ASKING MYSELF A QUESTION


ASKING MYSELF A QUESTION

                Okay, I am going to ask myself a question… for your benefit of course, and the question is this:

                Rick, why do you keep waffling on the timing of the rapture?

                Well, self, it is because I see evidence for several different rapture points and I don’t want to mislead anybody. I could leave it be of course, but in reality, I like to get to the bottom of things.

                 We have events coming up that make us want to know that we are right about things. I am not one that likes to just sit on traditions.

                It always haunts me that the Pharisees, in spite of their fervor, in spite of all the prophecies, signs, types and shadows, they nevertheless missed it because of their traditions. By the time Jesus came they could not recognize Him. He fit their prophecies perfectly, but He no longer fit their traditions. They rejected Him simply because He didn’t seem to be doing what they thought He should do.

                Even His disciples right up to the very end, kept asking Him when He would restore the kingdom. They wanted Him to overthrow the Roman Empire that ruled over them. They wanted a temporal kingdom and they could not quite comprehend His spiritual kingdom that must come first. Neither did they comprehend that Jesus would also call a people from among the Gentiles, or that there would be a 2000 year church age.

                Likewise today, many, if they bother to study at all, have various faulty concepts concerning the coming millennial reign of Christ on earth and the role that His saints will have during that time. We satisfy ourselves with golden streets and harps and standing around the throne and never ask “What next? We never probe into God’s eternal purpose, so therefore we don’t know what He is preparing us for. We do not comprehend the majesty and glory that awaits those who come into His inner circle.

                Many are largely satisfied just to make it…sinners saved by grace…just getting by simply because they have no vision for the grand purposes of God.

                The Bride of Christ is someone who is taking His name, becoming one with Him, committed to His plans and purposes, seeking to fully understand and participate in them. For the bride there can be no complacency. She is passionate. She is eager… She can hardly wait… and so everything she does is in anticipation of the grand event.

                It is not a matter of batting around doctrines. Rather it is a matter of understanding His heart, His passion, His rescue plan, His Kingdom… entering into it with our whole hearts. He has become the center of our affections… the focus of our lives…the mark of our high calling. We never tire of learning more or knowing Him better. We are driven by love.

                Should we not want to understand everything we can about our being caught up to meet Him in the air? Can we really be complacent about such an event?

And so we get a bit radical in our pursuit of Him. We ask questions, we learn to pray in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit for it is the Spirit of our beloved.

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