Catching Up!

Have you ever pondered that phrase? What exactly does it mean? It could refer to the action associated with a class reunion or similar function. This past week I have spend some time "catching up" with some fond friend in the ministry at a pastor's conference in Canton, Ohio. It is always sweet to stand around with friends and find out what they are doing...how their family is...how the ministry is going, you know...catching up! In a way, the missions letter I just read is "catching up" with that missionary and the ministry to which they have been called.

In a kind of negative sense, "catching up" also refers to my day today, as I return from a week away from the office. It means sorting through a mountain of mail, reading/deleting a multitude of emails, answering an amusing amount of phone messages, plotting the course for the week ahead, touching base with people who need their pastor, etc. All of these things, and probably many more are included in that phrase. After a week away there is much catching up to be done. So today, I sit behind my desk...catching up!

But the sweetest "catching up" I know of is the one Jesus will do when He calls his bride home. This "catching up" is where we get our word rapture. In 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, we find,

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

The words "shall be caught up" comes from the Greek word harpazo (har-pad'-zo) which means to catch (away, up). (New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary) In other words, one day Jesus is going to catch his bride up and away for this world. And to that I say, "Even so, come Lord Jesus!" Maybe even today, so I can leave this catch-up work behind!

Well, it's started again! I have started a new semester at college. This semester I am taking a class on ethics. I must confess, I hate ethics. To be honest, it's a little above my head. I find the reading extra hard, the logic hard to follow, and the theories circular is motion. But this class finds as it focus as the area of bioethics, in specific, ethics as it relates to birth, abortions, and end of life issues. I look forward to sharing some of the insights I learn here in this forum. As always, please feel free to share you thoughts on the issues. To start, in the class discussion I found this story about a family who struggled with a decision to have a baby that had no chance to live long after birth. Take a look, but I must warn you, it will be heavy on your heart.

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/photography/2009/thomas/

Enjoy...and we will talk soon!