Dear Friends,
Everyone is interested in the future but where can you learn what it holds? Deuteronomy 18 warns us not to look to fortune tellers, psychics, mediums, and their ilk. Instead it says we are to look to God’s prophets in the Bible. And what do they say your future holds? Today’s devotional gives you the answer. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• I Thessalonians 5:1-4 (ESV)

  1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

“The last great day is coming. Do you see, yonder, the gathering storm? Do you mark the black clouds as, one after another, they accumulate? For whom is that tempest coming? Can you take a glimpse into the treasure-house of God, and see his hailstones and coals of fire? Can you discover his lightnings, as they are stored up against the day of wrath? For whom are these reserved? You shall hear by-and-by.

“Look yonder in another direction, the very opposite. What meaneth that deluge of descending rain? What meaneth the rolling of that awful thunder? I see, in the center of that storm, a cross. What, meaneth all that terrible display of tempest and of hurricane? Why, yonder, there is no sound as yet of storm; it is gathering, but it hath not burst. It gathers still; but, as yet, not a drop of rain descends. The lightnings are bound up in bundles, and are not yet loosed; why is it that, yonder, all is the stillness of a storehouse, and a mighty preparation for war, while, over there, that war is going on, and all the bolts of God are launched? It meaneth this. God has sundered his people from the world. Over yonder, his wrath is spending itself, the black clouds are letting out their floods, thunder is poured forth, and lightning is flashing, — where? Upon the head of the mighty Savior, the dying Jesus.

“The wrath must be spent somewhere; and so, in all its fury, it is manifesting itself around Christ; and yonder pilgrims, who are just caught by a few drops that skirt the terrible tempest, are those for whom that tempest is being endured by their glorious Substitute. Yonder tried and afflicted ones, scared by the lightnings, and alarmed by the; troubling of the tempest, these are the men who have a share in the substitution of Christ. I say the afflictions of God’s people are like the tricklings on the skirts of that great tempest, — they are the few drops on the margin of the storm which spent itself on Christ. These men, who in this world suffer afflictions, — righteously endure them, and patiently suffer them, for Christ’s sake, — are those who shall have no storm hereafter, — for see, the storm is gone now. All is cleared away; and, instead, the sun shines out in its glory above their heads; angels, are descending, and on angelic wings they are upward borne to a temple, and to mansions prepared for them in the presence of their Father.

“But see yonder men and women; they are dancing merrily. Though all overhead is black, not a drop of rain has fallen yet. Mark how they are marrying and giving in marriage, for not a bolt has yet been launched. Who are these? Alas! poor wretches, these are the men for whom the Judge is treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. For them he is reserving fire and brimstone, hot coals of juniper, and terrible destruction. They look askance on yonder pilgrims slightly wetted with the storm; they make a mock of yonder poor converted ones, trembling as they hear the rolling thunder. They say, ‘We hear no tempest; it is all a delusion, there is no storm.’ Ay, sinners; but the day is coming when you shall discover your mistake. You have your portion here; but believers are happier, as they are all saved for the great hereafter. You have no bands in your death; — it is that you may have the tighter bands in hell. You have few afflictions here; — it is that they may be doubled to you hereafter. You go merrily through this world, you carry the lamp of joy with you; — it is that your blackness may be the more terrible, and your darkness the more awful, when you are excluded from earthly joys, and shut up for ever in the outer darkness, where there will be weeping, and wailing, and. gnashing of teeth.

“It is pleasant to pass through a country after a storm has spent itself, — to smell the freshness of the herbs after the rain has passed away, and to note the drops after they have been turned to diamonds in the sunlight; that is the position of a Christian. He is going through a land where the storm has spent itself; or if there be a few drops, the written page of the covenant cheers him on, and tells him this is not for his destruction. But how terrible is it to witness the approach of a tempest, — to see the preparation for the storm, to mark the birds of heaven as they flutter their wings, to see the cattle as they lay their heads low in terror, to discern the face of the sky black, the sun which shineth not, and the heavens which give no light! How terrible to stand on the verge, of a horrible hurricane, — such as occurs, sometimes, in the tropics, — to know that we cannot tell how soon the wind may come in fury, tearing up trees from their roots, forcing rocks from their pedestals, and hurling down all the dwelling-places of man! And yet, sinner, this is just your position. There are no hot drops as yet fallen, but a shower of fire is coming. There are no terrible winds blowing on you, but God’s tempest shall surely come. As yet, the water-floods are dammed up by mercy, but the floodgates shall soon be opened; the bolts of God are yet in his storehouse; but, lo! judgment cometh, and how awful shall be that moment when God, robed in vengeance, shall come forth in fury! Where, where, where, O sinner, wilt thou hide thy head, or whither wilt thou flee? Oh, that the hand of Mercy may now lead thee to Christ! He is freely preached unto thee, and Thou knowest thy need of him. Believe in him, cast thyself upon him, and then the fury shall be overpast, and thou needest not dread to go into eternity, for no storm awaits thee there, but quiet, and calm, and rest, and peace forever.” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit XLVII, (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1901), p. 464-466]