January 22, 2019 (Tuesday)
Well, the playoffs are over. (The Pro Bowl is next, but it’s only make believe). Only the Super Bowl remains. The teams this year will be the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. The spectacular event will take place in Atlanta, Georgia February 3, 2019. This will be Super Bowl LIII.
Last Sunday the conference championships were decided in two very exciting games, both of which went into overtime, with “sudden death” for one team and victory for the other. Both games were hard fought and if you were watching and picked the winner before the game was over, you could have been wrong, because both games saw the leading team change from one quarter to the next. In order to know who the winner of each game was, you had to see it all the way to the end.
Jesus said of His Church, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” It was another way of saying that the final score is all-important. Sometimes we feel like the forces of evil are winning the battle for the souls of people. At other times, we have “mountain-top” experiences with the Lord and feel assured that we are on the winning side.
The Bible makes clear that time shall end, and Christ shall judge everyone. There shall be no doubt that sin is punished and Christ’s followers are rewarded. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote about the one all-important event that is coming:
.. we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).