God's Timetable is Not Ours

2 Peter3:8  “ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.”

            Lord, You know how this verse alone has fed heresy within the church concerning the six days of creation.  Even great Christian scholars have fallen into the thinking that creation took 6000 years, not six days, incorporating creation and evolution.  I believe that thinking takes away from your magnitude and omnipotence!  Of course you could have chosen to create the universes, our earth and all that is in and on it in that long period of time, but You didn’t.  If You did, You would not have said six times in Genesis, “And there was evening and morning of the ___ day.”  How GREAT Thou art!

            I believe through Peter, You are trying to get us to understand that in eternity, time means nothing and You are certainly not bound by it; and because we are a slave to time, since that is all we know, we should not try to put You in our box on our “time table”.

            Dr. Don Fowler here at Liberty University (the man is fluent in seven dead languages!), teaches in his Old Testament Backgrounds class that we need to be careful as we study not to toss around the millennia in scripture like quarters.  If we who are bound by time tend to do that…how much more does time mean nothing to You the eternal God!

Our Heavens and Earth are Reserved for Fire

2 Peter3:7 “By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

            Lord, it is hard for me to wrap my mind around this.  Understanding that ungodly men will be judged and destroyed is not the hard part as we have civil laws based on Your Word that deal with that.  Your word is also filled with incidents where You judged and destroyed ungodly men.  We just went through that together.  What is hard for me too grasp is that this whole world in and on which we tiny creatures live, and for the most part is so stunningly beautiful, will be destroyed by fire!

            You have also told me that there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth.  I wonder…what will that be like?  You are so very vastly creative and loving that I cannot even begin to imagine!  Will it be like it was when You first created it, since Satan and his hordes are forever banished and sin will be no more?

Don't Ever Forget God's Promises or Power

2 Peter 3:5-6 “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was forms out of the water and with water. (Evolution) By water also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.” Emphasis is mine.

            Lord, we humans are very short sighted.  I believe most of us are like the folks in the previous verses, except for the one who believe and promote evolution because not all of us are heretics or unbelievers.  We fall into what I call “Regularity Mode”, meaning that we tend to think that what is now will always remain the same.  That indeed is very foolish thinking, but we all fall into it at times.  Our enemy does not want us to believe You so he tells us, AH, these things won’t ever happen.  Look back.  Things will stay just as they are, you don’t have to worry about anything.”   I believe that is why Noah and the prophets had such a hard time convincing others about Your impending judgments.  In Noah’s time…it had never rained so it never would.  In the prophet’s time…judgments and the Messiah have not come in all of these years, so He, and they, may never come at all.  You knew this of course.

 Then You shake us to our very core to awaken us that our thinking is flawed and You will ALWAYS keep Your Word!  You did indeed send the flood in Noah’s time, and You did indeed send the judgments on Israel, and You did indeed come as Messiah!

            Just in the last six weeks You have shown us in America that You are indeed at work and not only can, but will, shake us awake:
September 11^th remembrance You showed us that our beloved, and up to that time safe, country could indeed be attacked.
Later in September: horrible flooding of the Susquehanna River and hurricane damage in New England.
Then even here in our Virginia, an earthquake of all things!

These things happened just in our little “neck of the woods”.

            Lord, You control the elements, history, and nature.  Those who are diligent in the study of You and Your Word know that what You say is true and Your promises, whether blessing or judgment, will come to pass just as You say they will.  However; I believe You tarry in the completion of these because of Your mercy.  You want as many to come to belief and repentance as possible.

            Lord keep me diligent and alert in my study of You and blind me to falsehood and the lies of the enemy.

Scoffers and the Day of the Lord

2 Peter 3:3-4 “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

            Lord, I understand that here You are speaking of the very last days.  There have been scoffers every generation since creation.  We have scoffers in Your church today and they follow their evil desires not believing that their judgment is near.

            Lord, these verses actually made me smile this morning because they reminded me of when I was a child.  With a family of eight of us that all had to fit into a six passenger car, we didn’t take trips very often.  Even though Mom and Dad’s families lived only 2 hours away, for us that was a LONG trip.  We really did not go anywhere but school, church, the grocery store or Laundromat; so when we were told that we were going on a trip, it was a really big deal!
But the time of departure seemed to take forever to arrive (even if it was only a week away)!
After a day or so of waiting, I would wonder if I had misunderstood or if the trip had been canceled or postponed and Mom just forgot to tell me.

            You told us so many millennia ago that You would return for the “Day of the Lord”, and have not yet; so many, like small children who do not yet know  how to trust Your promise for what will happen, think that they either did not understand the promise or that You have just canceled the date and did not tell us.

            I have learned over my walk with You that when You say the word “imminent”, Your meaning is far different than mine.  I have learned that Your “imminent” may not even be in my lifetime, but I fully trust that what You have promised will indeed happen, and that obviously the “Day of the Lord” is far nearer than it was when You first told us about it.

            Help me, Lord, not to become impatient and like a child repeatedly ask, “Is it time yet?” but to simply trust and be ready when it is time.

            Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come!

Healthy Reminders in Evil Times

2 Peter 3:1-2 “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.  I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  I want you to recall the words spoken by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.”

            Lord, thank You for the beauty of the seasons.  Each one is resplendent and unique reminders that You are the creator and sustainer of our very being.  Thank You for Your written word that reminds me every day what Your thoughts are and what You command.  Thank You for putting on the heart of our Pastor to send us little “reminders” from You every week in an email to stimulate me to wholesome thinking.

            We all need reminders.  I leave notes to myself every day.  It is much easier today to spread the written Word today with all that is at our disposal.  But even with texting, cell phones, email, blogs, computers, Ebooks, electronic calendars, and even TV we still need reminders of the important, not the mundane; of God’s word, not of when to record a TV show; of the holy prophets, not what’s on Facebook.

            Lord, we Christians are under attack here in our little city of Lynchburg, and evil has crept in seemingly undetected and unchallenged right around Your Liberty University where You have sent thousands in their tender formative years to learn of You as they learn their major.

It started timidly with a tattoo and body piercing establishment right at the base of the mountain.  Then a bar was added.  In the past year or so, an “Adult” and intimate apparel store that sells pornography moved in right up the highway in Campbell County.   Then yesterday, I saw a huge billboard at the end of Chandler’s Mountain Rd. advertising that the Chip and Dale male stripteze group is coming and was urging the “ladies” to get their tickets before they ran out.

There is a large contingent on campus who see no evil in the new wave of fictional witchcraft offerings and the fascination again with werewolves and Zombies.  In fact there was a zombie walk downtown this weekend!  We have Wiccans in town and a ghoulish Halloween store right across the street from the grade and high school and university.

            Lord, Your people need a guard over their hearts and minds that only You can provide.  Lord, You have commanded that we are to be in the world and not of it.  We, I, need to be diligent in my study, and also in my prayer life for this town and Your people.  We need revival in Lynchburg!

A Dog Returns to its Vomit Yuck!

2 Peter 2:21-22 “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred commandment that was passed on to them.  Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

            Lord, I pray for any and all who have decided to take this route in their lives.  I pray that they will turn from their wicked ways and return to the Truth!  You are so good, holy, loving, and merciful.  I have a hard time trying to understand why anyone would turn away from You after have known You!  I am certainly not placing myself above them in any way because in a moment of fleshly weakness, I might do the same thing.  Precious Lord, PLEASE do not EVER allow me to do that.

Escapees Who Willingly Return to Thier Sin Prison

2 Peter 2:20 “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end then they were at the beginning.”

            Lord, I am trying to understand and I need the Holy Spirit’s help here.  I am absolutely sure that those who have truly trusted You as Savior and Lord cannot lose their salvation because it does not depend on us and our works, but on You and Your work for us on the cross.  It is Your gift of grace. 

            This morning I looked in the Lexicon to see what word for “knowing” was used and what it meant.

  The word used here means “full knowledge”.  I have two thoughts:

1)      These that Your Word are talking about are ones who have studied, been taught, and maybe even have taught the Word themselves but have never “trusted” You for the salvation You so freely offer.  These might be people who may have grown up in an apostate or “liberal” church and have heard and believed a tainted gospel (You must have works or maybe “special visits from the Spirit” to be saved).  Then for some reason they fall into the temptations of the evil one or they are drawn away by their own lusts and “leave the faith” and maybe take many with them because of their example.

2)      Or You are speaking of those who are truly saved, but fall away.  These are folks who, for all they show outwardly, appear to know and love You.  Then something happens in the church or maybe disaster strikes their life and they let that situation and Satan drive them away.  They allow themselves to be casualties because of pride or their own legalistic views.  One might still live a moral life, another falls into worse sin than before they were saved.  Both lead others away from the faith instead of to You.  They are still saved and will be with You in Heaven because of Your work for them, but one might die the “sin unto death”.

            Unfortunately, the televangelists and Pastors and their families are Satan’s prime targets, and I have seen them fall and cause others to leave the faith or to never trust You because of their example.  This happens in good sound churches all over the world.

            Lord, I never want to be led astray.  Keep me ever close to You, my Shepherd, not for works of righteousness that I have done, but simply because of Your grace and mercy.