Looking and Living!

Did you hear the joke about the sad psychic? He said, "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." And then there was the man who asked, "Why do you need to make an appointment with a psychic? Don’t they already know you are coming?" I don’t recommend it, but millions turn to so-called psychics and all kinds of fortune-telling techniques to try and see into the future. All we have space to say here is that "you’d better watch out" – for, "... you do not konw what will happen tomorrow" (James 4:14a). The "you" in that verse applies to me, and you, and psychics, too! And if we can’t tell what will happen tomorrow, it’s a slam dunk we can’t know for certain what will happen in a week or a month or a year or a decade! Life’s highway is too full of twists and turns and curves and potholes for anybody to say with certainty all that is coming in the future.

Here’s something we do know with certainty. Jesus Christ is coming again! That announcement is made a number of times in the New Testament by Jesus and His inspired spokemen (see John 14:1-3, 1 Thessalonians, 4:13-18, and Hebrews 9:26-28 for especially clear statements). Jesus is coming again, and we don’t need a psychic to tell us that! What we don’t know and can’t know is exactly when He is coming. Jesus Himself left no wiggle-room on this point, saying in Mark 13:32: "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (also Matthew 24:36). The Lord in that statement rendered useless the endless speculations that the Lord’s return is imminent and that we are seeing "the signs of the end of time." Let me say it again – we CAN know the Lord is coming back – but we CANNOT know when. Don’t forget Jesus’ words – "of that day and hour no one knows."

In Romans 13:11-14 the apostle Paul reminds us the future coming of Christ provides powerful incentive –not to obsess about when Christ will come, but rather to be faithful until He does, or until we die! "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." The most critical issue is not when Christ will come, but the fact that He will! Paul lived with an awareness that each passing day brings us closer to the day Jesus’ will return, whenever it is.



Robert G. Taylor told a story that gets to the point. During his 1960 presidential campaign, John Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport, the speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. One day in 1789, the sky over Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the rep’s, glancing out the windows, feared the end of time was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore I wish that candles be brought." We know Jesus is coming, but we don’t know when. It’s a good thing to look for His return (Titus 2:13). But even as we look, let us not fail to live for Him today!  Think about it.

  Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN