Morning and welcome back to another episode of My Mornings with Jesus and Joe. I’m Lori.

And I’m Joe.

And this is the first episode of 2026. Doesn’t that sound crazy? It does sound crazy. I don’t know where the time’s going.

As you get older, time seems to go faster while you’re going slower, and so we’re wondering what the dynamic with that is.

There’s gotta be something to it. I’m going slow. Time should go slow too. Yeah, it doesn’t work that way. Maybe you’re going so slow time’s just speeding by you. That could be, everything’s speeding by me. Pass by a sloth. I don’t know. Oh gosh. Christmas was great. We had a lot of blessings at Christmas, and now we’re headed into the new year.

We don’t do the things like set New Year’s resolutions or any of that. We don’t pick a word for the year, although God has had me really focused on the word dros, remove theros from the silver and the. There’ll be a vessel for the silversmith to work with. Yeah. And so that’s been a word I’m trying to think about theros in my life and removing that so that I could be that vessel.

That’s a good idea. It is a good idea. That’s not a bad plan that helps a whole lot of things. Getting rid of Theros else.

But part of the, I don’t know, fun or anxiety, I don’t know, when you’re looking at a new year, is you don’t know what’s coming. You really don’t, you try to prepare for it, you try to, make your plans and all that. But you just don’t know. Yeah, there’s a lot of, you can figure out some of the big pieces.

And then all the little stuff that gets filled in along the way when you’re walking with God. ’cause he’ll put stuff in there. Even the big pieces can get Yeah. You don’t know. Don’t know. That’s be grateful for every day. Don’t say tomorrow I will go here and do that, or whatever.

Yeah, so we got to spend a lot of time with our grandsons over the holidays, which is always a delight. Always educational, always eventful. I was definitely moving slow after they went home. My goodness. I think I was one with the couch for a little while. Yeah. But one really funny memory we had was on Christmas Eve, we were over at my parents’ house and they have a place out in the country and their house sits up on a little, little hill, a little rise, and they have this half fence around their patio. And so most everybody could see over the fence and look out across there. But my two and a half year old grandson could not see over. So he got his pops Joe here to pick him up and hold him up on top of the fence. And he did the most hilarious thing.

He got serious. Frowned. Wrinkled his eyes up squinted a little, and just scanned. Scanned from left to right across the horizon. And Joe asked him, what do you see? And he said, I don’t know. And he went right back to doing it again. It was hilarious. I don’t know what he was looking for.

I don’t know. But isn’t that an image of us? Looking into a new year. Oh, yeah. Or how we should be. We’re looking, we’re scanning. We don’t know what we’re gonna see, but we’re ready for it when it comes. Exactly. That’s it. That’s a good way to be for the second coming too. Yes. We should be scanning and looking and just actively looking.

Yes. That little guy was when I was holding him up there on the fence. It was hilarious. So Titus two 13 tells us Yes. What to be looking for. Yeah. It says, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus. Is that not awesome? The blessed hope. That’s so exciting.

And that blessed hope isn’t that baby in the manger We’ve had that He came right. He’s cute. Everybody loves baby. Yep. But our baby grew up. Yes. Yeah. And we just walked through the celebration of the first coming of Jesus and that’s been great. Been exciting. But a lot of people get excited about that, but they don’t seem to get as excited about the second coming.

But it shouldn’t be overlooked because it’s important and it’s the next part. We should be looking forward to minute by minute day by day it, it’s what happens next. Yes. And we should be just eagerly waiting and anticipating the second coming. And it’s now the second coming in. The same as the rapture, right?

Correct. Yeah. So the first part of that verse, a lot of things are said that the blessed hope is the rapture, which that’ll come first. The rapture of the church and, with that. Jesus, but Jesus. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. Jesus meets us in the clouds. And so it’s not a coming, the second coming is after the tribulation and Jesus comes all the way back to the earth and we are with him.

We’re behind him. Right behind him. Yes. Thank you. Don’t be in front of him then. No. ’cause he came the first time as the baby and humble and doing all that. This next time he comes, he’s the judge and he is. He’s meaning business at that point. So we definitely wanna be behind him and not facing him. And so that’s a difference.

And some people get it confused. They think when the rapture happens and he comes in the clouds, that’s the second coming. But that’s not it yet. So what’s the verse in Revelation? It’s Revelation 1911 through 16. And then I saw Heaven opened. And behold, the white horse, the one sitting on it, was called Faithful and true.

And in righteousness he judge, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many die dems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood. And the na and the name by which he is called is the word of God. Which sounds familiar.

The, yeah, the in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. And the word was God. John one. One. There you go. I like that. Yep. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure. Were following on white horses. That’s us. The church, the bride. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a WR of iron.

He will tread the wine press of the fury, of the wrath of God the Almighty, and on his robe and on his thigh, he will have name written, king of King, king of kings, and Lord of Lords. That is so powerful and so awesome. And that ought to excite everybody. Yeah. Because when you’re living for the Lord, when you’ve given your life to him, you are not facing him.

When he comes back with his wrath, you are behind him, safe and secure behind him. Thank goodness. So why do you think some people don’t get excited about that, Joe? The unknown of what that might really look like. And there’s things that are, there’s a lot of people that are passively waiting, like they got their fire insurance card and they’re good just sitting in.

Waiting on Jesus to come instead of actively waiting by sharing the gospel and helping other souls join us in the eternity with Jesus. And we’re to be actively waiting and not just passive.

You were sharing with me an analogy or a comparison the other day that kind of fit that yeah. Talking about the fishing one? Yes. Okay. Yeah it’s just a comparison of looking at bait and bobber fishing compared to fly fishing and, if you’ve ever done either of those or if you’ve done both of those, you know there’s a big difference in the two.

Even if you hadn’t done ’em, you’ve probably seen or watched enough to understand what, where this comparison is. So when you put a worm or some other type of bait on a line with a bobber, you toss it out there and you just passively waiting on the fish to bite. ’cause you’re just sitting there watching your bobber and hoping it’ll get pulled down so then you can get a fish.

But. Either way, you’re just passively waiting. And some people will do that and they’ll just lean back and maybe even take a little nap or just lay there and just watch. And so it’s a passive way of waiting. But when you fly fish, it’s an active way to fish. There’s not much sitting around and waiting when you use this method because when you cast your fly out on the water and you’re watching it drift on the ripples in the stream or the river or wherever you’re fishing, where there’s water moving.

You’re watching it and you’re watching it really closely, and that’s how we should be watching. For the second coming. We should be actively watching and watching it closely, and then what you’re doing is you’re seeing it. Go up and down on those ripples and it’s moving the whole time, and so your eyes are moving right along with it and following it.

You don’t look away because all of a sudden the fish will bite on that. And so you wanna set the hook to catch the fish. And so you’re actively waiting and watching and thinking, ah, here it comes. Here it comes. Here it comes. And so you’re watching and waiting. And so that’s how we should be for the second coming.

I just super excited watching, watching closely, paying attention to the surroundings and what’s going on. All right, so we don’t wanna be passive. We wanna be actively waiting. Yes, but people still have some. Hesitancy. Yeah. That can hold them back from actually be and actually being anticipating.

That, yeah. And so some of ’em claim they have things to do before Jesus comes back. Like I’ve heard things about, oh, I want to get married. First, or I want to have a baby first, or I want to graduate college and get my career going, and just, I wanna get a house. We’re not trying to shame anybody on that.

No. We’ve been there. Oh yeah. That’s not abnormal for young people to want that. For anybody to want that until they get to the point where they have a good, solid grasp of god’s that blessed hope, that eternity with God. So there’s no shame in that. No. But it is a spot you have to move past, right?

You have to get the bigger picture in mind to really grasp the importance of it and the excitement that comes. The importance of it. And there’s also quite a few people that have this or that to do. They say, whether it’s places they wanna go, things they wanna see. Yeah. A lot of times you hear people talk about their bucket list, quote unquote bucket list.

And as a follower, Christ, we don’t have a bucket list. We’re gonna get to see and do everything we were meant to do. And there’s some people that are confused by that too, and they think if I don’t get that done now, I won’t get a chance later. And you’re gonna tell us about that verse later where it says God’s not making new things for us.

Yeah. So yeah, we’ll talk about that in a little bit. There may be some people that as we’re talking, they’re still harboring, unforgiveness and they might need to repent about some things. And so that needs to take place first. And what they need to do is just go ahead and deal with that and get that taken care of and be ready for the second coming and not putting that off thinking that’s just hard.

I don’t know if I can do that. It’s just hard stuff. And we talk about following Christ. There’s hard things that are gonna happen there. There’s some awesome things, but there are some hard things, but that’s part of following Christ and we gotta do the hard stuff. Doing the hard stuff is often maybe my analogy, ripping the bandaid off. Yes, it’s gonna hurt really bad, but for a very short time. That’s right. But if you just leave it on there, then it’s gonna be a source of aggravation and annoyance. And it may even prevent the wound from healing Yeah. To leave it there. Yeah. So rip the bandaid off.

Yeah. Rip the bandaid off and go ahead and repent for whatever sins it is that’s holding you back. And if there’s somebody you need to forgive. Get that taken care of. That’s that forgiveness unforgiveness that you walk around in and has just got you in a bind. And it comes between you and God and that communication and that oneness and union with him.

And so you need to deal with that as quick as possible. Then the other thing, I guess really the fourth thing that kind of goes in with that list is you end up with people, loved ones that don’t know Jesus. And you and I have dealt with that. We know some, we, everybody knows somebody that hadn’t come to Christ yet, whether it’s a family member or a close friend, whatever, a loved one.

There’s a lot of that out there. And so we don’t want. Them to miss out on the freedom and the joy and the blessed hope that we’re gonna have following Christ. And so that’s another thing that holds a lot of people back. But the Bible also tells us we don’t save people. Correct. We plant the seeds. God brings about the harvest. Yep. And so that’s our part in this is our heart for them, is to have their souls with Jesus. And we’re not, we don’t determine the outcomes. God determines the outcomes, but what we do is walk in obedience and plant those seeds so they have that opportunity.

’cause Jesus is wooing them to himself in scriptures. It talks about that. And so he just uses us along the way to give him that gentle nudge, the right direction, point him to Jesus and then Jesus is gonna do. Do the rest of that. I like, a lot of times you’ll say, when we’re saved, we become a part of the rescue team.

Yes, we are part of the re we’ve been rescued, so we become part of the rescue team and so that’s where we’re at. I like, it gives me the analogy of a water rescue where the rescuer is there and he throws out the life. Thingy preserver, life preserver. Yeah. He can’t make that person take hold of that.

That’s right. And that’s how it is with us. And spreading those, the gospel out there. Yeah. To loved ones. We can’t make them take hold. But I will tell you this, God loves them and he wants that. None should perish. So if they can be saved, he will be. He will save them. And that’s why he didn’t come back already is he wants none to perish.

There’s gonna be some that reject and rebel and never want to be a follower of Christ, but hell is a choice Yes. That we make. Yeah. God doesn’t send us there. We choose that over him. Yep. Over eternity with him. Yep. And so it’s our obedience in sharing the gospel with others is what we’re after because there are gonna be some people that they’re hesitant to get excited about.

The second coming because they do have those loved ones that are in that spot of, they haven’t joined yet, so let’s just say it right now. This year. Be bold. Exactly. Get out there and throw, sling out those seeds of the gospel message to those loved ones. Just keep throwing ’em at ’em and yeah. Trust in the Lord, pray in exactly all those things, but let this year be the year you’re bold in that. Yep. And not just let it be something you wish for. Yeah. No, don’t put it on a wish list. Put it on a pray to be bold and share the gospel. And like Romans one 16 says, or Paul’s talking about, don’t be ashamed of the gospel and just boldly let that work pushing back darkness.

Advancing the kingdom, but bringing those loved ones in with you. It’s just a awesome thing to do and it’s necessary when we’re actively waiting and actively hopeful and. In doing this, we should always be looking up, just anticipating any minute now just looking up, praising the Lord, praising God, and just asking for that boldness and the desire to continue to go share the gospel with others.

And we just need to be telling everybody about eternal life of Jesus. So you’re telling us where our focus should be for the second coming. Yes. So yeah, we should be, there’s a lot of people that the world teaches you to it. It lure you into the things of the world and what the world calls success and all that.

So there’s a lot of people that are. Still held, holding onto the earthly things and got a pretty tight grip on it. And really and truly, the worldly things have a tight grip on the people. Yeah. And so it’s, you can look at it either way. There’s a tight grip, but it’s not on the right things. And so you need to just open your hand and release the things of this world and latch on to the heavenly things.

And that’s where our focus should be. And when you’re focused on the heavenly things you’re, you start seeing the big picture and all of a sudden it gets much more exciting about the second coming because

the second coming gets so much more exciting because you really see. The potential that’s there and the blessed hope and that’s what all this is geared towards is man to have hope, to not be trapped in the brokenness of this world and the brokenness of the humans around us. The brokenness of everything since the fall.

So what would you encourage people to ask themselves right now? I’d say over the next few weeks, starting out the new year gives yourself something to think about just what or who is holding you back from being excited about the second coming of Jesus. If you really, seriously think about that, and like scriptures talks about, I know in Corinthians there’s, it’s talking about examine your heart, examine yourself, and see where you are with that.

Because if you’re not excited about the second coming, there’s. One of those things we mentioned earlier may be what’s holding you back and you need to figure that out sooner rather than later so that you can be moving forward and be moving forward with a big smile for the hope that’s to come.

You don’t honor spend, you don’t want to spend however long you have left here dreading. The second coming, you wanna be looking forward to it. Oh, exactly. So if you’re not there there’s something that you need to do. Something that you need to understand, you need to learn about. Maybe it’s just that you need to let go and have that faith in God.

There’s a book that you read recently. Oh, yeah. Heaven. Yeah. By Randy Alcorn. It is an excellent book and it will give you the best picture of what’s to come Yeah. Of anything out there. And so when you do that, it also helps for some of that’s the unknown because as you read through scriptures.

But just pray and have the Holy Spirit reveal the scriptures to you to help you understand and help your excitement in that. Because man, this is something that we should be super, super excited about and I still run into quite a few people that aren’t, but I run into quite a few that are. And I can sit here and list a whole handful of ’em that are super excited about it.

But it’s okay to say to God, I don’t understand this. Exactly. I feel fearful of this, Lord, help me overcome that because god didn’t give us a spirit of fear. Nope. So he didn’t want you walking in that. Yep. Second Timothy one seven will tell you real clear about that. That’s not.

In our DNA, that’s not how we’re supposed to be and how we’re supposed to walk. So ultimately after the second coming what is it that we can be most excited about? Oh goodness. Yes. Revelation 21, 5. It’s a beautiful verse. And the wording is important. It says, and he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I’m making all things new.

Also, he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. All things new. Not all new things. Exactly. It is the world you love made new. How awesome is that made pure, all the broken things and all the brokenness. As beautiful as this world is, there’s so many beautiful things here, but there’s still a lot of brokenness and a lot of things that have come.

Since the fall and the brokenness of the world, there’s broken people, but then you have all the tornadoes and the floods and the storms and the earthquakes and the volcanoes are up. Just so many things that are disease, illness, pesticides just, cells that are smog broken. Can you imagine what the sky’s gonna look like when it has no smog in it?

Yeah, it’s gonna be beautiful. Yeah. So it’s just gonna be. Yeah. All new things. All things new. Sorry, that’s a hard, you gotta really gotta pay attention to that. Yeah. Yeah. All things, that’s gonna be wonderful. It’s gonna be wonderful. And all is Hebrew for all is all things. So every bit of it is made new and how awesome is that because.

That should get you excited to just know we personally, our body, our soul, our spirit, all the things that we have, aches, pains, ailments, all that’s made new and Jesus shows us in the gospels with all the miracles and signs, a foreshadowing of all this coming. So the beauty of it is like all the restoration of all things is like the lame walk, the blind sea, the deaf here, the mute talk.

It’s just all those things. He’s just showing us what is coming and if that, that should excite you so much.

I think that maybe a good way to start 2026. On looking forward to all things being made new. So start with yourself. Because you are a new creation in Christ. We are. So start with that. Look forward to that second coming. Yes. And live a bull life. Yes. And wish doing that.

You’re gonna have a blessed new year. Absolutely. And we wish you each a blessed a happy New Year. New year. Yes. Yes. Now this isn’t the end, but it’s the end for now. See you next time. On another My Mornings with Jesus and Joe.