By Chaplain (Col) Stephen W. Leonard, USA, Ret.
Ascension Day is May 9th. As Acts 1 relates, Jesus left his followers just prior to Pentecost and ascended out of their sight back into the courts of heaven. The angel told them He will return in the SAME way you have seen Him leave you today.
Ascension Day is a good day to be reminded of what Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming quickly!” So we can respond to this proclamation of our Lord, “Yes, indeed, come quickly, Lord Jesus!” In fact, it is good to think of this truth every day of your life.
Heaven and Hell, Ascension, Second Coming, Great White Throne Judgement are all hallmarks of faith. They are reminders that we serve a supernatural God. The Word of God reveals all of these truths to us, and we are certain they are as true as we know the sun will set tonight.
Do the two millennia ago when Jesus ascended seem a long, long time to you to wait for His Second Coming? If you think of it that way! But then you have only been aware of all those thousands of years for the relatively very short time you yourself have been alive. Seen and experienced from that perspective, it has not been long at all.
It is time we saw His return from such a viewpoint. We have only experienced the span of our relatively short life. We have not waited millenniums; we have waited only for our own generation. Jesus said He is coming quickly. In terms of how long you have known and will know about it, the time is truly short, and it is truly quick.
When you die and pass into timelessness, Jesus’ Second Coming will be right upon you. What really counts is how long you have known it. What really matters is how long anyone you know has known it. No one lives much more than three or four score years (age 60–80).
I think when Jesus says His return is soon, and His second coming will be quick, it is quick in terms of your own life. Jesus ascended to the right hand of God, from where He will return to earth in glory and finality. That day is upon us. The Lord Jesus comes quickly. Lift up your heads.
Encouragement
“O then what raptured greetings on Canaan’s happy shore; what knitting severed friendships up where partings are no more! Then eyes with joy shall sparkle, that brimmed with tears of late; orphans no longer fatherless, nor widows desolate.”(3rd verse of Henry Alford’s hymn, “Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand,” 1867)
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