“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17
November 30, 2023
Part of the grief experienced in the death of a family member or friend is the conspicuous fact of the physical absence of our loved one. They aren’t with us any longer. We need comfort. Through the apostle Paul the Spirit of God tells us to take comfort in the truth that we are not hopeless. The hope given is that fellow believers in Jesus Christ will be reunited with mutual resurrection bodies, one out of the grave, the other alive but both being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. “Dead Christians will not be for-gotten by God at the Second Coming….Dead Christians will be glorified even before living Christians (1 Thess. 4:15-18).”** We are to look forward to equal blessing as our attention will be fully on the glorified Savior who will be signaled by a shout of command, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, jubilantly caught up together in the clouds to be with Christ. Is this not an incomparable comfort? The cemetery to the believer is but a motel for the body. We who are alive will suddenly be more alive than we’ve ever been.
H
“The early believers were not looking for something to happen, they were looking for Someone to come. Looking for the train [or plane] to arrive is one thing, but looking for someone we love to come on that train [or plane] is another matter.” Vance Havner
**quote above from John C. Whitcomb, The Rapture and Beyond.