Thursday, November
08, 2012, 5:46 a.m. – the Lord woke me with the song “Seek the Lord” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant
is listening. I read 2 Peter 3 (NIV
1984):
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 in
the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior
through your apostles.
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.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the
heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these
waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 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.
But do not forget this
one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as
some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the
Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the
elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be
laid bare.
Since everything will
be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to
live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its
coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and
the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are
looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
So then, dear friends,
since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless,
blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means
salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that
God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of
these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand,
which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to
their own destruction.
Therefore, dear
friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be
carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him
be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Wholesome Thinking
I have a tendency to repeat myself, which can be annoying
sometimes to other people who heard me the first time, but I’m in good company.
J
Have you ever noticed how repetitive the writers of scripture were? Sometimes
they did this for emphasis and other times they did it to remind the people in
order to “stimulate you to wholesome thinking,” or perhaps because, as humans,
we have a tendency to be forgetful or to fall back into old habits. I mean, why
read scripture over and over again? - Because we need those reminders!
Sometimes we forget the goodness of God, or his promises, or even his warnings
to us.
The purpose of the reminders was to stimulate them (and us)
to wholesome thinking. To stimulate someone means to arouse, excite, inspire,
encourage and/or to motivate him toward some kind of thought, attitudes and/or
behavior. “Wholesome” carries with it the concept of it being healthy,
nourishing, sensible, honest, practical, helpful, decent and moral. So, the
purpose of Peter’s letters was to inspire and motivate his listeners (readers)
toward thinking (attitudes and behavior included) that was/is sensible, true to
God and to his word, practical and applicable to their daily lives, and that
led them to live holy and godly lives. It was a wake-up call, basically, to get
them moving in the right direction.
Scoffers Will Come
The first thing Peter wanted the people to understand is
that in the last days, which began with the life and ministry of Jesus, and
will be culminated at his return, scoffers will come, scoffing and following
their own evil desires. A scoffer is one who mocks, ridicules, derides, makes
fun of, and/or laughs at what he or she doesn’t understand. Scoffers don’t have
the mind of the Spirit of God, and so the things of God all seem so foolish to
them. Yet, the Lord reminded me of a phrase in A. B. Simpson’s hymn, “The
Regions Beyond,” which says:
To the hardest of
places He calls me to go,
Never thinking of comfort or ease;
The world may pronounce me a dreamer, a fool,
Enough if the Master I please.
Amen! And, that is the encouragement here!! Although
scoffers will come, most certainly, and they will indeed mock and ridicule the
things of God, which they don’t understand, which means they may mock us, too, we
can stand upon the word of God and what we know to be true, and upon the Rock
of our salvation, who is our stronghold in times of trouble and distress, and
we don’t ever have to fear man or his opinions of us.
Peter said these mockers deliberately forgot that God, by
his word, created the heavens and the earth, and that he formed the earth out
of water, and that he later destroyed the world of that time by water in the
days of Noah. And he said that by that same word the present heavens and earth
are reserved for the fires of judgment on the earth and on ungodly people. So,
why did they deliberately forget? – Because then they would have no grounds for
their argument that God’s slowness meant his word didn’t mean anything. Many
people today “deliberately” forget what is taught in God’s word, too, because
it doesn’t fit with their theology or lifestyles. That is one of the dangers of
topical Bible studies, because we can pick and choose the verses we want to fit
with what we want it to say and/or believe. We have to guard against ignoring
those scriptures we don’t like, but rather take time to learn what they are
saying by comparing scripture with scripture and reading them in context.
Not Slow!
These mockers made fun of the prophecies of scripture
concerning the last days and the return of Jesus Christ. Since it didn’t happen
in a short period of time, they decided it was not true, and that it wasn’t
going to happen at all. Yet, God doesn’t work on our timetable or in the way we
think he should work. His slowness in fulfilling his promises (and/or his threats/warnings)
is not an indicator that what he said has no validity to it. We, especially,
live in such an “instant” society where we want everything fast – microwave meals,
fast-food drive-thru restaurants (and gospel), high-speed internet access,
power tools, the latest in technological discoveries, etc. – that we have a
tendency to want our gospel of salvation and the promises of God, as well as
our answers to prayer all neatly delivered in high-speed fashion, and yet our
salvation will not be completed until Christ returns, and God doesn’t work on
our timetable in answering prayer requests and/or in fulfilling his promises,
either.
God is slow, as we think of slowness, for a very good reason.
“He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance.” Amen! That is a REALLY GOOD REASON! Yet, there is something here I
don’t want us to miss. Many today are teaching a gospel absent of repentance
and obedience to Christ and his word, and many of them do this on purpose, i.e.
they are deliberately “forgetting” (passing by) some of God’s word in order to
follow their own way of thinking and reasoning. They want “gospel-lite” because
it will attract more people and will gain more followers. Yet, what they are
following is not the true gospel. Jesus said that if anyone wants to come after
him, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and
self) and follow (obey) him, and Ephesians 4:17-24 gives us the same picture of
what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. God is not willing that any should
perish (die in their sins), but that all should come to repentance (salvation;
faith; obedience). We can’t have salvation absent of repentance.
What kind of People?
Ok, so this begs a response from us. If we believe God and
his word, and we believe that one day Jesus is going to return to earth to
gather his elect (his followers), and that he will judge the earth and its
wicked people, and this day could be soon or far away, how should that
knowledge affect the way we live our lives? For those who believe in
gospel-lite, it is not a matter of concern. They prayed the prayer, they have
their ticket to heaven, and so they think they can just sit back and take it
easy and enjoy life. Or, do they? Or, can they? If we believe the true gospel,
it teaches us that we must turn from our sins, we must be transformed into new
creatures (not cleaned up old creatures), and that we must put on our new self,
“created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness.” It teaches us
that we must die to self and sin if we want to live with God for eternity. And,
it teaches us that we know that we have come to know God if we obey his
commands.
So, what does this mean to us? It means, for one, that none
of us knows how much time is left on the face of this earth as we now know it.
We are not here to please ourselves, but to please the one who called us. Many
are dying in their sins and are headed straight to hell because they have not
yet heard the good news of the gospel (freedom from slavery to sin), or because
they have believed a false gospel absent of repentance and obedience to Christ,
or because they have heard and have just refused to believe. We have a
responsibility before Almighty God to give out that gospel of Christ to
whomever and wherever God places us or sends us. The important thing is that we
are deliberate in sharing the gospel, we are willing and ready to go and to
make disciples of all nations, and that we are obedient in going and sharing
when God says “Go!”
It also means that we are here for a purpose, and we need to
be about living for that purpose while there is still time. That purpose is
that we live holy and godly lives as we look forward to our Lord’s return and
speed its coming. We speed its coming by spreading the good news of the gospel
of Jesus Christ to the regions beyond where they have not yet heard the gospel
(see Matt. 24:14). We also share the gospel by our lifestyles. Are we living
what we say we believe? Does Jesus truly have our all? Are we making a
difference in people’s lives for eternity or for just the time on this earth?
Be Vigilant
To be on your guard means to be vigilant and is “marked by
keen caution and watchful prudence” (see: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/on+guard).
We need to guard against false teachers and false teaching who or which would
lead us away from the true gospel of our salvation and which would give us a
false hope of eternity with God. We need to not buy into the gospel-lite
teaching that has so permeated our churches in America today. And, we need to
not forget what the word of God teaches concerning our salvation.
As believers in and followers of Jesus Christ we are secure
and we have our hope of eternal life in heaven with God. Yet, the scriptures
teach that we must endure to the end if we will inherit what has been promised.
Salvation is not a one-time event and then we go to heaven. We are saved, we
are being saved and we will be saved when Christ returns. Let us not fall into
the error of godless men and become slothful about our relationship with Jesus
Christ, but let us continue in him, growing in his grace and our knowledge of
him, so that when he returns we will hear, “Well done thou good and faithful
servant.”
Seek
the Lord / An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off
Isaiah 55
“Come
to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen
to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And
your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give
ear to Me, and you will live.
I
have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash
in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek
the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let
the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let
him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely,
God pardons him.
“For
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor
are your ways My ways,”
declares
the Lord, our God.
“My
word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It
will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My
word will accomplish all that I desire,
And
achieve the goal I intend.
You
will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The
mountains will burst into song… before you,
And
all of the trees clap their hands.”
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