1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I
should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so
comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden
destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they
shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should
overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of
the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch
and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are
drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for
us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore
comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. (1
Thessalonians 5:1-11 NKJV)
When will Jesus return to earth again? The second coming of Jesus will happen
when God looks over at Jesus and says, “It’s time”. Jesus will immediately gather
up His heavenly saints, all dressed in white, and together they will mount up on
their white horses, and return with Him to earth for that “awesome and terrible
Day of the Lord”. (Revelation 19:11-16).
When will that day be? It will be at a time that you and I are not expecting, like
when we come home and find that we’ve been robbed by a thief. How does a thief
come? At a time you’re not expecting him to come. He doesn’t come at noon when
you come home for lunch, like you always do. Like a deer, he’s patterned you, he
knows when you’re going to be looking for him, and that’s when you won’t see
him. He will return at the one time that you are absolutely caught up in life and not
even thinking of His returning. When He catches you off guard, with your pants
down, halfway through your shave, wherever you’re at, whatever you’re doing,
you will have no time to prepare or get your act together. You’ll not have time to
clean up your house, or make your bed. There’ll be no time to read your Bible,
pray, memorize scripture, or to forgive that one who hurt or offended you. How He
finds you will be just the way you are on any day, at any given time. He wants to
find us as we really are, without our make-up on and without any pretense.
Therefore, since there will be no time to prepare, we need to stay ready; to be
living right, living daily as “sons of light” and “sons of the day”. We shouldn’t be
scared of His coming, but rather realize that if He can return at any moment, we
must continually live in the here and now. Each day, each moment we should be
keeping ourselves in “real-time” awareness that we are living our lives in the
Light, thinking thoughts of Light, doing deeds of Light. Jesus told His disciples,
“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own
things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34). He was telling
them to focus on today, at the exclusion of tomorrow. Tomorrow will come soon
enough, live in the moment, live today, live each moment in the now. We can do
that if we live constantly aware of where we are, what we are doing, what is going
on, and not living in the flesh. Remember, Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians: “I
say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
(Galatians 5:16)
We are given these instructions on how to live our lives in the Spirit: “If we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)