Judgment at the Second Advent

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. 2 Timothy 4:1.
The judgment scene will take place in the presence of all the worlds; for in this judgment the government of God will be vindicated, and His law will stand forth as “holy, and just, and good.” Then every case will be decided, and sentence will be passed upon all. Sin will not then appear attractive, but will be seen in all its hideous magnitude.
No human language can portray the scenes of the second coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. He is to come with His own glory, and with the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. He will come clad in the robe of light, which He has worn from the days of eternity. Angels will accompany Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand will escort Him on His way. The sound of the trumpet will be heard, calling the sleeping dead from the grave. The voice of Christ will penetrate the tomb, and pierce the ears of the dead, “and all that are in the graves . . . shall come forth.”
“And before him shall be gathered all nations.” The very One who died for man is to judge him in the last day: for the Father “hath committed all judgment unto the Son: . . . and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” What a day that will be, when those who rejected Christ will look upon Him whom their sins have pierced.
At His second coming, conviction will be brought to every heart. Those who have turned from Him to the trivial things of this earth, seeking selfish interests and worldly honor, will in the day of His coming acknowledge their mistake. These are the ones spoken of by the Revelator as “all kindreds of the earth,” who “shall wail because of him.” . . .
“And they also which pierced him.” These words apply not only to the men who pierced Christ when He hung on the cross of Calvary, but to those who by evil-speaking and wrong-doing are piercing Him today.
Maranatha p. 292
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Requests
—–Please pray for Brian as he will be travelling to AFCOE beginning tomorrow. Pray that this will be a blessed experience for him. Rose
—– Please keep praying for us and those close to us. It’s vital. Nicole
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Friends
When I was eight, my mother suggested that I save my money to spend while on vacation the next year. I wasn’t too excited about her plan, but finally she convinced me to try a little self-denial. Over the next six months, every time I was given money or earned money be running errands, I had to choose whether I would do as my mother asked me too and set it aside in my piggybank or spend it at VanAvery’s Drug Store.
Our next vacation was much sooner than my mother had planned. An old friend, Don, who was a nightclub singer, asked my mother if she would like to ride down to Florida with him. He had a booking at a nightclub there. She decided to ride as far as Nashville and took me along. We would ride back home on the train.
My mother asked me if I wanted to take the money that I had saved and find something nice while on the trip. Of course I did! After taking out the rubber plug that was in the bottom of the bank and shaking and shaking all of the coins out, we counted them. I was amazed to find that I had twenty dollars! How glad I was that I had chosen to save instead of spend.
While in Nashville, my mother did some shopping. I spent my time trying to decide what I should buy. Round and round the display counters, I walked picking up one interesting item after another. Twenty dollars was a lot of money in 1953. I could get many things with such an amount. Suddenly, I spied a display of dolls high above me on a shelf on the wall. Why they had those dolls so near the ceiling, I could not imagine, but those where the most beautiful dolls I had ever seen. They were three feet tall, had blue, frilly dresses, and were supposed to “walk” when you held her hand. I chose the doll with the reddish-brown hair much like my own. The cleck demonstrated how to “walk” my doll. I paid my twenty dollars.
When we got back to the hotel, my mother packed the doll away. How I looked forward to many hours of fun with that doll. Finally, the day came when we arrived back home. After greeting my grandparents, I unpacked my doll and took her upstairs to my playroom. Try as I might, I could not get that doll to walk like that clerk had. After some practice, I managed to get her to “walk” if I stood behind her and tipped her this way and that. I was disappointed. How I wished I had made a better choice.
Choice—what a precious freedom. The choices we make may not seem very important at the time, but they can change the direction of our life. The choices we make now will determine what our future holds. In God’s Holy Word we find the serious consequences that can come from a seemingly small choice. When God created mankind, He gave them the gift of choice. Only in this way could He really have their love. Only by allowing them the ability to choose, would their adoration have meaning. He did not want them to sin, He gave them the knowledge they needed to make a wise choice. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Gen 2:16, 17
Yet, Adam and Eve made the wrong choice, a choice with far more consequences than what kind of toy to buy. Sadly, they made the wrong choice. They spurned His love and disbelieved His promises. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” 3:6 From that point, death and decay has been in the earth. Sin’s effects have made great changes in our world as well as in us. Sorrow and sadness is our daily lot.
Yet, our Dear Saviour did not leave us to suffer the death we deserve. He offered Himself to die in our stead. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9 Precious Saviour! Loving Redeemer!
Today we will make choices moment by moment. May we ask our Dear Saviour to guide us in the choices we make. May we choose to serve and obey Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, Who left the glories of Heaven to suffer and die that we might have eternal life, enjoying His presence forevermore. The True Witness pleads, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Rev 3:20 May we choose to open our heart’s door to Him.
Rose