OK. So I guess I’m in one of those strange kind of moods tonight. I’m calm enough, yet quite uncomfortable. I’m at rest, but wrestling with the reasons I still remain here on planet earth. Because, as you know, planet earth is in crisis.
Anyone who is watching and waiting for our Lord’s soon return knows exactly what I’m talking about. You understand my feelings of expectation, and loooonnnng awaiting the promised return of our Savior for His church. You may understand very well how I feel, because you feel it too.
It’s a sense of powerlessness on the one hand, and a magnificent hope of glory on the other. It is the convergence of all my faith with all my fears, as they interact together—creating a mind-blowing, stomach-churning expectancy of things far beyond my human reasoning.
It is the Lord’s return.
It is the certain sound of the trumpet blast, reverberating across earth and sky. And before anyone can grasp the weight of it, or gasp in uncertain surprise, we will be changed. Everything will be changed—life, limb, and the destiny of all things.
In a moment. In the twinkling of an eye.
“Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
God will call, and His church—His bride—will follow Him. We will be taken into heavenly realms to be with Him, to partake of His glory, and to be His forevermore.
What an utterly amazing moment!
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)
To be His—to belong to Christ—is all that seems to truly matter to God. So it should mean everything to us.
To Be His is to Trust
“And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43)
The thief on the cross was completely saved by his trust in Christ, who was dying right beside him. He recognized the kingdom of Christ, realizing that Jesus was his Lord, and the King of glory—with all power and authority to save him.
He had never heard Jesus’ admonition to the disciples:
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” (Luke 9:23-25)
So, if the cross of Christ is sufficient to save us, why must we take up our own cross daily? Because like the thief, who was born anew and died in a single day, we live out our faith—one day at a time. Daily, we die to ourselves and accept Christ’s life-giving freedom from sin.
Believing is our daily process, as we trust in the promises made real to us—one day at a time.
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6:25)
This process of trusting our Lord to hold us each and every day is also a process of dying to our own uncertain desires, and of denying ourselves, and bringing God’s will to the forefront of our lives. This is living for Him. This is allowing Christ to live in and through us. This is knowing Him, and being His.
I’m thinking it was a fairly simple choice for that thief, dying on the cross, to forsake all he had to receive Christ and everything that He is. At that point, he had nothing to lose but his immense pain and regret.
But every day, each one of us must make this same leap of faith, forsaking ourselves and all that we have, to allow the Savior to come in. And what does He do there, within us?
He rescues us repeatedly, day after day—as He sets us free from ourselves, and sets us apart—to be His.
To Be His is to Prepare
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.”
(Matthew 25:1-10)
As Jesus began this parable with the word “then,” He is referring to the time frame immediately before His return for the Church—His bride. In this parable, ten virgins took their lamps—which symbolizes our individual lives—and went forth to meet the bridegroom. They were ten candidates for the marriage, but five were called “foolish.”
The “foolish” did not understand what being ready to be a bride was actually about. Therefore, they took no oil (which symbolizes the Holy Spirit of God) in their vessels (which symbolizes the soul—the internal and eternal part of a human being).
At the appointed time, the bridegroom came for His bride. The wise virgins were ready, prepared for that day, filled within with the salvation of God’s indwelling Spirit. But suddenly, the foolish understand their foolishness. They were empty without that life-giving Spirit within.
Just as those who have put their hope in religious places and practices, instead of allowing God’s own Holy Spirit to reach them, and reign in their lives.
Religious organizations and rituals of men can fool us into believing in a false hope. But the truth is that nothing but the blood of Christ is able to cleanse and justify us from our sins. And nothing can indwell us with Christ’s salvation but His own living Holy Spirit.
You’ll notice that the foolish virgins took “no” oil with them. None. They were not merely low on oil. And they weren’t just oil deficient, needing to be topped off a little.
They had no oil at all.
This speaks of salvation. Either you have the life-and-light-producing, indwelling power and presence of God’s own Holy Spirit, or you do not.
There is nothing in between. No one is partially saved. It is all or nothing.
This is why the wise virgins could not share their oil with the foolish ones. Even if they could, it wouldn’t have made the foolish virgins any more ready for the marriage.
We share the gospel message with others, but we cannot give anyone our own personal treasure within us—our own personal infilling of God’s Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is there to help us, but it’s more than that. He seals us. He holds our place. He makes us worthy to meet our bridegroom on our wedding day, as Christ gladly receives us—because we are His.
To Be His is Knowing Truth
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
(1 Corinthians 1:19-21)
Basic doctrines of our faith must come forth from God’s pure word of truth. We can not rely on the wisdom of men, no matter how good and Godly they appear to be.
We must recognize that the church, in its infancy, was directly influenced by Jesus Himself. And later, the church was influenced by the expressed power of His Holy Spirit. The promise to His followers, then and now, was that this same Spirit would lead us into all truth.
All truth—not merely man’s religious reasonings. Not merely some religious heritage passed down from generation to generation. That simply isn’t good enough, and it always causes divisions among believers.
“Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.”
(Mark 7:5-9)
This powerful word from Christ Jesus fully explains how religious-minded leaders love to rely on their own words and reasoning, rather than the word of God. They err from the truth—not because they can’t plainly read it in scripture, and not because they lack some basic understanding. They depart from God’s truth—instead observing their own self made rituals and reasoning—because they choose to.
They are full of religion, but empty and destitute in knowing God’s Spirit. They die a slow, self righteous death—and they take many other unsuspecting souls to Hell along with them.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
(Matthew 23:25-28)
The religious authorities of Jesus’ day were full of that same self righteous reasoning, that each and every generation have taken to themselves. They worship the religion, rather than the Lord, who loves and saves His people.
Don’t be like them—full of self justification and pride. When the Bridegroom appears, they will say “Lord, Lord, let us in.” But Christ will simply respond, as He does to all who are only strangers, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)
With all reasoning and disagreements aside, the bottom line is that nothing on earth matters but this one identifying factor: being His.
To Be His is Your Decision
Many have come to the conclusion that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ for His church is very close at hand. The times and signs of that blessed event seem to be all around us. Soon—most likely very soon—the Bridegroom will call forth His bride to Himself.
Think about the marriage relationship for a few moments. It is naturally a separation of yourself from all others. It is a choice to to forsake all others, and to cling only to the one who has chosen you, and who you have chosen to be with.
This is the love story between God and His creation. It is the culmination of all that has come before. It is the purpose for our existence: to be His.
There is no other reason.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
John 3:16—probably the most quoted scripture in the Bible. It explains God’s great motivation for literally sacrificing Himself for us—the any and all—the “whosoever” that would believe. He saves us, because He loves us.
Our brief lifetime provides the opportunity for each of us to abandon ourselves in Him, and discover Him as a faithful partner—as we look forward through eternities of time, with great expectancy, to the day we will forever and completely be His.
Sadly, our last days world has no real concept of this magnificent love story. Even sadder still, is the spiritual condition of our religious world—especially that of the western church, who seem distracted and lacking passion.
It’s almost as if they never even heard of this love story.
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
(Revelation 3:14-19)
These words the Lord spoke to the Laodicean church are a direct insight as to the condition of many living now. Interestingly, this term “lukewarm” is only used in this single passage of scripture.
The meaning of “lukewarm” here is made obvious. We can’t miss it. It is an attitude of self worth, rather than God worth. It is the high minded stance of pride and self sufficiency. It is, in effect, to imply that we are no longer in need of a Savior—essentially rejecting Christ.
“Hot” might represent a full immersion in the things of God. We might say that we are in “hot pursuit” of His Kingdom. So then “cold” may illustrate the failings and errors of judgement in our faith. It might be a continuance of sin, without repentance. Of course, the only cure for the cold heart is a turning back to the Lord with a repentant heart.
But lukewarmness is a ruinous process. What can God do with that? A lukewarm heart is comfortable and complacent, and no longer responds to God’s pleading. Like Israel long ago, it doesn’t listen to the prophets’ pleas to return to Him.
A lukewarm heart just doesn’t care. It can take God, or leave Him. What can God do but reject such attitudes of self-righteousness? Verse 19 reminds us that God—out of His love for even the most self willed and spoiled children—will attempt to bring them back into His will.
It is up to every individual heart to decide: will I continue on in my own false sense of self-assurance, or be His?
It is complete and utter foolishness to stand on the edge of eternity without a safety net.
To Be His Takes Faith
Faith is a fight. It takes guts to believe in things you can’t see. It’s a wild and exciting ride, but it can also be disappointing—even devastating—if things don’t happen when we think they should happen.
Despite all of the uncertainties we may face, this one thing is certain: Christ will come. In His fathers purposed and perfect timing. He will neither be a minute too soon, or a moment too late. It will be, as God’s purposes always are, in the “fullness of time.” We can be sure of this.
By understanding that the timing of our Lord’s return is in perfect harmony with God’s will, we can have peace by placing our confidence in Him, and not in the timing of things He has promised. That’s God’s concern.
After all, we aren’t just waiting for the day—we are waiting to meet our King. And we aren’t just watching for the fulfillment of God’s will.
We are the fulfillment of His will: that all might come to Him.
Those of us who hold onto the hope of Christ’s imminent return for His church must rest in Him, abide in Him and focus on Him—not on one single event in time. My friend, we are currently engaged in a battle of wills within a vexed and volatile world. And we are to “occupy” until we are “taken out of the way”—literally, removed from service.
God, in His infinite wisdom, reserves the perfect moment for all things. On that day our Lord calls to His own spirit within us, we will be caught away to meet Him. And we will leave with Him—for the same indisputable reason we lived for Him.
Because, my friend, forever we are His.