“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1st Thess.4:16-17)
When we leave, we will not look behind us, we will not be wondering if those we knew and loved here on earth are with us at that moment, we will see Jesus, and we will no longer follow Him, He has come to take us home.
A moment may pass in our minds towards those we knew, whether they are here in this sea of humanity in the clouds, praising and adoring the Lord on our way to the Kingdom of God, or if they have been left behind to suffer through the days of Jacob’s Troubles, but those thoughts will only last a moment. Those things that we could not see, could not hear, and could not ever imagine are now right in front of us, and nothing else matters save for the fact that we are in the presence of Holiness.
While we are here, we will spend time on you, our prayers, words and actions will revolve around the glory of the Lord and that He would be merciful to you and call you to Himself. It breaks our hearts, literally tears us into pieces to think that the One who died for you is rejected by you, to hear your kind remarks of, “I love you, but I’m not interested in your Jesus.” We can see you burning eternally, screaming eternally, we understand if even in a small part the complete hopelessness that you will experience forever.
Some of you we have given up hope on, reluctantly we have applied Matthew 7:6 in our lives towards you, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” Although there is always a glimmer of hope, no matter how small, the main focus of our prayers stopped being you a long time ago, you made it quite clear that if there is indeed an afterlife of joy and happiness, you will find your own way there.
You wanted proof, proof of all those Scripture verses we offered, proof of the One who hung on that cross for you, you wanted to concentrate on this world and all that it had to offer you, not the one to come. So, we gave you what you wanted, a life without mentioning any longer the One who loved you enough to die for you.
I cannot say if I will think of you in heaven, nor can I interpret my emotions towards you when and if I do, “Nevertheless, thy will be done” have been my thoughts towards you since the day you asked me to stop speaking of the Savior to you. Perhaps in time I will ask about you in heaven, I will know your fate one day, and I will either rejoice when I see you, a repentant sinner now living in the light of the glorious Lamb of God “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8) for you, perhaps not though.
Perhaps I will grieve for a very long time when I am told of where you are, I cannot say, for in that moment, in that twinkling of an eye I will be changed and understand fully 1 Cor. 13:12 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Today though, I am still here, all those who have been born-again that still breath the air of this earth are still here, and one of us is praying for you, an unrepentant sinner, just as we were once, a person blinded by Satan, who lives for self-gratification, for the things this world has to offer, those temporary things that brought only temporary pleasures, just like we were once.
Our prayer for you is that you will heed the call, but the truth of Matthew 22:14 is also known to us, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Those of us who have been saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ are going to be leaving soon, perhaps sooner than we can imagine, only God knows, (Matt. 24:36) but until that moment, as long as you remain receptive to the words we offer, we will speak to you of the One who loves you so much, we will pray for you until that final moment, for we know your end if you do not repent, and that end is unthinkable to us.
“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)
