The Day of Christ

Pray that God will fill the Slavic believers with a hunger for His Word: "Desire the sincere milk of the Word" (1 Peter 2:2), and a spirit of prayer: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Ask God to call many young men and women to serve Him sacrificially and sincerely in places of leadership. Pray that some will choose to serve in other Slavic countries as missionaries. Intercede for the Christian leadership in Eastern Europe that they will withstand the powers of darkness and remain stable in their spiritual roles.

The heart of the Christian thrills in the joyous certainty that the next prophetic event, which God shall bring to pass, is the completion and translation of the church. The coming of Christ for the church, His body, is the “blessed hope” of the Christian (Titus 2:13). Every true believer waits “for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

What a blessed moment will be experienced when believers behold their Lord face to face and worship Him who gave His own blood upon the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The Lord Himself returns for the church, because it is His body. He does not come to the earth, but He will meet them “in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This event may happen at any time. How much the world will know about this momentous occasion is not indicated, but those people on the earth will realize that something mysterious and marvelous has truly happened. Men will remember that the saints had been sharing the Good News about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

“Caught up… in the clouds” (1 Thessalonians 4:17), Christians “shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). Believers shall be transformed into His likeness. “Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51). Heaven is the believer’s home.

This precious promise was presented to the disciples when Jesus was preparing Himself to be the propitiation for sin. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places… for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3). The Apostle Paul confirms that this promise is for all consecrated Christians. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).

When the Lord Himself descends from Heaven to meet the church, resurrection occurs. The dead in Christ shall rise first; then, we “who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them” to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). Not one genuine member of His body will be excluded from this glorious event.

This “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3) encourages the believer to abide in Jesus, so that when He appears, that believer may have “confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming” (1 John 2:28). His coming for Christians in the clouds becomes “words” of blessed comfort (1 Thessalonians 4:18). “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).

After Jesus meets His saints in the air, then judgment and reward follow. No more solemn moment faces the Christian than the moment when he stands before the “judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10) and gives “account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). The Christian’s sins have been forgiven through the precious blood of Jesus. Judgment has been paid for the sinner’s past. “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, the Christian, a new creation, is set apart to worship and work for His Lord. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness” (Hebrews 10:14-15). Now the believer’s service after conversion must be evaluated by God. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). His estimation of the individual service of each member of the church will then be revealed.

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

John 14:21

Pray that God will add to “the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47) and will continue to “build” (Matthew 16:18) the church in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the whole inhabited world. Intercede for new believers that they will attend church regularly and will “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Ask God to empower and equip the missionaries of SMS, as they minister for His glory, that they may not grow “weary in well doing” (Galatians 6:9) but know that their “labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).