This is a line from a favorite song of many Christians: “What a day that will be/ when my Jesus I shall see; / when I look upon His face, / the One who saved me by His grace.” As a pastor, I often wonder why the return of Jesus is not preached or taught more often in churches. To be fair, a genuine minister of the Word preaches or teaches the things that God lays on his heart. Still, it is remarkable to me that a theme as important as this one is not presented more often. Did you know that the new birth is mentioned only nine times in the New Testament, baptism 20, and repentance 70 times? The return of Jesus, on the other hand, is mentioned or alluded to close to 400 times in the Bible. Yet, the three topics I mentioned easily get more coverage. This one thing is true: As the chorus I mentioned at the onset reminds us, the day that Jesus comes back to earth will be the greatest event of all the ages. Regarding that day, Paul wrote: “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NLT New Living Translation) Then to the Thessalonians he added that the Lord Himself is coming for His own on that glorious day. It would have been wonderful enough if He had just sent the angels for us. Talk about special delivery! He finished the thought by adding: “Therefore, encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thess. 4:18) Forget encouraged; if you didn’t get excited at this thought, find someone close by so he or she can pinch you. Whenever I hear something that is almost too good or exciting to be true, I turn around and ask my wife to pinch me, just to make sure I'm alive. When I get the opportunity to pray for God’s people at the altar, I often ask the Lord to remind them that their best days are still up ahead. To be more exact, their greatest day ever is still up ahead. I deem this to be important because life’s trials and heartaches often tend to cloud our spiritual vision, leading us to forget God’s promises. May God help us all to never forget His promises, especially the day of His return. I repeat, “What a day that will be.!”

God’s word for today: (Titus 2:13 NLV New Life Version) “We are to be looking for the great hope and the coming of our great God and the One Who saves, Christ Jesus.”