What Happens First When Jesus Comes to Get Us?

What Happens First When Jesus Comes to Get Us?

From 1 Thessalonians 4:

   "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words."

    The dead in Christ will rise first....

"Today you will be with Me in paradise" is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. Happy are those who die in the Lord. Their bodies rest, but their souls are before the throne of God, praising Him, singing thankful hallelujahs to Him who washed them from their sins in His blood.

They rest from their labors, and their works follow them. Their quiet repose will never be broken until God rouses them to give them their full reward. Guarded by angelic watchers, veiled by eternal mysteries, they sleep on,  inheritors of unspeakable glory until the fulness of time shall come, bringing complete body and soul redemption.

What an awakening it will be! They were laid to rest, weary and worn, but they will not rise in that condition. They will wake up in youthful beauty and glory. The shriveled seed, so devoid of beauty and design, rises from the dust a glorious flower! The winter of the grace becomes the spring of redemption and the summer of glory.

Blessed is their death since, through God's divine power, He removed their working clothes and dressed them in royal wedding garments. Blessed are those who sleep in Jesus.

We have so many reasons to praise the Lord! Here is just one reason -- for the joy yet to come!

"Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!"