"But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:18-21

One of the main differences, I think, between the modern church and the first century church was their vision. Their goal was to see Jesus return, they desired this, they eagerly waited for it and they even wanted to hasten it. We preach a gospel of just getting sins forgiven, which is good, or the gospel of being refreshed and finding "peace," which is good. Why are we trying to persuade that people need peace with God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ? So that people can know where they are going when they die? Jesus didn't define eternal life as merely going to heaven, He defined it as knowing the One True God and the One whom He sent. Jesus told us to pray for heaven to come to earth not that we will just float through this life and go to heaven. The complete gospel message that Peter preached in Acts had to do with forgiveness of sins, refreshment in Christ and the return of the Christ to rule this earth. Romans 16 says that the God of peace will crush satan under our feet. Jesus said the meek will inherit the earth, we have a literal inheritance that is more real than what we see on this earth, it is eternal and incorruptible. What kind of vision do we, the bride of Christ, live with?

I get leary when I hear preachers preaching messages about having perfect prosperity in this age. What it sounds like to me is "give me all the blessings of the kingdom but we don't want the King Himself." We don't see it as a good thing, the best thing, for Jesus to come and rule and reign forever - even when He desires to rule and reign with Him. We shoot so low and we have a low estimation of who the Man and God Jesus Christ is and so we also have a low estimation of our identities in Him. I can almost hear someone say, "now, now, we don't know the day or the hour." That really isn't the point and that scripture is often misused so people can feel comfortable with compromise. The point is that we're supposed to be praying and making disciples with the goal of having Him return. We submit to the Word of God and take an uncompromising attitude with sin in our lives and seek to live unspotted from this world and raise up our children in the fear of the Lord to prepare the way for Him. So that He can return for His bride, Ephesians 5 says that He gave Himself up for His bride so that He could wash her in His word and present her to Himself as a radiant bride. That blows my mind.

I ask myself as I read the description of God's throne room in Revelation 4 and 5, 'why is this so foreign to me when the Bible says I am a citizen of heaven?' God unfolds this beautiful drama before John's eyes as the four living creatures praise the One who sits upon the throne. In His hand He holds a scroll with seven seals and an angel cries aloud "who is worthy to take the scroll and open it?" There is a silence and no one is found worthy in heaven or earth and then the Lamb of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah comes to take the scroll and open it. The song that the four creatures sing changes to praise the Lamb who is the image of God, the radiance of the Father's glory. When I read these words something in my heart cries out that there is so much more, there is so much more to lay hold of. Paul said in 1Timothy 6:12 to "lay hold" of eternal life, this isn't a passive thing and it won't just take place without our permitting God to do His perfect work in us and laying hold of Him.