When He Comes

Someday, the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and when He does, the scriptures speak of the earth burning and melting.  A superficial understanding of this imagery seems quite violent and scary -- like some kind of massive nuclear explosion.  I think this understanding of the Lord's second coming is just as erroneous as many of the ancient Jewish leaders' understanding of what would happen when the Messiah came.  In John 14:7,9 the Lord equates knowing Him with knowing the Father and seeing Him with seeing the Father.  If you carefully examine the lives of those whom the Lord considered as friends (who truly knew Him for who He was and saw Him as the Son of God) you can see that the more worldly elements of life had melted away from their lives.  Melted and burned off in the warmth of His love and later through the reception of the Holy Ghost which strengthened His apostles in their preaching and building up of the church.  As I see the Savior moving and working among His people as recorded in the New Testament, I don't see a God who will come again with a power so superficial as physical fire that will do nothing but destroy physical elements.  His love is not superficial and His power has a much deeper effect, He looks on and changes the heart, the very essence of who we are.  I see His power manifest largely through people choosing to follow Him and accept Him, through which all worldly cares and concerns melt away.  We can be refined, as in a refiners fire, to be in His presence again.  In saying this, I do not try to say that physical destruction is never part of a manifestation of God's power, but I do say that I believe that His work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man so His power is utilized to that end not simply wanton destruction no matter how wicked man may be.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind, He suffered all the pain and anguish of all, his love is deeper than any wickedness man could devise, in fact He descended below all things for our sake.  Pondering this kind of love leads me to believe that when He comes again, whatever physical destruction that may accompany His coming will be secondary to the effect on our hearts and ensuring that all God's children are given the chance to obtain eternal life.