He is Coming!

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3:7

It has been 2000 years since Jesus Christ, the Son of God, walked this earth. He came as a fulfillment of scripture. God the Father sent Jesus to reconcile sinful men and women to Himself. On the night He was prepared,  Jesus told His disciples, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to      Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3).” Jesus said He would come again, and every Christian should be looking forward to that day.

However, even the first century Christians were getting impatient. It had been over 30 years since Jesus had      ascended to Heaven, so Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote in 2 Peter that they had no reason to doubt that Jesus would return. Peter told the early Christians “that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” As mortal beings, we look at time as something that flies by, or      we never have enough of, but God is not limited to  time constraints.

Time is not an issue with God because He has an  unlimited amount of it. Someone explained it this way.     If the average person sees something in the store, it will make no difference whether it costs a penny or a dime, even though one is ten times more expensive. If a  billionaire wanted to buy a property, it might make no difference to him whether it cost $50,000 or $500,000, or even $5,000,000. This is the idea of the verse—both a day and a thousand years are such minuscule amounts   of time to God that it really makes no difference to Him.

It has been almost two millennia since Jesus told us that He was coming back, or in God’s perspective, two days. When we look at it like that, it helps us not be impatient. Christian, let us live each day as if Jesus is coming back today. May each of us eagerly await the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and as we do so, live for Him. Charles Spurgeon gave us the following wise counsel:

Oh, Beloved, let us try, every morning, to get up as if that were the morning in which Christ would come! And when we go up to bed at night, may we lie down with this thought, “Perhaps I shall be awakened by the ringing out of the silver trumpets heralding His coming. Before the sun arises, I may be startled from my dreams by the greatest of all cries, ‘The Lord is come! The Lord is come!’” What a check, what an     incentive, what a bridle, what a spur such thoughts    as these would be to us! Take this for a guide of your whole life – act as if Jesus would come during the act in which you are engaged – and if you would not wish to be caught in that act by the Coming of the Lord, let it not be your act. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark