By Way of Reminder

Daily Reading: 2 Peter 3

I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. (2 Peter 3.1)

Devotional Thought: Perhaps today, you need a reminder, just as did the Church when Peter wrote to them about the end of days when the world will be consumed by fire.

[Scoffers] will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." (2 Peter 3.4, NIV)

What scoffers proclaim, in their twisted logic, is that since the world never has ended before and so much time has passed without change, that it could not possibly end now.  Do we fall into a similar trap - comfortable with the passage of time and delay of judgment?

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 3.9, NIV)

God is taking his time because he wants all his children to repent and be saved.  Do we twist that act of love into a pathetic excuse to live carelessly?

His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the

other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3.16, NIV)

All you must do is read the paper or watch the news to see how God's Word is being manipulated and perverted to justify the present-day scoffers.  Are we reading the Word of God for ourselves in order to recognize these distortions?

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2 Peter 3.18)

Mark Bryson

Prayer: Stir up my heart, O God, that I might remain faithful until the coming of the Lord.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 65.9-13

9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.

10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.

11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.

12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,

13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.