JesusWalk Bible Study Forum: Q1. Christ's coming - JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q1. (1:13) What about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention? Why should it inspire hope? Why should it inspire self-control and soberness? What happens in our lives when we don't really expect Christ to come soon?

Q1. (1:13) What about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention? Why should it inspire hope? Why should it inspire self-control and soberness? What happens in our lives when we don't really expect Christ to come soon?

To live a born again life, a renewed life means to live a life of expectation, hope and faith. Satan moves on us on all sides looking for weakness and complacency, But to live a life focused on the Lord results in joyful expectancy and gratitude. Such an attitude is healthy and insures fruitfulness and growth. The Holy Spirit which lives within impels us to grow in his likeness – this is where we are meant to be – and we must not quench the spirit.

Complacency in our faith will bring about a lessening of the desire to be in the word, to fellowship with believers, to act as the good Samaritan, to carry the good news to the captives, to be prayerful and meditate on HIM and thus grow in his likeness; or even if we continue this activity it will be as a matter of rote and with a ungrateful attitude, without joy and with little fruitfulness and we will make poor witnesses indeed if we don’t have an attitude of hope and expectancy.

The new life, the redeemed life, the reborn life starts right NOW although great things will come to pass now and in the future and we KNOW our future. Our belief that the coming of Christ is at hand (though no man knows the time) cannot help but sober us with the attitude of the racer waiting for the starting gun. We are alert and excited!


11.For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." Jer.29

What about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention? Why should it inspire hope? Why should it inspire self control and soberness? What happens in our lives when we really don't expect Christ to some soon?

We are going to stand before Him and give an answer for how we have lived. Do we want to be ashamed? No but we should be focused on Him and what He asks of us so that His name can be glorified in us.

We are going to be with Him forever in glory. That should inspire hope especailly in those who are suffering. No more struggling with our own sin or the sin of this world.
But we will be with Him forever. Wow!!

We should have our priorities straight and do the things that are important and will count for eternity because His coming WILL BE A SOBERING EXPERIENCE. We know He is coming. We should be prepared.

When we don't expect Christ to come soon we can tend to slip into the wordly system and forget our precious Lord and why we are here-to learn to love Him and to love each other. We can tend to get selfish since that is our natural nature. We can put off reading His word and caring about souls. Since there doesn't seem to be a bottom to the depth of depravity in people we need to be vigilant lest we also should fall.

God Bless
Jen

WITHOUT BEING BORN AGAIN, OUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION, WILL ALWAYS BE PREVELENT. TO BE BORN AGAIN, IS TO BE INSPIRED, WITH HOPE, ENCOURAGEMENT AND LOVE, IN JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR, OUR COMFORTER. SELF RESPECT INSPIRES SELF CONTROL AND SOBERNESS, WHICH YOU REINHERIT, AS YOU ARE IN HIM AND HE IS IN YOU. EXPECTATIONS OF CHRIST'S COMING, FALL'S SHORT, AND YOUR LIGHT (HIS LIGHT) DOES NOT SHOW THROUGH. THE WALK IS IN DARKNESS AND HOPELESSNESS, ON THE JOURNEY TO SALVATION.

BLESSING'S IN CHRIST

The fact that I will see Him, who died for me, in all His glory gets my attention and brings me hope. What inspires me to live soberly is that my life will be judged. Not having hope in Christ's return can lead people in living more for themselves and less for Him. We can become less diligent in living lives worthy of the Lord. We may even become involved in sin and acting and thinking the world's way.

What gets my attention about Christ's coming is that I will finally meet Him face to face. And just looking forward to that makes me want to live totally for Him. It inspires hope because not only will we meet Him, we will live in eternity with Him. There will be no pain, sufferining or tears there. It inspires self-control and soberness because we will be judged and I long to hear the words, "well done, good and faithful servant"although I fall short every day of living an obedient life. Showing self-control, being obedient to Him will glorify Him. When we don't really expect Christ to come I think we become sloppy and lazy in our spiritual life. I know for myself, living with an eternal perspective is one of the most difficult things for me to accomplish. I always have to bring my focus back around to what is truly important and looking forward to meeting Jeus helps with that.

Our attention should be focused toward Christ and his coming so that we are not caught offguard like the unwise virgins who did not prepare. Christ is our hope of eternal life.

Self-control and soberness will cause us to be focused thereby keeping our lives holy (set apart) so that at his coming we will be found blameless. When we are not expecting him to come or not anxiously awaiting his return, we allow unrighteousness and sin into our lives which produce unfruitfulness and death instead of an abundant and productive life in his kingdom which he died for us to have.

I think that Christ's coming often lacks our attention because Christ Himself lacks our attention. We are procrastinators, putting things off until they are absolutely necessary. Peter is seeking to remind us that the time of absolute necessity is NOW. We don't know the year, day, or hour of Christ's return. We don't know the year, day, or hour of our own death. Scripture tells us that today is the day of salvation - and part of that is living each day as if it were the day of Christ's return. This requires soberness and self-control, but it also gives us joy and great hope. Christ WILL return, even if we don't know when. We can trust His promises. Hope is a large portion of faith, looking forward to the revelation of what has already been accomplished.

Without this attention on Christ, our lives begin to revolve around something or someone else. While we may truly agree with the statements of truth anf faith found in God's Word, our everyday living will slide further and further away from His purposes for us. We will be setting our hearts on things that can be destroyed. We will be unprepared for action; when God says, "Go," we may stumble over our own garments - or perhaps not hear His voice at all.

I liken it to a person having a brush with death, or a serious illness, which will often snap folks out of complacency. A person will tend more to appreciate each day as the gift it is...and not take it for granted. Or conversly, to answer the question more directly, if we don't really expect Christ to come soon, many of us may well become complacent.
There is also a simularity to something we discussed last week, that many of us have experienced grew closer to God through hardships.
As to the first part of the question ("what about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention?"). my answer is that we don't know the day or the hour, so we must always be ready to meet our Lord. Why should it inspire Hope? I'd say that once anyone has tasted the love of God, the prospect of being eternally emersed in that Love is something to look forward to. As to self control and soberness...I would add attentiveness, so that our actions won't be an impediment to our readiness.

There are so many good posts here in response to this question, that I don't know where to begin. I will share a story of what happened to me when I used to go to online Christian chat rooms. I would usually bring up the subject of Christ's return , and whenever I did, someone would always get upset, annoyed, or downright hostile ! I was always put in a position of defending "my" views, like I made these Biblical facts up, concerning what some of us refer to as "the Rapture". Why is this topic so offensive to so many? Could it be that some don't wish to think of Christ's near return because they feel that they are not ready to leave this life? I think we need to always live with the mindset that we are aliens here, and to look FORWARD to Jesus' return, with great expectation and longing , especially as we see what's going on in this world. Even so, Come quickly Lord Jesus, is what I pray. However, I am often surprised at the division it causes to bring it up- the whole, pre-trib, post-trib question. In fact, a lot of those chatters don't want any kind of serious dialogue about the Bible and Christ. It's often times like "Hallelujah ! Hey, did you watch Stargate last night? ANd how bout them Gators? Then there's often a lot of goofing off and flirting going on. So, I don't take that stuff seriously anymore. I am not saying there's necessarily anything wrong with online chat, or Christian chat. I am not any better than anyone else. What I am saying is that if those chat rooms are indicitive of the attitudes of the mainstream Christian, I am saddened.

Q1. (1:13) What about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention? Why should it inspire hope? Why should it inspire self-control and soberness? What happens in our lives when we don't really expect Christ to come soon?

We should be undivided in our attention to the fact that Christ IS coming again and our work for Him will be judged. His parable about the master of the house coming at a time the servants do not expect Him should give us pause. His coming also inspires hope because when He comes He will make all things right. Obviously, things on earth today are not "right," either in His eyes nor ours. And we should exercise self-control and soberness so that we will be alert to our Master's guidance and will!
When we do not expect his return any day, we are too apt to slip into just living to gain earthly rewards, forgetting that those are going to be left here on earth when we rise to meet Him in the skies! We must live life on tip-toe--anticipating His return and living to please Him--no matter how little that matters to earthly living!

What about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention? Why should it inspire hope?
The TRUTH of it. Isn't this what one believes and longs for; That is the whole of it from the begining. God's word is true and is coming to the time we have for which we wait.
It should be our hope, our expectation. Live each day as if this were the day. Wouldn't this hope and waiting for Jesus coming help to motivate us to live better, to try harder to treat others with patience, love and mercy. We could be people that could bring Jesus' words of love and forgivness to others, by our actions and our words.

"Why should it inspire self-control and soberness?"

To know that we could cause others to fall by our own careless, sinfull behavior. To say we are followers of Christ, believers in His words and then to display behavior on the contrary; harms the cause of Christ and His kingdom. The unbeliever or the agnostic or the atheist take our behavior as an excuse or reason not to accept the wonderful saving grace of Jesus' work on the cross.

What happens in our lives when we don't really expect Christ to come soon?
We become lazy, we accept worldly compromises, we aren't aware of others who may be waiting on how we behave to determine their own choices about lif and Christ. Are we really what we claim to be, saved and growing?

I would like to create analogy here. If you are a woman, when coming in coming you prepare for them. You clean your house, you make something special, you make sure everything is in its place and ready for them. Your focus or attention is given to those things. So it is with us. We need to prepare for the return of Christ we need to prepare our house for Him. That means for me to do a little house cleaning. To clean up what is unacceptable in my life to prepare for Him.

Our minds is the greatest area of attack by the enemy. If he can get our thoughts and actions off of Jesus and on to other things we can easily begin to sin... the thought is not the sin but contemplation of the thought can bring us to a point of acting on it. That is way we are told in Romans to renew our minds daily with the Word of God. This is how we learn to live a left worthy of His glory. Our thoughts need to be focused on Jesus... therefore our actions will follow the thought pattern... we will have the mind of Christ and learn to act accordingly. The focus must must be on Him....He must be our vision.

We live in a hope that is a certainty that when He comes we shall all see Him face to face and when he looks on us, what will he see? And what shall we see in His eyes? We need to be expectantly waiting, focussed on Him and earnestly seeking to be as perfect as humanly possibe so that we don't disappoint Him.

Living and looking for the 'Blessed Hope' requires single-mindedness;
Only by staying prepared and 'looking' will we be ready on that day.

Gail, brought out a very good point concerning the parable of the 10 virgins;
When you read this parable, you are struck by the fact that "All 10" were virgins, but only 5 made it in to the Marriage with the Bridegroom, and then the door was shut.
The other 5 became lazy in watching and waiting....this shows us it is possible to be called to be a part of the Bride, and still lose out.
When we cease watching and looking for our Lord, either by getting caught up in the things of this world, or laziness/apathy, our oil will run out.
This is why soberness and self control are essential.

The coming of our Lord should inspire hope and joy unspeakable in us, as believers! To know, our 'work is over'...that our time to 'cross over Jordan' and enter into our rest has come! Glory to God!
To finally see our Lord, face to face...to be united with those that have gone before us! What Joy!

There is a very 'ugly and dangerous' doctrine spreading today...one that stresses that we shouldn't be looking for the coming of our Lord...but to concern ourselves with 'Kingdom building' now..its rooted in deception!
Our enemy will do anything, to take our eyes away, from the soon coming of Jesus. Even if it means to get us busy with 'religious' works.

WE SHOULD FOCUS ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND ON THE GRACE THAT WILL COME WITH IT. CLEAN UP AND GET RID OF ALL THE JUNK THAT IS IN OUR LIVES AND LIVE A HOLY LIFE.IT SHOULD BE A MOTIVATION TO GET OUR LIVES IN ORDER. HE IS HOLY SO I MUST BE HOLY AND LIVE ACCORDINGLY.
OUR SALVATION WILL BE RECEIVED AND GOD'S GLORY WILL BE MANIFESTED.
TO INSPIRE AND GIVE US CONFIDENCE THAT WHAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR HAS COME TO PASS AND WE WILL MEET HIM FACE TO FACE.
WE WOULD BECOME LIKE THE WORLD AND COMPLACENT. WE WOULDN'T HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS AND NO NEED TO LIVE IN HOLINESS AND PURITY.THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD LEAVEUS.

A believer awaiting the coming of the Lord brings to mind for me,watching people prepare for a court case. They get all the papers in order, they put on their best suit, they get a haircut and a shave (males that is), and try to put on the best image they can. Why? To try and sway the judge that they really aren't that bad? Why do we put our best forward for the Lord? Not because we are trying to impress Him I hope, no its out of love, that we do the things we do. However the expectation of standing in the presence of our Judge does have the effect upon us of being on our best behaviour. Curious isn't it?

1. To live a life of holiness. Be ready to meet him for we do not know the day or the hour when he will appear. It give us hope while were living here on this earth.

This life with all its struggles and suffering will come to an end someday and we have eternity to look forward to.

To keep us ready and prepared to meet him.

We become complacent and live for what the world has to offer. We become worldly and materialistic. We become the opposite of Christ.

The Lord's 2nd coming is evident but the time is not known. As believers we must prepare ourselves that we may be living for Him. Stradling the fence is not a good option. We should be excited about His return and this anticipation should bring us joy and hopeful anticipation. We should strive daily to walk in His likeness; to replicate the life of Christ; to be Christ-like, to be holy by His grace, the same grace that saved us. It is foolish to not be ready for the return of Christ. Not expecting Him to return soon leads to carelessness in my walk with Him. I leterally take Him out of the center of my life and place myself in that position. The things of the world begin to take presidence in my life, ie selfishness, greed, ****, materialism, and just plain sin becomes more prevalent. I want to keep my priorities on the blessed hope and live my life accordingly. To glorify and enjoy Him as He intended for all of us.

"What about Christ's coming should get our undivided attention" That God is coming soon, even though we don't know when. But we need to keep focused on God and his word. We need to be self controlled and keep our hearts and minds right with God. "Why should it inspire hope" It gives me hope because I know I will be going to a better place. "Why Should it inspire self-control and soberness" We need to have self control because it is so easy to do the wrong things and then you do it again and again by the time you look you have gone backwards. When we are not sober (Drunk) it clouds our mind and we cannot think properly, we tend to do things that are not in our character. "What happens in our lives when we don't really expect Christ to come soon" We will get very slack. We think it can wait till tomorrow we have time and tomorrow never comes.