Fashioned for Forever
“You know the way to the place where I am going. —Jesus (John 14:4 NIV)
I feel it in the pit of my stomach. I feel the groan, the ache, the grumble. No, it’s not me; it’s creation. Over the past year, I have sensed the urgency of the hour. I perceive it physically, emotionally, but spiritually most of all. I have noticed it out on the streets while doing ministry.
And at the grocery store and gas station. Really, it has been everywhere I go. Jesus is coming and He is coming so soon!
The Assemblies of God and other denominations believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ for His Church in a pre-tribulation rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Romans 8:23, Titus 2:13, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). This means that He can come anytime for us before the beginning of the tribulation (The rapture is not to be confused with the Second Coming of Jesus; these are two different events). Now I am not here to debate doctrine, but rather to remind us of the tension that we are called to live in while remaining here on earth.
In John 14:1-6, Jesus was speaking to his disciples about the future and where He was going:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
There is comfort in these verses! But there is also a commission.
Comfort
Jesus told them that even though he has to go, he is going with a mission in mind. To prepare a place for those who love him; and then to come back for them. That “.....you also may be where I am” (John 14:3).
Commission
Jesus also reminds them that “You know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:4). The way is through Him. Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father; the only Truth and the only Life. The only way to the place that has been prepared for us by Jesus.
Comfort and commission define the tension that we are to live in as followers of Jesus.
We are to have a two-way vision as followers of Jesus while we still occupy this planet. We are to have our eyes focused on not only what is in front of us, but also what is above. Matthew and Mark record the last few instructions that Jesus gave to the disciples before his ascension to heaven which was to “...Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”(Mark 16:15), and “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”(Matthew 28:19), and all the while looking up for our redemption draws near (Luke 21:28). One of my favorite sayings in the past few years has been “Make Heaven Crowded”. I loved it so much that I bought a shirt off of Amazon with this exact saying! Seriously though, it was the perfect depiction of occupying this life and land with a two-way vision.
Where are you in all of this? Are you living in that perfect tension with a two-way vision? Or are you spending all of your time looking up? I don’t blame you if you are; wars, rumors of war, earthquakes, pestilence, etc etc! We are presently living with a lot of convergence….like never before.
Listen, we are still here until that trumpet call of God sounds as Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Jesus told us clearly to preach the gospel to all creation. Let’s live in that perfect tension of looking up with our boots moving on the ground.
“Yes, I am coming soon.” Revelation 22:20
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
As a follower of Jesus, you are fashioned for now AND forever—
With much love,
Lindsey Parks
