Can you see the forest for the trees?
by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
The King is indeed Coming!
When we’ve been here ten thousand years…
bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise…
then when we’ve first begun.
All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 1 John 4:15-18 (NLT)
When will the time of perfection come?
When will this happen? There a lot of folks speculating and even making a living talking about when. I will not claim to know, except to say that I agree that since Israel was restored to statehood in 1948 that we are likely in the season of when the time of perfection comes for us. If, as Peter says, to God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day, perhaps he was knowingly or unknowingly prophetic in suggesting that here in the third millennium or maybe since 1948, we are in the third day. Last time Jesus came it was early in the morning of the third day. That could mean that the time is ripe. Or, if the 24-hour cycle of the day in Christ’s time began at sundown, early in the morning is a third of the way into the day. Maybe we’re still some three hundred years from the return of Christ. Or maybe we’re already a third of the way into tribulation for you Daniel (Chapter Nine) scholars speculating that Christ will return around 2018 after seven years of tribulation, some seventy years since Israel’s restoration.
Who knows when the time of perfection is going to come? ‘When’ doesn’t seem to make a difference in the context of eternity in the full realization and experience of living in the time of perfection. ‘When’ is really only important to those not prepared for the time of perfection; those with reason to fear judgment, punishment, and consequence; those who literally choose to be free from relationship with Jesus; those who choose to be aligned with their sin—the sin that Jesus paid the price to condemn for eternity. To be aligned with one’s sin, free from relationship with Jesus, is to choose condemnation; eternal (not death) dying. We don’t need to understand specifically what hell is or will be, except that it will most certainly be the experience of dying forever and ever. I, for one, do not want to know what that means or involves; not even for a second.
Like I said in Part One, there is a great deal of talk today about the perilous times we are living in throughout the world and what it all means for us who believe that Jesus is indeed returning for His bride to bring her home to where He lives. Folks wish to debate whether or not there will be a rapture of the saints; debating whether or not the rapture will occur before the great tribulation (the pouring out of God’s wrath in the book of Revelation), in the middle of the tribulation, or at the conclusion of the tribulation. Much of the speculation hinges on the interpretation of the prophetic words of Jesus in the book of Matthew.
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Matthew 24:36-42 (NLT)
Taken away or left behind?
Now, why did He have to go and say it like that? Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins made a living on the best-selling Left Behind series drawn predominantly from this passage of Scripture. The question is, who is them that were taken away by the flood? You would think that those taken away by the flood were those who drowned. If that is the case, then Noah and his family were left behind to sustain human life until the waters subsided. Oops… that would mean that being left behind is a good thing as those taken away are taken away by tribulation or judgment that is to occur after tribulation.
On the other hand, perhaps Jesus meant that Noah and his people were taken away from the wrath of the flood and those left behind drowned in the great tribulation that came upon them. If that is the case, then maybe being raptured before the great tribulation is still possible. The rapture “doctrine” did not really even surface in evangelical teachings and traditions until the early 1800s. But by the 1960s and 70s when I grew up, the tradition of pre-tribulation rapture of the saints both dead and alive on the earth was a certainty. I grew up understanding the return of Christ to be the rapture when he catches us up in the blink of an eye to meet Him in the air, as if in the clouds so to speak.
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (NIV)
While this was the pivotal passage I understood to be about the rapture of the church, it is clearly speaking of the return of Jesus Christ, which occurs at the conclusion of seven years of great tribulation when the trumpet calls us home and we meet with Jesus in the air. If one was to call this the rapture of the saints then it occurs post-tribulation. There is Scripture in the book of Daniel that perhaps suggests a mid-tribulation rapture prior to the worst of God’s wrath being poured out upon the earth until the heavens and the earth are on fire. (We could be a couple of years into tribulation already according to some scholars.)
You see, this is all very complicated and most distracting from what we really need to be focused on. Here are definitions for the word ‘rapture’, according to Merriam-Webster:
1 : an expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion
2 a : a state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion; b : a mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things
Of course the dictionary kindly added the following definition, probably around the 19th or 20th century:
“the final assumption of Christians into heaven during the end-time according to Christian theology”
We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. Philippians 3:20 (NLT)
What ‘rapture’ really means is being carried away by passionate ecstasy, overwhelmed emotionally by the reality of who we are as citizens of heaven, eagerly awaiting the return of our Savior to come get us and take us home into the perfect love that is in His presence in the time of perfection, fully alive in His glory. Pastor Randal Ross* preached this recently about what rapture really is intended to mean for us and it touched my heart.
What are we to do?
Evangelical Christians these days are even quarreling as they speculate about what is to come in the last days. What we ought to be doing is getting excited about resurrection into the time of perfection that is imminent and hopefully coming soon for us in relationship with Christ. Pastor Ross said that our emphasis should be the following from these prophetic words of Jesus as we approach the imminence of His coming:
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
45 “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46 (NLT)
Now this is prophecy that trumps all prophecy. Instead of speculating and, yes, worrying about whether or not we will be subject to tribulation, the spirit of anti-christ, mark of the beast, and all that, we need to refocus and place our emphasis on loving as many as we can into the family and kingdom of God through service, testimony, and obedience in the pursuit of righteous purity. Trust me, I am writing this to myself as much as for what it can do to adjust your perspective on how we do recovery from selfish entitlement one day at a time.
I am excited at the prospect of what my life will be in ten thousand years but I must be about the challenge laid out before me by Jesus. What can I be doing for Him in these early days of my ten-thousand year plan to maximize the opportunity for so many more to know Jesus by faith through service, testimony, and obedient righteous living? I cannot do it alone in my own strength so it becomes paramount that I surrender each day to the purposeful will of God in obedient service to Him and trust the Holy Spirit to do the miraculous to transform lives through His compassionate mercy.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)
Are you seeing the forest for the trees?
“Someone who can’t see the forest for the trees has typically become so focused on details that he or she begins to ignore the overall situation. A person accused of being unable to see the forest may want to take a step back from the situation, to regain a wider perspective on it. It is very easy to get caught up in minutia of a situation, especially when someone works on a problem for an extended period of time, or has only been working on one aspect of a larger issue.” —WiseGeek.org
What are the trees obstructing your view of the forest? How are the circumstances of this life impeding your perspective of what is to come in the time of perfection? I take this up with the men at the prison where I work who struggle to consider the bigger picture because of their obsession with that which is in the way right in front of them… anger, resentment, vengeance, envy, guilt and shame, loneliness, fear of the unknown, feeling like a failure, etc. When you walk up to the tree and obsess about controlling the life on and about the tree, you miss the bigger picture concerning the immeasurable possibilities of life in the forest; the forest that is lush, full of life, and endless in scope, going on and on and on.
The perfection that is to come in eternal glory with our Savior and Lord is the forest. Please, take the time to consider your ten-thousand year plan. Get excited about it. Be motivated to live each day at a time eagerly awaiting the Savior in anticipation of the time of perfection.
When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. James 1:2 (NLT)
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” John 14:1-3 (NLT)
Trust me, when dealing with the troubles of the day, it helps to broaden your perspective, seeing the forest for the trees.
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:4-8 (NLT)
