Grace to you & peace from God our Father & the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The Touchstone of Faith” is July 13th’s entry from Dr. David Jeremiah’s ‘Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions’.
"The sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Matthew 14:30
As far back as 3,500 BC, a touchstone was used to measure the quality of gold or silver. A nugget of supposedly pure gold or silver would be scratched on a touchstone of either slate or basalt. Then, a mark from a known pure sample would be scratched next to the original, and the two scratches were compared. From that beginning, the word ‘touchstone’ can now refer to anything that is used as a test of genuineness.
In that sense, the second coming of Jesus Christ is a touchstone for New Testament theology. Any doctrine about Christ that does not allow for His imminent, bodily return to earth must be held suspect as to its Biblical foundation. So central was Christ’s return in His own teaching in Matthew 24 & John 14:1-4; that it must be considered necessary and non-optional. Any Christian not living with a moment-by-moment awareness of the possibility of Christ’s return is living with a marginal view of who He was and is. Does your understanding of Christ keep you looking and listening for His glorious appearing?
The prospect of seeing a dearly loved one in the future keeps hope alive in the present.
To end, a quote from the late Queen Victoria, “I wish [Jesus] would come in my lifetime so that I could take off my crown and lay it at His feet.”
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
