TBA (to be arranged) – March 2015 – thought for the month

T B A Some of you will know of my accident – the one that happened just before midnight on Saturday 28th Feb as I was about to go to bed. Yes, I accidentally pressed ‘Delete’ on my computer and lost all the work I’d been doing preparing the March Connect. Alas & Alack! (whatever ‘alack’ means). But it’s amazing how the Lord overrules in these things.
In the original version it had been necessary to include several T B As in the Dates -TBA meaning ‘to be announced’. The reasons are explained a little below, but the fact remains that at that time final arrangements for certain dates in the month weren’t known.

There are things in life that we know are going to happen but we don’t at the moment know just when. I was thinking of the illustration that Calix Furus used the other Sunday when introducing his morning message; he was talking about the new Formula One cars that were under wraps until the day of their unveiling. Of course, the invited guests and press know the appropriate day and are ready for when all will be revealed. But Calix mentioned about an unveiling, or revelation that the Bible makes clear will happen, but no one knows just when. He quoted 2 Thessalonians 1:7 where Paul speaks of what ‘will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels’.

The human world generally and sadly may not realise that they are awaiting that happening. They live as they want or as they have been taught by other unbelievers. And Paul says that when the Lord Jesus comes in this way, God ‘will punish those who do not know God’ v8, not because he is vindictive, but because they have chosen not to know him. Elsewhere Paul speaks of those who worship the created rather than the Creator. Yet it is creation that points so clearly to a loving Creator and Saviour.

For those of us who have believed and received the forgiveness of sins and salvation through Jesus Christ, and who wait for him as our Lord from heaven, we seek to honour him in our lives, as we await that return. I love how J B Phillips translated Romans 8: 18-21. Paul says: “In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!”