The Delay Is Mercy

“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 PETER 3:8

 

PONDER THIS

People who scoff at the Second Coming of Jesus are ignorant of what God has done and of what God is like. God is above and beyond time, and God doesn’t wake up by an alarm clock. Second Peter 3:8 says, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

As far as God is concerned, it’s only been a few days since Jesus left this Earth. God hasn’t forgotten. The reason Jesus is not yet come is that God has kept the door of mercy open. I believe God, in mercy, is waiting on our generation to come to Jesus, but one of these days, the Day of the Lord will come, and even now the raging waters of God’s wrath are furiously pounding against the dam of His mercy. Jesus is going to come suddenly, like a thief in the night.

How does it reframe your perspective to know the delay of Jesus’ return is a sign of mercy and not neglect?

How should this encourage us to share Jesus with others?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time to thank God for His mercy. Pray and ask Him to point you to the people He wants you to share with today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

2 Peter 3:9

[9] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:10

[10] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:11-12

[11] Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, [12] waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

1 Peter 1:14-16

[14] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, [15] but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, [16] since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Shadows and Streams

May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. (Psalm 104:31–34)

God rejoices in his works of creation because they point us beyond themselves to God himself.

God means for us to be stunned and awed by his work of creation. But not for its own sake. He means for us to look at his creation and say: If the mere work of his fingers (just his fingers! Psalm 8:3) is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself!

These are but the backside of his glory, as it were, darkly seen through a glass. What will it be to see the glory of the Creator himself! Not just his works! A billion galaxies will not satisfy the human soul. God and God alone is the soul’s end.

Jonathan Edwards expressed it like this:

The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. . . . [These] are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the ocean.

This is why Psalm 104 comes to a close in verses 31–34 with a focus on God himself. “I will sing praise to my God while I have being. . . . For I rejoice in the Lord.” In the end it will not be the seas or the mountains or the canyons or the water spiders or the clouds or the great galaxies that fill our hearts to breaking with wonder and fill our mouths with eternal praise. It will be God himself.

John Piper 

The God Who Bears the Scars

“Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’” JOHN 20:27

 

PONDER THIS

I’ve spoken to some Jewish people who say, “I don’t believe in God anymore.” I say, “Why don’t you believe in God?” They say, “Because of the Holocaust. I cannot believe in a God who would allow such suffering.” I’ve seen people, when a loved one is eaten away with some malady, whether it be cancer or some other disease, say, “I just don’t want to have anything to do with God. I don’t believe in God. I can’t understand this matter of suffering.”

Here’s the way the human mind begins to think: “If God is a God of love, and He loves me so much, but He doesn’t do anything to relieve this suffering, then He must not have any power.” Or “If He has the power, but He doesn’t do it, maybe He has no love.” Or maybe they ask another question: “Maybe He doesn’t have any love. Maybe He doesn’t have any power. Maybe there is no God. If there is, why do people suffer?” Well, there’s a bigger question than that. Not why does God allow humans to suffer, but why does God allow Himself to suffer?

Have you ever thought about God as a God who suffers? Have you ever thought about God as One who has pain? How did those scars come into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ? Those nail prints? That scar into His side? Because He willingly suffered in our place. The question is not “Why is there suffering,” but “Why did God take our suffering”?

What is most difficult for you about the reality of suffering?

How are you comforted to remember that God has suffered in your place and on your behalf?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time today to worship God for paying the price for your sin and suffering in your place.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

 

1 John 1:1

[1] That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—

Luke 24:39

[39] See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

John 20:20

[20] When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

John 20:28

[28] Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

When God’s Love Is Sweetest

 

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. (Ephesians 5:25–26)

If you only hope for unconditional love from God, your hope is great, but too small.

Unconditional love from God is not the sweetest experience of his love. The sweetest experience is when his love says, “I have made you so much like my Son that I delight to see you and be with you. You are a pleasure to me, because you are so radiant with my glory.”

This sweetest experience is conditional on our transformation into the kind of people whose emotions and choices and actions please God.

Unconditional love is the source and foundation of the human transformation that makes the sweetness of conditional love possible. If God did not love us unconditionally, he would not penetrate our unattractive lives, bring us to faith, unite us to Christ, give us his Spirit, and make us progressively like Jesus.

But when he unconditionally chooses us, and sends Christ to die for us, and regenerates us, he puts in motion an unstoppable process of transformation that makes us glorious. He gives us a splendor to match his favorite kind: his own.

We see this in Ephesians 5:25–27. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [unconditional love], that he might sanctify her . . . and present the church to himself in splendor” — the condition in which he delights.

It is unspeakably wonderful that God would unconditionally set his favor on us while we are still unbelieving sinners. The ultimate reason this is wonderful is that this unconditional love brings us into the everlasting enjoyment of his glorious presence.

But the apex of that enjoyment is that we not only see his glory, but also reflect it. “The name of our Lord Jesus [will] be glorified in you, and you in him” (2 Thessalonians 1:12).

John Piper 

A Promise Mentioned 380 Times

“And saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’” 2 PETER 3:4

 

PONDER THIS

How do I know Jesus is coming again? Because I believe the Bible. The Bible has shown itself to be the Word of God, and repeatedly the Bible mentions the Second Coming of Jesus. Now the new birth is important, but a new birth is mentioned only nine times in the Bible. Baptism is important, but it’s only mentioned 20 times in the Bible. Repentance is wonderfully important—it is only mentioned 70 times in the New Testament. But the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is mentioned 380 times in the New Testament alone. In our passage, Peter said that some will ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” It’s all over the Bible. He has promised, and He cannot lie. If you take the whole Bible, one out of every twenty-five verses speak of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus has said He will return, and He won’t break that promise.

How often would you say you think about the return of Jesus compared with the amount of space the Bible gives to this truth?

What could you do to remember this truth more frequently?

PRACTICE THIS

Look up some of the passages that refer to Jesus’ return. Work to memorize one or two of these as a way of regularly reminding yourself.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers