OUR DAILY BREAD             Wed., May 24, 1995   
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READ:  1 Thessalonians 5:1-22
  
        
                 OUR LORD'S RETURN
                  
    "'Surely I am coming quickly.'  Amen, Even
               so, come, Lord Jesus?"

                         --Revelation 22:20


Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus said, "I am coming
quickly."  Since then, some have wrongly tried to
predict when He will return.  Others have scoffed.
Was Jesus wrong?  Did something happen that He didn't
foresee?

Of course not!  We view time from the perspective
of our own brief life span.  But to the eternal God,
"One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day"  (2 Pet. 3:8).

Jesus told His disciples that God had not given them
specific information about "times or seasons" (Acts
1:7).  He wanted them -- as He wants us -- to live in an
attitude of expectation.  Paul echoed this when he spoke
of Christ's return as "the blessed hope" (Ti. 2:13).

But how do we live expectantly?  Jesus instructed the 
disciples to be witnesses to all the world (Acts 1:8).  
Paul said, "Watch and be sober" (1 Th. 5:6) and love
other believers (vv. 12-15).  John urged us to walk in
close fellowship with Jesus (1 Jn. 2:28-3:3) and to purify
ourselves so that we will "not be ashamed before Him at
His coming" (2:28).

The Lord's any-moment return is no cause for date-setting
but for watchful expectation.  Let's serve Him in every 
aspect of our lives, and one day we'll hear Him say, "Well
done, good and faithful servant" (Mt. 25:21).

                                -- Herbert Vander Lugt

  Blessed are those whom the Lord finds watching,
          In His glory they shall share;
    If He shall come at the dawn or midnight,
         Will He find us watching there?

                                -- Crosby
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             THOUGHT FOR THE DAY            
-----------------------------------------
         A watching Christian will be 
              a working Christian
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THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Job 35-37

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