![]() Only those who really know him will recognize him. We won’t be able to get by with such a superficial and impersonal knowledge of him. With Jesus, we do not have an appointed time and place. Yet, because I expect him/her and they expect me, we recognize each other. When I travel, I send for an Uber or a Lyft, and a driver whom I don’t know is dispatched to me. Here is another way of thinking about it. We will have to know him deeply in order to recognize him. Not knowing when he is coming, though, makes it less likely that we will recognize him in this superficial way. If we knew when Christ would come again, we would expect him and would surely recognize him. Perhaps the point of an unexpected arrival has to do with recognition. All this makes me think about Christ’s second coming a bit differently. In fact, if they had made an appointment, then we would have recognized who they were precisely because we expected them. ![]() The interesting thing about the men who came to remove the dock is not that we didn’t expect them, but that we didn’t recognize them. The Lord might arrive unannounced, but the guys in wetsuits had better make an appointment!) (Needless to say, my friend ended her business with them. They certainly wouldn’t show up on a Sunday evening without any warning and remove the dock while the customer was still out on the water! They came like thieves (and they looked like thieves too!) and we were entirely unprepared for their arrival. Paul’s words that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.” Concerning the dock removal, any reputable company would have called the house first and made an appointment. This incident gives me a new perspective on St. Luckily, we arrived at the shore before they disappeared, and although they were unable to reassemble the dock, they did help tie down the boat so that it wouldn’t drift off during the (very windy!) night. The men, it turned out, were wearing black wetsuits because they were hired to take her dock out of the water. I immediately put the motor full throttle and headed towards the house. “Well, it looks like there are a bunch of ninjas in your yard!” There were several strange men, all dressed in black as if they were part of a bank heist. “Nobody should be there,” she said with anxiety. ![]() I noticed several figures dressed in black in my friend’s yard. But something strange happened while we were out on the lake, watching the sunset. In fact, this is a great time to be on the water, since the foliage is beautiful. Amen.The weather in Massachusetts has been unseasonably warm this fall, and so it was perfect for a boat ride with a friend last month, even though it was a mid-October Sunday evening. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prove all things hold fast that which is good. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. See that none render evil for evil unto any man but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others but let us watch and be sober. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ![]() But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For when they shall say, Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Bible, King James Version Bible, King James VersionġThes.5 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
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