By Pastor Doug Cox

In a couple of days, we will have the Christmas season in the rearview mirror. Hopefully, we all have celebrated His supernatural birth and spent time worshipping Him, not the baby, but the Risen Christ. The One Who was born to die for our sins. Everything about Jesus is amazing, from His birth to His death and Resurrection, and all are the awesome fulfillment of prophecy.
 
So now, just because we will start boxing up the ornaments and decorations for another year, it’s not time to put away our expectations of more to come. By more to come, I don’t mean another Christmas Eve celebration but instead, what if this year’s Christmas is the last Christmas we get to celebrate on the earth? What if this coming year is the year Jesus fulfills another prophecy, the one that says He’s coming in the clouds to catch away His church? (See 1 Thessalonians 4:17) If it is will you be ready?
 
God’s Word says Jesus is coming again, and because of that we should make ourselves ready for Him. So, let’s not just put away our Christmas decorations, let’s put away our worldly ways and habits.
 
Colossians 3:8-9 says “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.”
 
Now you may not have a problem with any of these issues but what about other things? Has the Lord been dealing with you about something? Have you responded? If not, now is the time. Verse 10 says “…and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” Putting on the new is just as important as putting off the old. You have probably heard the saying, “if you were arrested for being a Chrisitan would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
 
I think we all get the point. We need to be ready for the Lord’s return. Without getting into the details there is a long list of scriptures that mark the nearness of His return. They reveal signs that speak of His nearness and these signs are converging, meaning they are happening at the same time. Shouldn’t knowing this awaken us to live with expectation that His return could be at any time?
 
In closing my mind goes to the words of Jesus in Revelation 1:8. He says “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, Who is and Who was and WHO IS TO COME, the Almighty.”
 
Please join me in prayer saying, “Lord help us all look forward to Your return.”