To those of you who might have been looking forward to my post today on practical ways each one of us—as Christ’s bride—can give Him our pure and undivided devotion, I apologize.
That post will be postponed until next week.
That is, if I’m here on planet earth to write it.
If you are a Christian (which I’m sure makes up the majority, if not the entirety, of my readership), then I believe you won’t be here either.
So, it’s all good.
And if you’re not here, then you won’t need to read a post about how to give Christ, your Spiritual Husband, your pure and undivided devotion.
Because that’s exactly what you will be doing in its purest form—face to Face with the One who has captured your heart forever.
Literally.
You are in Him and He is in you eternally.
I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine (Song 6:3).
Unless you’ve had your head stuck in the sand or you’ve just been overwhelmed with your never-ending to-do list, then you’ve likely heard the buzz in prophetic Christian circles about how Christ could return for His bride during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (5778) celebration.
Rosh Hashanah began at sundown (6:40 p.m.), Wednesday, September 20, 2017, Israel time (they are eight hours ahead of Central Standard Time) and will end sundown (6:38 p.m.) Friday, September 22, 2017.) That’s 10:38 a.m. CST.
In Matthew 24:3, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “When will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
After a long discourse (Matthew, chapter 24), He said, “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matt. 24:36).
Jesus was saying that no one (not even Him in His unglorified state at that time) could predict the exact day or hour of His coming.
He was referring to the “rapture” or catching away of the saints, where He will meet His bride in the air and take her to heaven with Him.
This is not His second coming, where I believe He will return to the earth with His bride to rule over the earth for a literal 1000 years.
In my book, His Banner Over Me Is Pursuing Love, I lay out how I think end time events might occur:
As wonderful as it is to know that Christ’s Spirit lives in us and that we have everything we need in Him, our most delightful encounters with Him on this earth are still only a shadow of the intoxicating joys we will experience with Him throughout eternity (Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1; James 1:17).
I was reminded of this one day while looking at a grandchild’s sticker book.
When I first opened and flipped through it, it wasn’t much to look at.
Every page contained shadowy shapes.
When I reached the end of the book, though, I was delighted to find pages of bright, colorful stickers that were meant to be applied to the matching gray images.
You can just imagine the difference throughout the book once all the stickers were applied.
While living on planet earth, we don’t see the full picture of our redemption in Christ.
Sometimes we have to admit that life looks pretty dismal with all the pain and suffering we see going on in the world—not to mention in our own neck of the woods.
Yet as the bride of Christ, we have an incredible hope.
When He returns for us, we will get to experience—in living color—the rapturous joy of seeing our Beloved face to face.
Part of the joy we will experience with Him will be at a royal wedding banquet—where He is the Bridegroom and we are the bride.
The book of Revelation refers to this banquet as the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9).
If you’re like me, you may wonder, When will the marriage supper of the Lamb take place?
While I have done quite a bit of research on the subject of end-time events (eschatology), I certainly do not claim to be an expert.
In fact, I know that I’m not.
The more I study, the more questions I have.
I do have an opinion, though, which I will state here.
I believe that the beginning of end-time events will occur when Christ meets His bride in the air to take her home with Him (John 14:2–3; 1 Cor. 15:50–57; 1 Thess. 4:13–18).
A common term used to describe this event is the rapture, or “catching away” of the saints.
Next, the marriage of the Lamb with His bride (not the marriage supper) will take place (Rev. 19:7–8).
Christ and His bride will then enjoy a seven-year honeymoon period in heaven, while those left on earth will suffer through tribulation (Dan. 9:25–27; 12:1; Matt. 24:21; Mark 13:19; see chapters 6–19 of Revelation).
At the end of that seven-year period, Christ will return to the earth with His bride, where He will victoriously defeat the enemies of God in the battle of Armageddon (Ps. 2; Isa. 34:1–16; 63:1–6; Joel 3:1–17; Zech. 12:1–9; 14:1–15; Mal. 4:1–5; Rev. 14:14–20; 16:12–16; 19:19–21).
The marriage supper of the Lamb will occur after this great battle, at the beginning of the one thousand-year reign of Christ and His bride on the earth, also referred to as the millennial reign (Isa. 11:1–10; 35:1–10; Jer. 23:5–8; Joel 3:17–21; Zech. 14:9–21, Rev. 19:9; 20:1–7).
At the end of this one-thousand-year period, the great white throne judgment of all humanity throughout the ages will take place (Matt. 25:34, 41; Rom. 14:10–12; 1 Cor. 3:10–15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11–15).
Everyone whose name is not found written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire to experience eternal torment along with Satan.
Finally, God will cause the new heaven and new earth to appear—the place where Christ and His bride will dwell together in perfect love, joy, and peace and reign throughout eternity (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1–22:5).
How’s that for happily ever after!
That’s my view on end-time events.
The fact that several of these events parallel the ancient Jewish marriage customs strengthens my opinion of their order.
When a Jewish bridegroom went to his bride’s home to retrieve her (the rapture in the air), he brought her back to his father’s house to the wedding chamber, where they consummated their marriage (marriage of the Lamb in heaven).
After spending seven days alone together (honeymoon in heaven during the tribulation on earth), the Jewish bride and groom emerged from the wedding chamber and joined their guests for a joyous marriage feast (marriage supper of the Lamb on earth).
The bridegroom and his bride were given crowns to wear and treated as king and queen during the celebration (millennial reign on earth).
Isn’t that fascinating?
I encourage you to do your own study of end-time events while trusting your inward Teacher—Christ’s Spirit.
I believe it will cause you to look forward to your Happily Ever After with your Prince of Peace in a fresh, new way and encourage you in your remaining days on this earth.
I find great rest in the truth that what my Beloved has planned for me is far better than what my finite mind can know or imagine.
Disagreement among believers concerning end-time events should not be cause for division.
The way things are going to pan out is a nonessential of the Christian faith.
The essence of our faith is whether or not the Spirit of Jesus has made us alive through our belief in (into) Him:
“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:12 NASB).
Eternal union with “the Way and the Truth and the Life” is the only thing that really matters (John 14:6 AMPC).
There you have it.
That’s my opinion about how end-time events might play out.
If you would like to watch a fascinating September 14, 2017 interview with Jimmy Evans concerning the signs of the times, click here. Then fast-forward to 19:08.
Dear, pure bride of Christ, I purposely chose the picture of the swinging bride because it represents a bride who is enjoying life on this earth, but also gazing on the hill in the distance, looking for something or Someone.
I pray that, whether or not Christ returns by 10:38 a.m. CST today, His return for you will find you savoring (in childlike faith) His unconditional, one-of-a-kind love for your beautiful, new heart.
Happily Forever After with our Spiritual Husband, Jesus Christ, is our divine destiny.
I hope this truth causes joy to well up within you and put a smile on your face that no person or earthly circumstance can wipe off!
I’m wondering, dear bride of Christ, are you resting in childlike faith concerning your eternal destiny?
If you enjoyed this post, then I think you would enjoy both of my books where I share the undiluted, unpolluted love and grace of God.
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