the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Acts 1:11
‘Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’
Read 2 Peter 3:1-18
Our Lord had plainly told his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they had received the power of the Holy Spirit, and then to go into all the world to preach the gospel. But they became so engulfed by his ascension that they ignored his command. We have many who make the same mistake among us today. They are so engulfed with their theories and speculations about prophecy that they seldom, if ever, get around to preaching the gospel to any creature.
I spent five years ‘studying theology’ in two leading Bible colleges, and about all we did was ‘gaze into heaven’. Semester after semester was spent trying to unravel the visions of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, but never, not even once, in five years did I hear a professor answer such fundamental, essential questions as these: ‘How can a man be just with God? “How can he be clean that is born of woman?” “How can God be just and yet, justify the ungodly?"
Be assured, our Lord is coming again. At the time appointed Christ will appear in power and great glory. But no man knows, or can know, when that time is. God has not given us one shred of information to indicate when Christ will come, because he does not intend us to know. Only fools pry into those things which God has kept secret. It is our responsibility, not to speculate about when Christ will come, but faithfully to preach the gospel of his grace, serving the interests of his kingdom and seeking his glory, with hearts full of expectation. It is our business to be about our Master’s business.
‘Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’ Are there no needy ones for you to help? Are there no hungry ones for you to feed? Are there no sick ones for you to visit? Are there no sinners perishing for lack of knowledge? Go and do as the Lord has commanded you, until he comes to take you home. Let us be found in the place God has appointed, doing the work which God has appointed for us, in that hour which God has, appointed, when our Lord shall appear.
