Looking for Jesus

Posted on July 3, 2018 by America's Keswick in Victory Call

Last time I wrote, I told you about how our dog, Prince, looks forward to seeing my daughter when she is gone and how he reacts with joy when she returns.  I think everyone has had a time when a loved one has left for a while.  Maybe your husband has gone on a prolonged business trip.  Maybe your son or daughter has left for college and you will not see them until Christmas.  You long to be with them and are looking forward to seeing them again.  As the time of their return gets closer, you anticipate with joy seeing them and make plans for what you are going to do together.

Do we anticipate seeing Jesus in the same way?  Do we look forward to being with Him?  In Hebrews 11, it talks about people of faith who were willing to put the world behind them and who desired a better country, the heavenly country.  They did not keep thinking about the world but anticipated going to the heavenly country.  God says that He will not be ashamed to be called their God and that He has prepared a city for them.

Paul in Philippians 3: 17-23 compares two groups of people and their outcomes.  There are the people who only think of the things that belong to this world.  Their goal in life is to be happy and fulfil their bodily desires.  Happiness is their god.  They reason that God wants them to be happy, so anything that does not make them happy must go.  Many times, this kind of reasoning ends marriages.  And, they also think they can do anything that makes them happy, even if they are things that God has said are wrong.  This kind of “happiness” brings consequences:  broken homes, addictions, sorrow, and ultimately death.  Paul says that this kind of life makes them enemies of Christ’s death on the cross and that they are going to end up in hell.

The second group of people are those who consider themselves citizens of heaven and who eagerly wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to come. They are people who imitate how Paul lived and follow the example of those who live lives that please God. Jesus promises that He will make their weak mortal bodies like His own glorious body.  He can do that because of His resurrection power!

I choose to be part of the group that considers itself to be citizens of heaven and lives accordingly.  How about you?

Here is a great hymn written by Leila M. Morris, “What if it Were Today.”  Please note the last verse’s challenge:

Jesus is coming to earth again; what if it were today?
Coming in power and love to reign; what if it were today?
Coming to claim His chosen Bride, all the redeemed and purified,
Over this whole earth scattered wide; what if it were today?

Refrain

Glory, glory! Joy to my heart ’twill bring.
Glory, glory! When we shall crown Him King.
Glory, glory! Haste to prepare the way;
Glory, glory! Jesus will come some day.

Satan’s dominion will then be o’er, O that it were today!
Sorrow and sighing shall be no more, O that it were today!
Then shall the dead in Christ arise, caught up to meet Him in the skies,
When shall these glories meet our eyes? What if it were today?

Refrain

Faithful and true would He find us here if He should come today?
Watching in gladness and not in fear, if He should come today?
Signs of His coming multiply; morning light breaks in eastern sky.
Watch, for the time is drawing nigh; what if it were today?

Refrain

Written by Denise Zambrano: Denise loves to teach the Bible and sing. She teaches a women’s Bible study and a high school Sunday School class.  Along with her daughter, Linda, she is an advocate at A Baby’s Breath (a crisis pregnancy center). She loves being a grandmother to Tim, Becky, Alexander and William (who is with Jesus).  She was a missionary with Radio Station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador for 35 years.