If Ever We Needed an Advent It is Now....

"Advent is the season that can remind us God is working while we're waiting, and we're really waiting with God."*

-Louie Giglio-

*To Giglio's quote I would add these words, "...we're really waiting with God, FOR GOD!"

I don't think anyone would disagree that 2020 has been a year of "waiting." We've waited for the pandemic to end, for life to return to some semblance of normal, for the election within the U.S. to be over, for the disturbances that have rocked the streets of major cities to quiet down, for schools to fully reopen, for jobs to be restored, and financial distress to lighten. 

Never has the world wanted to see a Savior step in and spare us from all that has seemed wrong with our world. 

Never have we needed an ADVENT more!

Jesus came once as a baby in a manger...

For many, Advent stopped there. 

But, His First Coming is simply to encourage us, to "whet our appetites (says author, Max Lucado)" for His Second.

Jesus' first coming was His deposit, His guarantee, of His Second.

Waiting always goes hand-in-hand with hope. 

After all, the Hebrew word for wait is also the Hebrew word for hope!

While we wait, we hope.

"The word advent means 'expectation.' What advent can do for us is create a sense of hope."

-Louie Giglio-

This Advent season, I'm putting my hope in the fact that Jesus is coming again!

(I know, I've mentioned this A LOT lately!)

As I prep my house for the "holy-days" of Christmas, I'm fully engaging in this truth...

Here is what I'm hoping for with a confident expectation:

Jesus will return for His Bride.

When I say "bride," I mean those who have truly "received their King..."  Two weeks ago, I wrote in my blog what that looks like to truly "receive." Here's a repeat:

To receive: Greek word, lambano...

**to take to oneself in order to be carried away

**to welcome another, giving that one access to oneself

**to claim, procure, or associate with oneself as a companion

**used of that which, when taken, is NOT LET GO

Jesus' bride has recognized that Jesus is her King and she grabs ahold of Him by grace in faith for all she's got...

If this is you, then when He returns for His bride, well, you have your lamp lit and you are ready for your GROOM (Matthew 25:1-14)! 

The Scriptures never use the word "rapture," but the principle is definitely there in passages like this:

Following this meeting with the Lord, there will be a time of tribulation....seven years to be exact.**

  

There will arise one we call the Anti-Christ....a false savior. 

He will rule the earth in a one-world-government.

The first 42 months (3 1/2 years) will be seemingly peaceful.

The Anti-Christ will be joined by what Revelation calls "the great harlot...also known as Babylon."

This is a reference to a false religion...a one-world-religion...

And, alongside the Anti-Christ will stand a false prophet...one who will assist and be a John-the-Baptist figure, pointing the world to the "Advent" of her new "savior."

But, BEWARE!

Following the first 3 1/2 years, will be 42 months of terror. 

Horrible and incomprehensible. 

Those who come to know Jesus during the Anti-Christ's reign will suffer greatly.

Many will be martyred.

There will be no buying or selling unless you have committed your life to the Anti-Christ...

This Anti-Christ will then rise up to wage war against those who belong to the Lord...

But...this...this is the sign the end is near.

Jesus' Second Coming will be soon.

He will return, splitting the Mount of Olives as He stands upon it, and then He will wage war with EVIL in the Valley of Armageddon, bringing victory with Him (EVIL defeated once and for all)...

Here's the thing.

No one knows for sure about the sequence of these events.

No one knows the timing.

We just know ONE THING FOR CERTAIN...

As Jesus-followers, we want NO ONE to experience the terror that will occur before the Lord's return.

Our job is to reduce the numbers of those who possibly might. 

(J. Vernon McGee)

Our job is to repeat the GOOD NEWS of Jesus' First Coming so that the Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love that are key to the Advent Season are experienced by any who might still RECEIVE their KING!

How does this tie in with my recent study of Habakkuk...

Well, Habakkuk was "waiting for Babylon" whom God would use to advance His plans toward His first coming...

She would destroy Judah, but a remnant would rise up.

Babylon is also coming again and she will bring destruction upon our world as we know it.

AND YET, a remnant will rise up!

Babylon will yet again be destroyed...

God will return once more, bringing salvation with Him...

Habakkuk tells us what he will do while he waits for all this to occur:

YET I WILL WAIT QUIETLY....

Habakuk 3:16ff

He says, "In the meantime, I will make a choice (a matter of my will) to quiet my soul, to settle myself into a place of rest, and wait."

Habakkuk will ADVENT well!

He will wait with hope!

Let's do the same between now and when Jesus comes for His own, making sure our souls are at rest and our mouths are at work with the GOSPEL of JESUS!

XXXXX

** For the purpose of your referencing these truths, see Revelation 13-17...