The Hope of the Church

Let me say that the hope of the church is the soon return of Jesus Christ. In Acts 1:9-11 the Bible says that "...

while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

.." And  angels appeared and said, "

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

" The Lord Jesus also foretold of His return in Matthew 24:27, (and many other places in the gospels), when He said, "

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

"

It was interesting to me that the song, "He's Coming Soon" was unfamiliar to one of the praise singers in a recent church service we attended. The song's lyrics are as follows;
     1) In these, the closing days of time
         What joy the glorious hope affords,
         That soon, oh wondrous truth sublime!
         He shall reign, King of kings and Lord of lords

ch     He's coming soon, He's coming soon,
        With joy, we welcome His returning;
        It may be morn, it may be night or noon,
        We know He's coming soon

   2) The signs around in earth and air
       Or painted on the starlit sky,
       God's faithful witnesses declare
       That the coming of the Saviour draweth nigh.

  3) The dead in Christ who 'neath us lie,
      In countless numbers, all shall rise
      When thro' the portals of the sky
      He shall come to prepare our paradise.

  4) And we who living, yet remain,
      Caught up, shall meet our faithful Lord;
      This hope we cherish not in vain,
      But we comfort one another by this word. 

This song was written by Thoro Harris, (a fellow Oneness believer with G.T. Haywood, Andrew Urshan, Howard Goss, Glenn Cook, etc.), to the tune of the Hawaiian melody,  Aloha Oe. Thoro Harris wrote a number of very beautiful songs among which were, "All That Thrills My Soul in Jesus," "Caught Up," etc. You can find a number of his songs on the internet, for instance at the following web address,  http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/h/a/r/harris_t.htm, and others. Many of his songs also appear in the songbook Pentecostal Praises, or Sing Unto the Lord, available from www.pentecostalpublishing.com.

The soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ is still the hope of the church! This will not be one of the longer blogs so let me conclude with a statement and a question. First the statement, Jesus is coming back soon. The writer of the Book of Hebrews said in Hebrews 10:37, "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." And, are you ready? The Lord Himself said in Luke 12:40, "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not."