Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse!  The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.  He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.  - Revelation 19:11-16 ESV.  

What kind of man do you picture when you hear the name Jesus?  Do you picture a humble, yet weak man?  Do you picture a pacifist, carrying a peace banner?  Do you picture a kind and gentle teacher of morality?

Let me tell you what the bible tells us about Jesus.  He is a warrior.  He has a sword coming out of his mouth, sharp enough to strike down the nations.  His eyes burn with the fire of God’s wrath.  He comes to judge, and He comes to make war.  His robe is drenched in blood.  He is followed by the most powerful, and fearsome army you could ever imagine.  He has tattooed on his thigh this name, “King of kings and Lord of lords”.

For too long, Christian churches in America have watered down the Jesus of the bible, in the name of making him “more accessible”.  As I try to reconcile this watered down version of Jesus, with the Jesus spoken of by God in Revelation, I want to vomit.  I am disgusted by the multitude of churches that have turned Jesus into a pathetic spineless hippy.  I am disgusted by all the churches that refuse to even mention the wrath of God, and that would never suggest that Jesus Christ will return to judge and to make war.

We should today (and every day) stand in awe and fear of the Jesus Christ of the bible.  He is Faithful, and He is True, and He is coming to judge and to destroy those opposed to Him.  And he is coming to set free and to reign over and to protect forever those who have believed in Him.  Let us understand who this Jesus is that we are believing in.  He is awesome!

And let not a single day go by, when you do not remember that this great and mighty and sovereign warrior king laid down all of his weapons and all of his power and then laid down His life .... for you.

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  - 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ESV  

Jesus Christ will return to earth.  We know this to be true because He has promised us this:  “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).  For what purpose will He return?  “To unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10).  Jesus will return in triumph and in glory to restore all things to Himself.

Restoration of this fallen world on which we live is part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Restoration is the great climax to the history of redemption.  Restoration is our doctrine of future hope.  Our knowledge of and understanding of the coming restoration is critical to our knowledge of and understanding of who God is, and what He is doing, and what He will do.

I am writing this blog post from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  All around me is poverty.  In two weeks I will return to my comfortable home in Bellingham, but these people will continue to live in poverty.  This morning I visited a hundred orphans, being fed by the hands of a man and woman who understand that Jesus Christ will one day return to restore all things to Himself.  Their hope is not found in their government, who has let them down time and again.  Their hope is not found in the charity of westerners.  Their hope is not found in their own labor to help the needy orphans of Ethiopia.  Their hope is this, that one day, Jesus Christ will return, will restore and will renew all things.  Their hope is found in the knowledge that one day Jesus Christ will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God (what a terrifying and glorious sound that will be!).  Their hope is in the fundamental truth that Christ will one day put an end to poverty and hunger and despair, and that “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things (will) have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

How then are we to live now?  “We are live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13).  We are to live our lives based upon the hope of the gospel, the WHOLE gospel, including the promise of restoration by Christ for His people.  We are to walk in faith, to labor for those in need, and to preach the gospel to those who are perishing.  And we are to expect His return at any moment.  And we are to long for His return at every moment.  Let us not forget that He has testified, “Surely I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20).

Jesus Christ WILL descend from heaven at an hour and a day that no one knows (Matthew 24:44), and it will be terrifying and awful for those who have rejected Him (see Matthew 25:41).  And it will be more glorious and wonderful than you could ever imagine, for those who have accepted Him (see Matthew 25:34).

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25).

If you are interested in supporting Yezelalem Minch, the above mentioned orphan care project in Ethiopia, please visit: www.futurehopecampaign.org

But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household,( to give them their food at the proper time? ) Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.  But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. - Matthew 24:43-51.  

It may be hard for you to believe this, but writing this blog does not pay very well.  In fact it pays nothing (at least nothing monetarily speaking).  So I have been forced to find other employment in order to pay my bills and feed my family.  I am an anesthesiologist.  Towards the end of medical school I began interviewing for a residency position in anesthesiology.  At one of my interviews I was asked what I believed to be the most important quality in an anesthesiologist.  I answered “vigilance”.

It has often been said that being an anesthesiologist is not unlike being a pilot.  It is 99% boredom and 1% terror.  That 1% however is the reason it takes 12 years of higher education to become an anesthesiologist.  That 1% is the reason I continue to have to study, and train.  That 1% is the time when an anesthesiologist’s intervention is the difference between life and death.

In Matthew 24, we likewise are called to remain vigilant.  This is to be part of our identity as a people waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.  To not be vigilant is to be neglectful, or apathetic.  And it is during times of apathy that sin creeps in like a thief, to rob us of our faith and of our hope.  Satan loves an apathetic Christian.

I believe that if you asked most evangelical Christians today if they believed that the Lord would return before they die, although they may answer yes, they truly believe the answer is no.  I confess that I too have often struggled to believe that Jesus is truly returning soon, as His word says He will.  And yet here we have His word which tells us that He is coming soon, and that we are to remain vigilant for His coming “at an hour you do not expect”.  So what are we to do?  We are once again to humble ourselves beneath the Word of God, which we know to be true and faithful, and to obey what He has commanded us to do, to be a people waiting for His return, waiting vigilantly.

And we are not only to be vigilant in our waiting, we are to eagerly long for His return.  We are called “to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13).  The more I grow in Christ, the less attached I am to this world, and the more I look forward to His return, as I await my blessed hope.

Let us, as a church, remember today that we are called to be a people waiting for the return of our Savior Jesus Christ, and that we are called to be vigilant in our waiting, knowing that His return will come at an hour we do not expect.  And it will be glorious, and terrifying and so very wonderful for those who have believed in Him.

“Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

So we exult in hope of the glory of God.  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. - Romans 5:2-5 NASB; 1 Peter 1:13 NASB  

“Any person who only sticks with Christianity as long as things are going his or her way is a stranger to the cross” - Tim Keller.

Before I became a follower of Jesus Christ, suffering had no meaning for me.  It seemed to me nothing more than "bad luck".  It claimed innocent victims and consumed them, often leaving them helpless, hopeless, and broken.  I resented it as something that did not belong in this world.  Praise God, that now, He has revealed to us that suffering does not go wasted.  He allows these tribulations, for the sanctification of His people, and ultimately for the glory of His name.  We must hold tight to what we recently heard from our departed brother in Christ, that "God is God, and God is good".  THERE is your hope when you are suffering tribulation.  THERE is your hope when you are persecuted.  THERE is your hope when it may seem as if your hope has left you.  It has not.  God is doing a good work in you, and here in Romans He has revealed what that work involves.  It involves the strengthening of your perseverance.  It involves the molding of your character, that it may be proven, that you may be "conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29).  And ultimately, it strengthens our hope in the glory of God.

I have shared previously on this blog about the period of my life which I most clearly remember as "tribulation".  It was the week my daughter Ella was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on her kidney.  That week drove my wife and I to a place we had not previously been.  It drove us to complete dependence on God.  We were helpless.  We could not heal our daughter.  We could not remove the suffering she would soon go through.  We were at a crossroads.  We could abandon our hope, or we could run to our Savior.  We chose to run to Him, choosing to believe that "God is God, and God is good".

Looking back on that week (as I still frequently do), I see the good work which God was doing.  God used that tribulation to drive us near to Him, to strengthen our perseverance, our character, and ultimately our hope.  He painfully, and effectively reminded us of where our hope was invested.  I look back on that week with a strange mix of emotions.  I remember vividly the pain, and the fear.  But I also remember the sweet communion I had with God that week.  I remember the warmth of the Father's love, hearing Him speak in a way I had not heard Him speak before.  Those times were also some of the sweetest memories I have of my time with my wife and with my daughter Ella, lying next to her in that hospital bed, being so very thankful for the gift from God that she is in my life, and knowing that she too is loved by Him.

Our early church fathers knew tribulation in a way that few of us know.  Our brothers and sisters living in closed countries today know tribulation in a way that few of us know.  So what are we to do?  We to prepare our minds for action.  We are to keep sober in spirit.  And we are to fix our hope completely on the grace brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  We are to fix our hope upon the cross of Jesus Christ, where tribulation brought forth glory.  Our hope is in the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

Abba, let us never forget the cross.  When our faith is tested through tribulation, let us run toward the cross and cling to it, with the knowledge that we are called to place our hope in the atoning work of Your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. - 1 Peter 5:10 ESV.  

We need to take time everyday to remind ourselves of what it is that God has called us to.  Ultimately, what He has called us to is this, “eternal glory in Christ”.  It seems to me that many churches today neglect the doctrine of glorification, which is the final step in the “order of salvation”.  Wayne Grudem defines glorification as, “the final step in the application of redemption.  It will happen when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died, and reunites them with their souls, and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like his own” (Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem).

Since I came to faith in Christ, I have spent far too little time studying and meditating on the doctrine of heaven.  I have spent even less time meditating on the fact that as a follower of Jesus Christ, my body will one day be resurrected and glorified, to be made like his.  “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).  We should all live in eager expectation of this truth delivered to us by the mouth of God.

This phrase, “eternal glory in Christ”, is the hope upon which I now live my life.  Early in my walk with Jesus, I looked forward to heaven as “eternal life” or as a place of beauty and “glory”.  But I confess that I often struggled with how Christ would fit into that picture.  And I often had feelings of guilt, knowing that what I longed for was heaven for the sake of heaven, not heaven for the sake of Christ.  What God later opened my eyes to is that you cannot separate “eternity” and “glory” from Christ.  They are part of who He is.  He is eternal.  He is glorious.  Without Christ, there is no heaven.  And as I have grown closer to Him, I now long deeply to be with Him, for His sake.

Do you feel broken?  Take heart, He will restore you.  Has your faith been slandered by those near to you?  Take heart, He will confirm you.  Do you feel weak?  Take heart, He will strengthen you.  Do you feel as if you have come undone?  Take heart, He will establish you.  And after you have suffered a little while, He will bring you into his “eternal glory in Christ”.  Let this be the hope upon which you stand.  All other ground is sinking sand.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11)

Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.  - 2 Timothy 2:3;10 NASB; 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ESV.  

Perspective (noun) -  The capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

Perspective is something I confess that most days I am lacking.  How many times each day do I focus on the things that are transient, the things that are seen?  And what would my life look like if I was able to lay hold of a true and right perspective?  It would no doubt look radically different.  I am confronted daily by minor earthly obstacles, which threaten to derail me from the path of the calling I have received.  I inflate these obstacles, telling myself they are too large to go around.  I convince myself that I am a victim, or that I deserve so much better.  When all the while, my eyes should be focused on the eternal weight of glory which is being prepared for me.  If my eyes were focused correctly, these light momentary afflictions would be laughable.  They would be to me as flies simply needing to be swatted away.  They would be as nothing in comparison to the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and His plan to glorify my earthly body.  It was this true and eternal perspective which allowed Paul to rejoice always, even while being beaten, and mocked, and threatened with death.  Paul’s perspective was not one of things that are seen, but was instead that of eternity.

We have all suffered in our lives to varying degrees.  Likewise we are all surrounded by people who have suffered to varying degrees.  I believe Paul would tell us that even the most horrible suffering imaginable in this world is but a “light” and “momentary” affliction. To really believe this and to live in light of it takes a true and biblical perspective.  It is the perspective of eternity with Christ.  And you have to fight for this perspective, “as a good soldier of Christ Jesus”.  The reason we so often lose perspective is because we are at war and our minds are constantly under attack.  We live on a spiritual battlefield.  We are at war not only with satan, but with our own sin as well.

I have never served in the military, but I know a few things about those who do.  They are disciplined.  They are strong.  They are focused.  They are prepared for battle.  And they are devoted to the nation which they serve.  We likewise are called to be all of these things, and to fight against satan and sin, and to fight for that kingdom which we serve, for “the sake of those who are chosen”.  Never forget who and what you are fighting for.  You are fighting for that eternal weight of glory which is being prepared for you and for all the elect, in Christ Jesus, our most worthy King.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:10-13).