EXPECTATION, SPIRIT OF
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
—Rev. 22:20
1472 Billboards For Jesus
Millions of motorists in the Pacific Northwest are getting the word as billboards pop up along highways announcing “The Lord is coming” and similar messages. It all started when Seattle real estate man Roland J. Hoefer saw red after spotting a billboard that promoted a nudist colony. Now his Maranatha Association is marketing Jesus just as forthrightly. Hoefer cites Habakkuk in the Living Bible as rationale: “And the Lord said to me, “Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others.” “
1473 Minimizing Future Shock
Pastor D. Leroy Sanders of the 2,000-member First Assembly of God in North Hollywood, California, believes in having everything in order in the event of an emergency. Like, the Second Coming! Sanders and his people believe that when that happens they will suddenly disappear (be raptured) from the earth. But what about afterward—what would happen to the $1.5 million church property, and how could the possibly remaining members keep the church operating?
Sanders took his questions to attorneys and denominational officials. Result: the church unanimously agreed to change its by-laws providing for a “temporary chairman” and election of new officers when the event occurs. To finance the work, members have been urged to rewrite their wills and insurance policies, naming the church as beneficiary. And to minimize initial confusion, the mortgage company has been alerted to the expected emergency, and consultations are underway with a major insurance company to determine how claims may be paid without waiting the usual seven-year period for missing person.
—Selected
1474 Feelings Among Non-Christians
It is not only Christian people who are expecting the Second Coming of Christ, the frustrated youth of America sense that judgment is near. Their sons reflect their anxiety. One popular record is called “Dooms-Day.” In his big number one record, “Bad Moon Rising,” Credence Clearwater warns that the time of the end is near and hopes that we are ready. One hit song suggests a meeting in the air with the Lord. In some of the hippie communes, where groups of boys and girls live together in remote areas under primitive conditions, young people are turning to religion in an effort to get right with God before the day of judgment.
—The King Is Coming
1475 “Perhaps Today”
Dr. Horatius Bonar, as he drew the curtains at night and retired to rest, used to repeat to himself the words, as if in prayer, and certainly with expectancy, “Perhaps tonight, Lord!”. In the morning, as he awoke and looked out on the dawn of a new day, he would say, looking up into the sky. “Perhaps today, Lord!” He expected the Lord to return at any moment. Bonar was in the Lord’s service for over 60 years.
—A. Naismith
1476 Queen Meets King Of Kings
Dean Farrar was a privileged personal friend of Queen Victoria, though he seldom referred to the distinction. But on the first anniversary of the accession of Edward VII to the throne of England, during the service in Canterbury Cathedral, he told how the Queen, after hearing one of her chaplains preach at Windsor on the second coming of Christ, spoke to the Dean about it and said, “Oh, how I wish that the Lord would come during my lifetime.” “Why does your Majesty feel this very earnest desire?” asked the great preacher. With her queenly countenance lit up with deep emotion she replied, “Because I should so love to lay my crown at His feet.”
—Light and Life Quarterly
1477 Witness From Our Capitol’s Dome
There is an inscription in the dome of our Capitol in Washington which few people know about. It says: “One far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves.” A visitor saw this inscription and asked the guide what it meant. He said: “I think it refers to the second coming of Christ.” When the dome of our Capitol was erected, some God-fearing official ordered that inscription to be etched in the dome of our seat of government, believing that its truth was vital to the concern of our nation.
—Billy Graham
1478 Life In Outer Space?
Dr. Frank Drake of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center at Cornell University, and also the director of operations for the world’s largest radio telescope (the 1,000-foot dish at Areci 9, Puerto Rico) said: “I fear we have been making a dreadful mistake by not focusing all our searches on the detection of the signals of the immortals (in space)”. Personnel at the facility spend several hundred hours a year hunting for radio signals from intelligent beings on planets or other stars.
Drake said that in order to cover the entire sky, a radio telescope would have to point in 20 million directions. By being extremely selective, the number of channels monitored could be cut to about 10 million, making about 100 million readings to be taken.
This is the bare minimum. Using instruments presently available, it would take an immortal to stumble upon the right channel at the right time. But the technology is on hand to increase the number of channels that can be scanned at once from several thousand to a million.
1479 Signaling Other Civilizations
One group of scientists claims to have calculated mathematically that as many as 50 million civilizations may exist somewhere out in space. They believe that some of them may have found the methods to improve our lives and control the time of our deaths. In November 1974, this speculation was acted upon. By means of technology these scientists beamed a message to a cluster of stars on the outer edge of our galaxy. But even if that signal were picked up, it would take as estimated 48,000 years before an answer came back.
—Our Daily Bread
1480 Perhaps Today
Perhaps today our Lord will come
To bear us to our much-loved Home:
Before the evening shadows fall
May sound the longed-for clarion call;
Then out of sorrow, tears and strife,
We’ll rise to realms of joy and life.
Perhaps today will be the last,
And time shall be forever past.
Our light affliction will be o’er.
Then Glory! Glory! evermore!
These days of toil and pain will cease
And faithful workers rest in peace.
Perhaps today mine eyes shall see
The Lamb of God who died for me:
Oh, nothing else will matter then.
If unto Him I’ve faithful been.
Live for that day, O soul of mine,
And joy eternal shall be thine.
—Annie Lind Woodworth
1481 Old Law Prohibits Predictions
Under Indiana law, the penalty for burning an abandoned house is a 2–14 year prison term, while that for setting fire to a factory or office building occupied by hundreds of persons is 1–10 years.
A 1917 statute makes a person convicted of predicting the future, for a fee, subject to a fine of $100 and a 60-day jail sentence.
1482 Getting Prayer Lists From Newspaper
My grandmother had prayed first thing in the morning ever since she was a girl. But recently she has been reading the newspaper first, so I asked if prayer had become less important to her.
“Oh, no,” she said, “I’m just looking to see what I should pray about.”
—Bruce C. Johnson
1483 Epigram On Expectantcy
• Around the dial of a clock in a church in Strasburg, Germany, are these words: “One of these hours the Lord is coming.”
See also: Uncertainty, Spirit of ; Waiting ; Watchfulness ; Matt. 24:36, 44; Rom. 8:23; Titus 2:13; Rev. 22:20.