13/09/2026
Meditations from yesterday's Pew Sheet: "Behold, I will send you Elijah, *before the great and dreadful day of the LORD* ~ Malachi 4:5 (second last verse of the OT!) ~ With the benefit of hindsight, the *first* coming of our Lord Jesus may not seem such "a great and dreadful day" - a day that "burnt as an oven" , and "all the proud, yea, and and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch". So it would follow that the *second* coming of the Lord Jesus shall be a "great and dreadful day". Even so - come, Lord Jesus, come!
1 Thessalonians 3:13 ~ "to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints..." ... This self-same group of believers (the Thessalonians) who first read these words, (and *all* congregations never since!) *will still be around* (via the resurrection) to BE stablished at the coming of the Lord Jesus! ... *All* congregations of God's people have unfinished business with their God and Lord!
"For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Ate not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus *at his coming*? ` 1 Thessalonians 2:19. ...Note well the wording! This is not said just to be true in the admittedly imperfect "here and now" - but will be true in all its fulness *only at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ*. Nor is it said to be true only of individual isolated believers, * but of congregations of believers*. (The word "ye" is in the plural). Until the Second Coming, God is * never finished* with *any* congregation of His people!
