Sunday 26 October, 2014

3 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders. I want to stir you up to think in a way that is pure. 2 I want you to remember the words the holy prophets spoke in the past. Remember the command our Lord and Savior gave through your apostles. 3 First of all, here is what you must understand. In the last days people will make fun of the truth. They will laugh at it. They will follow their own evil longings. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘return’ he promised? Everything goes on in the same way it has since our people of long ago died. In fact, it has continued that way since God first created everything.” 5 Long ago, God’s word brought the heavens into being. His word separated the earth from the waters. And the waters surrounded it. But those people forget things like that on purpose. 6 The waters also flooded the world of that time. It was destroyed. 7 By God’s word the heavens and earth of today are being reserved for fire. They are being kept for the day when God will judge. Then ungodly people will be destroyed.

Before Jesus left this earth, He made this great promise; “I will come again.”

Scoffers love to make fun of God’s word. God’s promises are just fuel for another joke. They make light of God’s coming judgment, because to acknowledge the truth of it would mean that they would have to change their lifestyles.

Remember the people in Noah’s day, the people of Sodom, and the people in our day. Some love their sin too much to turn their lives over to Christ. Scoffers say they can look back over the few years of their memories and conclude that He hasn’t returned, therefore there is no reason to believe He will, but the Bible says something very different.

We must stand firm and believe that God is not slow to fulfil His promises and some count slowness.

God’s relation to time is very different from our own. For Him, a day is like a thousand years and vice versa. This can be hard to comprehend, but what seems a long time for us is not really long at all for God.

God does not lie, and we must not doubt His promises. From the perspective of God’s relation to time, the return of Jesus is always imminent, and it is His perspective we must take.

I do not know when Jesus will return, however, I am convinced that in the light of eternity, Jesus could return at any moment. Am I ready for when Jesus comes again? Knowing that God relates to time differently than I do helps me to remember that He always acts at the proper time.

Lord, help me not to grow impatient I am waiting for answer prayer. Help me not to get frustrated when I think You move too slowly. Amen

Written by Cathy Croft