“2. …I go to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:2, 3.
Oh! What a wonderful promise we have penned down on the pages of Holy writ, and spoken directly from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming again!
Dr. William Beiderwolf (18671939) had this to say concerning the coming of Christ: “What a soul thrilling thought to know that someday, and doubtless soon, the Lord of glory is coming again. The Lord by whom all things were made; the Lord who stretched out the firmament like a silver canopy in the sky; and penned back the curtains of the night with clusters of stars; the Lord who set the pillars of the earth in their sockets, lifted up the mountains and wrapped them in robes of clouds, and set the lakes like huge crystals studdedwithemeraldsamonggreen pockets of the hills—this Lord, the Lord who came to earth from the glory which was His before the world was, that He might redeem it from the curse that came with sin-- the Lord, whose godlike wisdom filled the doctors of the temple with astonishment, whose healing touch made the lepers clean; who said, Peace be still to the wild fury of the storm swept sea; who laid His hands in blessing on the little ones--the Lord of Gethsemane’s bloody sweat, of Calvary’s iron spikes, of the broken tomb, and of the clouds that received Him out of their sight.
This is the Lord who is coming--coming to vindicate the sure word of Holy scripture as spoken of His many prophets of old. Coming to silence forever every argument concerning himself, and to show to the world that the one who hung on Calvary’s cross was really the Son of the living God.
Coming to establish peace and righteousness where the unsanctified efforts of men have wrought only envy and suspicion, class hatred, and war, with every form of wickedness and oppression in general.
Coming with a shout and with the voice of the archangel to wake the dead and transform His living saints into the likeness of His own glorious body, and to gather them to himself in the air.”
To be ready to meet the Lord, either by death or rapture, you must personally of your own free will, receive Him as your Saviour. Following is a story as an example: (copied) Years ago there was a story about a man named Clint Westcott. He was 51 years old and had been on the streets as a bum for 15 years. He refused $19,219. He said, “hand me a dollar, I’ll take it. Buy a little drink, a little smoke; but I don’t want the $19,219, I just don’t want the money.” He sleeps in the weeds in a vacant lot in downtown Los Angeles. He had 44 cents in his pocket when the money was offered to him. It was money that belonged to him from the sale of property that he had back in New York state.
Many of you would say, “What a foolish man!”Yes, he was foolish, for with that money, that was his, he could have pulled himself out of the dirt, grime and filth of his life and could have lived respectably.
May I say to many of you reading this article, how foolish also is the man or woman who refuses to receive the gift of salvation. Man grovels in the dirt and filth of this world seeking peace and happiness, and then turns his back on the Son of God who offers salvation, peace and joy for evermore.
The invitation is for you. “Come, and receive the wealth that is yours through Jesus Christ.”