2 Peter 3 – The End of Time: Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.

2 Peter 3:1-2

Transcript

Good morning. As you head into this day, let’s turn our minds to God.

You know, God is there.

He’s right there with you as you’re listening right now, and he wants to speak to you. This is one of the beautiful truths of Christianity. The God of this universe wants to speak to you personally. He doesn’t want to just sit on his throne and blast out proclamations that everyone has to respond to and obey. He really wants a living personal relationship with you, and that means day to day, your best friend. He wants to be the person you turn to when things are going bad and you need to share it.

When you’re in a hopeless situation and your pressure cooker is about to explode and you’ve got to unload with someone, God wants to be that someone. He wants to be that person who is so close in your life that you talk to him all the time and he talks to you all the time. That’s why we open the Bible every morning at this time.

And just say, God, what do you have to say to me? Not because we want to have answers for a theology quiz, no, because we want to interact with the most important person in our lives, and that is God as we relate to Him.

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Well, this week we’re looking at the book of 2 Peter chapter 3 in the Bible.

And this chapter is all about Christ’s return and how He’s going to wrap up this whole universe and make things right, all the injustices, all the things that are wrong, and it seems like people have gotten away with this or that or treated people unfairly. No one gets away with anything because God is involved, and there will be a day of accountability for this universe.

To some people it seems like it’s never coming. That’s what Peter says in this chapter. People say, Where’s the promise of Jesus’ return? Everything’s just keeping on going just like it always has. Is God really involved?

And Peter says, Oh, don’t forget, God did already destroy this world once with a flood, and He’s going to destroy it again with fire, but he’s waiting. He’s not being slow about his promise to return. Rather, he’s being patient, allowing more and more people to turn their lives around and turn to Jesus and invite God to become the centre of their lives and to forgive them, make them a part of His family. That’s exactly what he wants to do.

Peter goes on and says –

But the day of the Lord, this day when He does bring everything to an end and hold us accountable, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. That is, when you’re not ready, when you’re not expecting it, he’s going to come, 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.

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

But according to his promise, we’re waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Here is this loving God who loves us so much, and we look at all the evil in the world and we say, God, why don’t you do something about it? Why don’t you end it all? And he says, Well, I will, but once that happens, there’ll be no more chance for anyone to turn to me, and I’m waiting to give them a chance. But don’t let that make you think – I’m not going to end it all one day. There will be that day of accountability, that day of judgement. This whole universe will be destroyed, and I’m going to make it new.

Live in light of that reality.

I’m John North.

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