a glance

Watchman Nee has been really beating me up for the past 12 hours. If I had the time or dedication, I'd type out the last two chapters of The Normal Christian Life, but I've neither.

I will share the biggest punch he landed, though.

He's in Luke 17, discussing the rapture. He points out the Lord comparing the rapture to Lot leaving Sodom, and proposes through the end of the chapter that the rapture may, in fact, be a call that each of us will chose whether or not to answer.

Luke 17:29-32//but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom ... Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife." (Emphasis mine.)

"If I mistake not, this is the one passage in the New Testament that tells of our reaction to the rapture call."

He discusses the "twinkling of an eye" as in 1 Corinthians 15, but could it be that the transformation/twinkling comes after one responds rightly to the "rapture call?"

"No, in that moment we shall discover our heart's real treasure. If it is the Lord Himself then there will be no backward look. A backward glance decides everything." (Emphasis mine - again.)

It brings the question of whether I'm ready for the Lord's return to en entirely new level, and - honestly - scares the crap (for lack of a better term) out of me. I'm digging into this, maybe Nee's interpretation is completely off. At the moment, though, I've no reason not to gasp at the idea.

"This is beautifully illustrated in the action of Peter when he recognizes the risen Lord Jesus by the lake-side. Though, with the others, he was back for the moment in his former occupation, there was now n thought of the ship... When he heard John's cry of recognition: 'It is the Lord,' we read that 'he cast himself into the sea' to go to Jesus."

Where are my eyes set? A backward glance decides everything.