During the Christmas Eve service, we attended this year the Pastor briefly referred to these verses as he contrasted Jesus’ birth with His return to this earth.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

! Thessalonians 4:16-18

One of the things I think about this time of the year is captured in those verses from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. For all my life, I’ve looked forward to the return of Christ and as I get older the anticipation grows stronger.

Now, your view may be Premillennial, Post-millennial, or Amillennial, but we can all agree that one day, Jesus will return and so we can all agree that we can follow the direction of verse 18 above – “encourage one another with these words.”