Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Yes, amen.

— Revelation 1:7

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

— 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

— Hebrews 9:27-28

20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

24 Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

— 1 Corinthians 15:20, 24-25

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Without a grip on the certainty of Jesus’s promised return, daily life in an uncertain world can be overwhelming. The constant whiplash of current events and the seemingly unchecked evil escalating in our world can leave us bewildered. Does God even care about the harm and hurt around us? The promise of Jesus’s return answers that question. God does care, and Jesus will return to deal with evil and evildoers in no uncertain terms.

The God who set the world in motion will orchestrate earth’s final days with purposeful precision and righteousness. Jesus’s return to avenge evil and deliver His people offers God’s people perspective and hope. The certainty of Jesus’s second coming grounds believers as they await the day when evil’s dreadful reign ends and they will experience the fulfillment of longed-for promises. How we are encouraged to know that Jesus will return to finish what He started and bring us, His people, to their eternal home!