Toot Toot! - #2

We wrote earlier about the influence of train whistles and train horns on my spiritual life. While studying at the Moody Bible Institute from 1947-1949 I came home as often as possible to Wallace to see family, friends and my fiance Mary Kathryn Jackson. Again, riding the old Chicago & Eastern Illinois train to Danville, IL, brought the whistle-sound back to my consciousness -- i.e., while traveling to see my future bride. I would then take a bus to Hillsboro, IN, only 25 miles away and 9 miles north of Wallace, and call the folks who would then pick me up in Dad's old '37 Pontiac, veteran of WWII! Then there would be a huge cloud of dust as I drove that 6-cylinder maroon sedan down the road west of town to joyfully re-unite with my sweet little farm-gal fiance! That train whistle-sound coming home to meet HER was really music to my ears (but going back to school later became difficult for both of us). As we wrote earlier, the sound of train horns near our apartment building NOW is a reminder of the imminent return of our Heavenly Bridegroom to claim His Bride, as "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God..." (I Thess. 4:14-18). Often here we hear the sound of a freight train waiting on the siding for the Amtrak fast passenger train to whiz through. The freight signal "toot toot!" is saying "we are waiting and ready to move on the main line again!" And that recalls the rich prophetic teaching of Dr. Harry Ironside that I was privileged to hear at Moody Memorial Church "way back when" -- that the nation of Israel is like a freight-train waiting on the siding during this age while the fast passenger train is like the Church, the Bride of Christ, speeding toward the end of this age at the Rapture. As things develop in the Middle East, Israel is being prepared to move back on to the main line of prophecy once more, heading for the Tribulation and finally the glorious return of Christ to rule and reign in the Millennium. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!" and keep looking UP for our Heavenly Bridegroom!