied with a gentle rebuke, “Yes, but the other men’s wives were watching for them.”
SECRETARIES
I have a very simple and straightforward approach to work. The difficult I do myself. The impossible I give to my secretary.
—Bob Orben
A successful man is one who has a wife to tell him what to do and a secretary who does it.
SECRETS
Three of the most difficult things to do in life are to keep a secret, forget an injury, and make good use of leisure time.
—Bits & Pieces
There are two kinds of secrets: those too good to keep and those not worth repeating.
Most of us can keep a secret. It’s the people we tell it to who can’t.
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin
A secret is something you tell one person at a time.
SECURITY
Security is our nearness to God, not our distance from danger.
—Kenneth R. Hendren
Roland Hill, a Welsh preacher, used to like to quote John 5:24. He would say, “He who hears my word and believes Him who sent Me, hath eternal life. H-a-t-h; that spells ‘we’ve got it.’ ”
When the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge was under construction, several workmen lost their lives by falling from precariously high positions. The work was proceeding much too slowly till someone hit on the idea of building a net under the construction area. Then any workman who fell would not tumble to his death, but be caught by the net.
So a giant safety net of stout cord was made and swung under the construction work (the first time in the history of major construction that such a net was used). The cost was reportedly about $100,000. The work then proceeded at a much faster rate because the workmen knew that if they did slip, their lives would be spared. They could work without the dread of uncertainty.
—Leslie B. Flynn
In a sermon Juan Carlos Ortiz spoke of a conversation with a circus trapeze artist. The performer admitted the net underneath was there to keep them from breaking their necks.
Then he added, “The net also keeps us from falling. Imagine there is no net. We would be so nervous that we would be more likely to miss and fall. If there wasn’t a net, we would not dare to do some of the things we do. But because there is a net, we dare to make two turns, and once I made three turns—thanks to the net!”
Ortiz makes this observation: “We have security in God. When we are sure in His arms, we dare to attempt big things for God. We dare to be holy. We dare to be obedient. We dare, because we know the eternal arms of God will hold us if we fall.”
—Vernon Luchies
More secure is no one ever
Than the loved ones of the Savior—
Not yon star on high abiding
Nor the bird in home-nest hiding.
God His own doth tend and nourish,
In His holy courts they flourish,
Like a father kind He spares them,
in His loving arms He bears them.
Neither life nor death can ever
From the Lord His children sever,
For His love and deep compassion
Comforts them in tribulation.
Little flock, to joy then yield thee!
Jacob’s God will ever shield thee;
Rest secure with this Defender—
At His will all foes surrender.
What He takes or what he gives us
Shows the Father’s love so precious;
We may trust His purpose wholly
’Tis His children’s welfare solely.