THE FIRST RESURRECTION

“Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years….This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Rev 20:4-6 ESV).

“…we who are alive…will be caught up…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thes 4:17 ESV).

 “…the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever’” (Dan 7:18 ESV).

“The way we conceive the future sculpts the present, gives contour and tone to nearly every action and thought through the day.  If our sense of future is weak, we live listlessly.  Much emotional and mental illness and most suicides occur among men and women who feel that they ‘have no future.’…The Second Coming of Jesus…is the most important thing to know and believe about the future.  The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope” Eugene H. Peterson (ref#262, Introduction to 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians, p504).