"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;  that where I am, there ye may be also."  John 14:3

Imagine the Bible with no prophecies in it.  Suppose God had decided not to tell us anything about His future purposes for the Church, the nation of Israel, and the world.  Imagine if we were not told about the ultimate victory over evil, and our future home in heaven and eternity.  If God had left prophecies out of His Word, we would have no idea of what the future holds.  Instead, all we would know is that the world we live in is descending deeper and deeper into darkness, evil, and hopelessness.

Because God chose to provide us with glimpses of the glorious future that awaits us, we can live with hope.  And when Jesus returns for His Church (all of His followers from the establishment of the church in Acts 2 to the day He comes in the clouds), when the Church is caught away, an archangel will announce this event, and a trumpet of God will sound.  All the believers who died in the Lord and the living believers will experience a transformation and receive new bodies and be taken to heaven.

First Corinthians 15:51-52 says, "Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."

As followers of Jesus, we have this hope.  And John tells us in his first letter, (1 John 3:3),  "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."  God calls us to live righteously, share the gospel, make disciples, and love others.  As we await Jesus' return for the Church, let us glorify God by living transformed lives (1 Corinthians 10:31).