Tag Archives: Jesus' Return

Looking Forward

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What are you looking forward to in life?  A celebration?  A promotion?  A reunion?  Rest?

I am looking forward to all of the above.  I have set my gaze forward, and I await the day when I will be promoted from this earthly life to my heavenly one, my labors finished, celebrating my reunion with the Savior of my soul for all eternity. 

Before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that He would see them again and their hearts would rejoice.1  He also told them He was going to prepare a place for those who would believe in Him and that someday He would return to take them there to be with Him.2  But what would they do while they awaited His return?  What will we do?  I am looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.3

With the eyes of faith, I have seen Him for the first time, and when He returns, I will see Him again, face to face, and my heart will rejoice.  Until that day, my eyes need to continue looking forward to the eternal, undistracted from the cares of this world and the sin which so easily besets me.  He has given me an eternal purpose, and for this reason, I press on toward the goal.

Will you join me in looking forward?

“Since before time began, a call went out to you. Even in the midst of a crowd, God has been seeking your heart as an individual. An invitation was developed with you in mind. From the time that the foundation of the world was laid, Jesus prepared to die for you and for each soul that would ever live. His sacrifice was arranged before you were ever a thought—before a single soul had ever lived. He did this so that you might have eternal life. Have you responded to His invitation?

This call has gone out directly to you. It does not involve living vicariously through someone else; it involves you living directly. The rewards of answering this invitation are beyond anything you could ever imagine. God is offering you a most amazing prize: the gift of eternal life. This gift was given in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 NKJV).”4

If we come forward to receive this gift, we can look forward to eternal life. 

NOTES

1 See John 16:22

2 See John 14:1–6

3 See Hebrews 12:1–2

4 Book excerpt taken from Francee Strain, No Ordinary Invitation: Called to Live a Life of Eternal Purpose, (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2017), 4.  Scripture quoted from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, ©1982 by Thomas Nelson.

For related reading, see my blog article entitled “Eyes Forward.”

©Text and photo Francee Strain, August 1, 2021

Times of Refreshing

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I noticed this week that my lawn was brown, dry, and crunchy.  My bare feet were not enjoying the jabs and pokes of sharp blades of dead grass and dried pine needles.  It is April.  This is not what I would expect for a spring lawn and definitely not what I desire.  I found myself longing for soft, green, vibrant, and lush but was instead facing the reality of a pine needle tip stuck in the bottom of my foot.  Yet, in my heart and mind, I held out hope, hope that the rains of spring would come.  And come they did.  Today was a time of refreshing from the LORD.  Tomorrow’s trek through the lawn is going to feel different.

I see many parallels between the state of my lawn and the state of life.  Things seem dead, noisy, sharp, broken, and painful.  We are dry, exhausted, ill, hurting, grieving, longing for hope and the good days.  We long to be refreshed.  What can we do while we wait for the times of refreshing to come?  We can set our hearts to be right with God and look up to the sky in anticipation.  He will refresh His people.  We are simply between seasons.1

I hope the following reposted blog will encourage you.

*****

Between Seasons 2

These are difficult days. Long. Hard. Tiring.

We beg for relief from the firestorm that blazes around us. Will these days never end? Aloud we commentate. Silently we muse. In our hearts we wonder. In our minds we question. Confusion and chaos seem to reign supreme. But I want to encourage you to hold on. Hold on to hope. A change of season is coming. Refreshing rains. Beautiful colors interspersed amongst the landscape. The fruit of harvest.

Things will not always be as they are now. We are simply between seasons. Beyond what our eyes can see and what our minds can comprehend stands Jesus Christ, reigning supreme over all. Fully aware. Fully engaged. Fully planning to keep His promise to return for His own.

But something amazing can happen before the time of His return—He can speak peace to our storms even now and cause the raging winds to cease. We may not see it with our eyes, but we will know it in our spirits. Rays of light and hope will burst in and pervade the darkness and despair hanging over our heads. Peace will flood these plains of anxiety. Rivers of calm we have never known before will fill our quaking hearts.

We can invite His presence to enter into our situations. Today. Now. Even while this relenting heat beats down on our heads and tries to scorch every drop of hope we have remaining within us. He will come if we ask. We won’t need to fret or worry about what tomorrow holds because His power is real, His plan is perfect, and His peace is available.  He created the world from nothing, and in Him all things exist and subsist.

So, while we are here between seasons—enduring difficult days and bracing for more yet to come—we can access His strength.  He will enable us to pass through this dry season into a bountiful harvest.

“The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace.”
Psalm 29:11

“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”
James 5:7

NOTES

1 See Acts 3:19–21.

©Text and photos Francee Strain, April 24, 2021.  “Between Seasons 2” originally posted July 26, 2020.

Scripture quotations taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, ©1982, Thomas Nelson.