The Rapture Appointment
It sure felt hot today, unusually so, I thought. Well, it is Florida – in early spring. My 1973 red Ford Pinto has no a/c and black pleather seats. I’d better roll down the windows and drive faster.
My throat hurts badly, and maybe it’s the fever I have that is making me feel like I am going to croak at any moment. I have on the only suit I own. My mother made me buy it before I was married – just in case. I’m sure bribery was involved.
Thank you, Mom.
Well, it gets worse before it gets better. Now I am lost as a goose in Cocoa Beach, trying to find a small law office where I have an appointment for a better job closer to home and my newlywed husband. I had been commuting from Cape Canaveral to Orlando five days a week for work. The drive was grueling; it was taking a toll on me. One hour and fifteen minutes each way. I really wanted this appointment to go well because I needed this job. My husband and I had been praying for a better job closer to home. My pastor actually arranged this interview for me, as my husband was on the church youth staff.
Parking is street only, across from the county courthouse. Of course it is! I lap the block a few times and finally snag a parking place. I am late. I hate to be late for appointments!
The office and staff looked exactly like I imagined they would – professional, polished, busy and smart. It was bustling with clients and activity. No receptionist though. Whoever was handy ran out to the lobby and greeted clients as they came in. They needed me, I thought, and I was hopeful.
Apparently, I was not the only one that was late, as my interviewer had not arrived yet. I felt relieved but obviously not feeling well, getting more feverish and doubtful I could even do this.
The eldest law partner blew in the door, apologizing for being late as he escorted me back to his office. I probably took his parking space.
We were members at the same church but had never met. He said he lost track of the time because he was out in his garden picking tomatoes off the vines. What a relief – a real person. Hope returns to me, but it is momentary.
I have to pass some tests to see if I can type a business letter, take dictation, be nice to people on the phone, and most importantly, make coffee and perform the deli run for lunch every day. No problem. I type all day, every day, in my current job; so I did possess a decent amount of typing skills.
Well, I typed off the page, completely, twice. I also cried. I think I remember being nice and offering to make coffee while I was there. My memory blurs a bit here.
But, I do remember the most important part of this appointment though – the part where he said, “Can you start next Monday?”
Obviously, this appointment had been ordained. Honestly, I would not have hired myself for this job. The only thing I had going for me was my last name: Law. I thought maybe my Pastor had gone too far in praise of me or my husband called in on my behalf.
But, it was none of that. I did not just know a guy, I knew the very best person in the whole world! It is my God, Lord and King, Jesus Christ! We prayed and our Lord answered. It was all his doing! At this point in my life, this is where He wanted me to be working. God had arranged the appointment!
We all have appointments that are important to God, because we are important to God. As a matter of fact, and scripturally backed, we have many appointments in life. May I share some of those life-altering appointments by God with you?
The appointment to life:
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…” (Jeremiah 1:5, NKJV).
Our physical lives—body, soul, and spirit are from God. Only He can create life. He has a thought and plan for us and then creates us. All life is important and sacred to God.
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, had this appointment as well.
“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).
Jesus came in the flesh, God incarnate, to become the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
“And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God…” (John 1:14).
Our very first appointment is being born into this world as God intended, someone created by Him, and for Him.
This is where it all has to start.
The appointment to salvation and eternal life:
“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” (John 3:16).
Today is the day! You can have salvation at any time this day!
It is offered to all people. This is an open appointment; all you have to do is show up with faith ready to believe, confess and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. We are still in the days of grace as of this writing.
“For he says, in an acceptable time, I have heard you, and in the day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
“And if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
The appointment at the end of the age for the rapture of the church:
This appointment time has already been set by the Father in heaven. Only He knows what time this appointment is set for. It’s a big secret. It is for all those who have believed and received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
“But of that day and hour, no man knows, not even the angels in heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36).
We do get clues from scripture as to what it will look like on the earth before the rapture. These clues are daily being sent to us. Scripture is filled with prophecy concerning this; it tells us to be watching and ready for Christ’s call upward—the Rapture.
The rapture precedes the tribulation, or sometimes called the day of the Lord, as Jesus calls us up to meet him in the air to be spared the final judgment coming upon the earth.
This is a very important appointment that many Christians overlook, and they do not anticipate or expect it will happen. This is unfortunate, because it robs the believer of joy, the joy awaiting the promise of fulfillment.
It also installs the wrong kind of fear, that God would judge and destroy those He has already cleansed with the sacrificial blood of Jesus, and brought back to life those who are declared justified and holy. I actually know Christians who think they have to endure the judgments poured out on the unbelieving world – a world when, up to that point in time, will reject salvation in Jesus Christ. Christians are stockpiling food and disaster supplies for themselves. I read in the news that many are buying underground bunkers. Some Christian leaders are even selling you supplies and fear.
They do not realize the ark of faith is near to being loaded; God will secure us inside, shut the door Himself, and the torrential-looking rainclouds of God’s judgment will let loose a mighty flood. Believers only in Christ will be spared. It will look very much like the days of Noah… just like Jesus said it would.
Those underground mountain bunkers and supplies will go to those who are left behind at the rapture.
We will be with our Lord and Christ—forever. If you are a Christian now, you will be departing the earth either by physical death, then Rapture, or living when the trumpet blast sounds and skip the grave altogether in the Rapture. We are clothed in immortality as we rise up to meet the Lord in the air with all the believers in Christ.
“For this I say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will be no means precede those who are asleep. 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 shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
The appointment with Death:
We all have this appointment waiting for us. For some, it comes earlier than later. Sometimes, painfully abrupt with no warning at all. Or we get a warning, a heads-up that it’s coming. We just know it’s time to go.
Once again, the one who rose from the dead, Jesus Christ, triumphs over death. If we believe in Him, we have everlasting life. Our bodies die, but spiritually we never die.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
We will live with him for all eternity in a heaven so wonderful, it cannot be described in human words.
I am an older woman now, awaiting with great anticipation a day of great meaning and value to me – the Rapture. I am not sure if I will physically die first and then be raptured, or bypass the grave and be raptured from this physical life. But God knows; and I belong to Him in Christ. The appointments have already been scheduled.
Either way, I am ready for my final appointments. I hope, dear readers, that you are too!
Sally Law