Friday Foto Friends~God's Promise

"I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant 

between Me and the earth."

Genesis 9:13 NKJV

This was our view on the way home from our walk last evening, following a very heavy rainstorm.

I love that the picture above looks like a cross standing next to the rainbow.

Another sign of God's "covenant" with the people of the earth, through the death of Christ on the cross.

During these turbulent times, we certainly need all the hope and encouragement we can get.

I am so thankful for God showing His love to us in so many ways, even through the storms and His protection over our loved ones and friends when it could have turned out so differently.

We will see rainbows again in heaven someday.

Revelation Chapter 4 is considered by most theologians to describe the viewpoint in heaven by John the Apostle, when he is caught up "in the Spirit" (see verses 1-2), "and as the word  "Church" does not appear again in Revelation until chapter 22:16, the catching up of John from earth to heaven has been taken to be a symbolic representation of the translation of the Church as occurring before the events of the tribulation described in chapters 6-19." (Per footnotes in my Scofield Reference Study Bible) 

In other words, many Biblical scholars believe this to be when the "Rapture of the church" takes place.

Revelation 4:1-3

1.  "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. 

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying,

"Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."

2.  Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.

3.  And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance;

and there was a rainbow around the throne, 

in appearance like an emerald."

With all of the things that are happening in our world today, many are watching and preparing for the very possibility of the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church.  We know that no man knows the hour or the time of when He will come, but only God the Father knows:

Matthew 24:36-39, 42

36.  "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, 

but My Father only.

37. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

38.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39.  and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be..."

42.  "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." 

And here is what we can expect on that day:

I Thessalonians 4:16-18

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,

with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together 

with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

18.  Therefore comfort one another with these words."

I really did not intend to get into a theological discussion today on the Rapture of the Church, but somehow that is where these pictures of the rainbow led me.  I know that there are many interpretations of when and even if the "rapture" will take place, and I do not want to get into any kind of debate over what some believe or do not believe will happen.  I am mainly sharing scriptures that tell us of the hope that we as believers have when we look forward to that day.  The most important thing to remember is, no matter when it happens, we need to be ready to meet the Lord one day.  Many of us will meet him when we pass from this life into heaven...but only if we have first accepted His free gift of salvation.

John 3:16-17

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, 

that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but that the world through Him might be saved."

I, for one, am thankful for God's gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

And I am greatly looking forward to meeting Him in heaven one day, face to face.

Whether or not He comes and calls us up into the clouds through the rapture of the church,  or whether He calls me home through death from this life into eternal life in heaven,

I will be with Him forever.

My greatest prayer is that all of my family and friends also have this same assurance and hope.

Have a blessed and beautiful day dear friends.