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We are not there yet, but it is coming soon

I have shared before this familiar question, "Are we there yet?". Every parent and child should remember it. It runs in our human nature. We are impatient to see things happen. I like what Peter says.

2 Peter 3:8-9
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. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Do we have the same patience with people as God? But truth be told. When the whole world has had the privilege of having the gospel of Jesus Christ demonstrated and presented to them, the end will come.  Peter urges restraint and being reminded to know and follow Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3:17-18
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

No other person can claim the claims Jesus made. No other person saw the fulfillment of historical events like Jesus did. Much deviation started in the first century of the Christian church thereby prompting Peter to say this.

2 Peter 3:14-16
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

Peter mentions Paul who, unlike Peter, had been schooled in the scriptures under the best teachers.  Paul was a Pharisee when he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.  People try to soften things that are difficult to understand. The biggest one being the divinity of Jesus Christ. How can God become man. He had to because He needed to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins in the cross.

Father, such clarity of purpose and fulfillment can only come from you. Help me to proclaim it and see your soon return.

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