June 27
"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," II Peter 3:9.
Scoffers abound in our age. And it isn’t just the idea of Christ coming back that they ridicule. Yes, indeed the words of II Peter 3:4 still cross the lips of unbelievers who say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.”
People are wont to disbelieve the veracity of Jesus’ soon return because He hasn’t come back yet—much in the same way that none of us can fathom death because we haven’t died.
And that is a truism that is fair to factor in here. Just as those of us who are poor cannot imagine living in the lap of luxury, and horror of horrors, those who are rich cannot fathom life without the trappings of their wealth, neither can we conceptualize the Lord’s return, for it simply isn’t part of our background.
The reality is that the focus of most people is what they can see, taste, hear, feel, smell. If it cannot be perceived with our senses, if it is not already part of our personal physical or emotional experience, we’re inclined to put it totally out of our thoughts.
So we doubt the Second Coming of Christ will ever occur.
And not only do we disbelieve the fact stated in Acts 1:11, “You men of Galilee! Why do you stand gazing into the air? Don’t you know that this same Jesus who is taken from you will come again in like manner as you have seen Him go!” Many of us also negate the entire concept of a Holy God whose LIVING WORD, JESUS, is “yea and amen” forever (see II Corinthians 1:20).
We indeed live in the age prophesied in Isaiah 5:20 where men will “call good evil and evil good.” We needn’t look far to see evidence of that convoluted perception in every-day life.
From the demonic machinations of terrorists who do their god a favor by slaughtering innocent people to the lawmakers who turn God’s immutable truth on its head with their abhorrent legislation, we are seeing the fulfillment of Proverbs 29:2 which says, “When the righteous govern, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
As our groaning persists and intensifies, may we be mindful of the truth of Romans 8:22-23, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Yes, He will come for us—whether individually when the Death Angels comes to embrace us in his arms and take us to the feet of Jesus or collectively when the trumpet of the Archangel sounds and Jesus comes again to gather all people of faith to His home in glory—He will keep His promise, for His word cannot fail and cannot lie. As Titus 1:2 assures us, God’s word has been true from Eternity. His word shall never fail.
He states emphatically in Isaiah 55:11, “My word that goes forth out of My mouth, shall not return to Me void but shall accomplish that which I please and shall prosper in the thing to which I send it.”
Jesus desires that all men be saved. His seeming delay in returning is to give all who will embrace His Truth the opportunity to be among the redeemed before that great day of His return.
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