"I awake with the anticipation each day that it may be my last. I want to experience the Rapture of the saints. I want to leave this world behind. I want to go home with my wife and children, my other family members and my friends. I want to see those who have gone on before me"

Not to be divisive, but I think it´s important that Christians realize that there is not some "different" group of unconfessed Christians that will seek God because of the rapture and then suffer through the tribulation.

Christians living today are the Christians who will suffer through the tribulation. Though we don´t know the hour or the day, we will know the season, as 1Thes. 5:4 says:

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

We who are sober will see the signs and we will be ready, but not for a rapture.

1 Thes. 4:15 reads:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

Key words here are alive and remain. The word remain is the Greek word Perileipo and it means to survive. This is what the "few" Christians who are alive will be doing; Surviving.

Also, notice the parallel in the story of Lot and Noah.

Luke 17
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
17:27
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
17:28
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
17:29
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
17:30
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.


Notice, the very day that Noah entered the ark was THE day that the flood (God´s judgment)destroyed "them all."

Also, the same day that Lot left Sodom was the exact day that God destroyed the inhabitants therein.

Likewise, verse 30 states, "thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed."

The very day that Christians are raised to meet the Lord in the air will be the very day that God´s judgment on the inhabitants of the earth takes place.

So be prepared, mentally. Don´t expect to be whisked away just in time to miss the tribulation that is going to befall us.

The disciples were not expecting an imminent return of Jesus; especially Peter. What did Jesus tell Peter in John 21:18?

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not."

He prophesied to Peter, telling him what would happen to him as an old man.

Peter was expecting old age, not the imminent return of Jesus.

So be prepared, not for the rapture, but for the suffering that must take place before we enter the kingdom of heaven.

"Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." Acts 14:22