By Ada
Nicholson Brownell
I worked on a newspaper story
about Jesus’ return, based on an interview with a pastor. As we discussed it in
the newsroom, I observed fear among the non-Christians.
The tragedy is that many of
those people had no idea how to meet God. They are among those whose religion,
steeped in ritual, makes it difficult. Not only are they to participate in
religious rites, but they must pile up good works too, and they still have no
peace.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be
good enough to get to heaven,” a neighbor told me over the fence one day. Week
after week I saw on her clothesline white baptismal robes she’d been washing
for the church, which teaches that you can be baptized for the dead.
I explained to her the reason Christ came is
because we can never be good enough in ourselves. That’s why we need a Savior.
Sometimes the message of
salvation is lost in the gobbledygook of theology.
I surveyed several
denominations on beliefs about how man gets to heaven. One spokesman for a
church said, “Call me back next week, and I’ll tell you.”
I wondered if I would have
received the same answer if I had been dying.
But getting right with God,
our Heavenly Father, is simple.
First, we acknowledge God’s
authority and right to respect.
Second we no longer rebel at
His commandments, His love, and His Word.
Third, we ask forgiveness for
our sins—wrongs we have done against God and people.
Fourth, we commit ourselves to
doing His will; and follow Him and His Word.
As we are clothed in the
garment of His salvation, we throw away our worn blanket of self-righteousness.
People who have the right
relationship with God need not fear the return of Jesus Christ. In the book of
First Thessalonians we are told to comfort one another with words about His
coming. His coming also is referred to as our hope.
If everything is clear between
us and our Heavenly Father, we’ll anticipate meeting Christ in the air with joy
and be ready to live a better life here if Jesus should tarry.
It won’t matter when it
happens because we’ll be ready. It won’t matter whether we are dead or alive,
for if we have accepted Jesus as Savior, we’ll be changed in the twinkling of
an eye be resurrected to life immortal.
“For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one
another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
When you know the Lord, you
don’t have to be afraid.
--THE
PENTECOSTAL EVANGEL
