Thoughts for another day

June 13, 2012

Today's verse: 1 Thess. 5:24. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.  (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Prior to this verse Paul says, 'May God Himself, God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ', confirming that God will sanctify you, that is: keep you from all profanity and holy before Him. 

Here's therefore Paul's prayer that we be kept blameless on the day the Lord Jesus Christ makes His appearance in glory on earth for that time will be of great tribulation.  It will come like destruction from the Lord Almighty (Joel  1:15) and there will be great distress prior to those days when many false entities will appear claiming to be the Christ, but it won't be Him, as Jesus Himself says, adding,  'Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Mt. 24:29 and then He says, 'At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other' Mt. 24:30, 31.

Now who are His elect?  Well, they whose names are written in the Book of Life even before the world began, as Paul says in 2 Tim. 1:9, 'For He delivered and saved us and called us with a calling in itself holy and leading to holiness, not because of anything of merit that we have done, but because of and to further His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began'.  This, because in exercising our free will, we, accepted belief in His son Jesus Christ, as Lord, God and Savior of the world.  In that also, we will be kept blameless because as our Scripture says, 'He is faithful Who called us and He will do it.'  Strive as we might in our human strength, we won't be able to amass one iota of purity before Him for our nature is at war with Him, but God who is eternally powerful will embellish His seal upon us with a sign for the stealer of souls,  'This is My Son, keep off!'