Looking For The Train To Come In

Here's a picture of the Tennessee RR train coming through my town.  It serves the various companies between here and Nashville, running through several middle Tennessee counties.  It also brings Santa Claus to town every November.  Folks around here love it and its big diesel horns it blasts at every crossing.  Back in the heyday of passenger rail service you could get a ticket and ride anywhere in America served by rail.  I am old enough to remember those days.  I still have a nostalgic pull on my heart for that era. I have a picture of my dad stepping off of a train when he was a young man.  I have also seen folks waiting for a loved one to come in on the train.  Using that as a background for today's devotion, I am waiting and watching for the soon appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  For me it's...

 A GRAND HOPE

"Devotions from the book of Colossians" by Darrell Lingerfelt

1:5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

Paul's letter continues with this pleasing statement: "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven." These folks had their eye on the prize of a "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," 2Corinthians 4:17. The word of truth that had been preached to them had anchored their souls in Christ Jesus and their hearts were fixed on Christ's words of John 14:2-3, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." 

All the happiness of Heaven awaits the Saints. It is a list that swells our hearts with longing for that which we have yet to attain, to wit, our resurrection to that celestial realm. At the top of that list has to be the soon appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us. We expectantly wait with a fiery hope in our bosoms for Him to receive us to Himself. Then through the eternal ages to come we will bask in the light of His person wherein lies all the grand treasures of His love. The violence of this world will be past! Its condemnation behind us! Then we will experience the heavenly places of Christ Jesus up close and personal.

The reason Paul mentions this fact about the Colossians is rooted in their love of Christ. Those who have a relationship with Christ ache to be united with Him in Glory. Here we see through a glass darkly. Everything is in hews and mists that we must peer through by faith. But then someday, we shall see Him face to face. For the moment, the Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus, and Jesus' indwelt person in us magnifies these things of Himself which causes us to love Him and plead for His soon return for us. Have you ever loved someone and they were away from you? Do you remember how you ached for them? Remember how you paced the floor, watched the clock and kept looking out the window to see if they were coming? That is how the Saint feels. Their love for Christ caused these Colossian folks to do the same. Have you those feelings? If not, burrow into the pages of His Word, seek Him out and learn of Him. If you will, you will find Him a grand and wonderful Lord and Savior, King and Redeemer, and a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You will want Him. You will want to be with Him. You will expectantly hope for Him night and day. 

May we have said about us these things said of the Colossians.