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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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2 Peter 3:8-13
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 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. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That Day will bring about the destruction of the Heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a New Heaven and a New Earth, the Home of Righteousness.”
The King is on His way. It’s a ‘Ring of Truth’!
The whole of Scripture is His story.
It is a window into the plans and purposes of God. It has always been God’s desire and plan to have a people set apart for Himself who will love Him and have an eternal relationship with Him and be with Him in a dynamic, joyful, sin-free and exciting environment. All throughout Scripture there has been a ‘Ring of Truth’, a picture of Paradise; a longing for evil, sickness and death to be finally dealt with and terminated forever, together with the vision of “a New Heaven and a New Earth” – a “Home of [eternal] Righteousness” and peace. (See also Isaiah 65:17-19.)
That time, Peter affirmed, will come. It may seem a long time coming, but God is in total control of time and His timing is always perfect. We always place everything within our own selfish hopes, dreams and schedule but God is above all of them and totally outside of time. The concept of “1,000 years… like a day” goes right back to Moses (see May 13). Paul reminded us that at just the right time “God sent His Son” (Galatians 4:4). In the same way – just at the right time – Christ will come again. Just at the right time, this world will pass away and there will be “a New Heaven and a New Earth.”
We measure time in periods of 24-hours and the time it takes for light to travel through space but God has no such limitations. Indeed, as someone said to me years ago, “God invented time so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” If you think about it, that is quite a profound and challenging statement. Peter was not trying to explain creation but rather trying to help us realise that our timing and God’s timing are vastly different - saying “a thousand years” in our experience could equate to just 1 day in God’s.
He followed that by another tremendous revelation – “He [God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Notice he reaffirmed that God doesn’t overlook sin – we need to repent – but He longs for us to come back into relationship with Him. He doesn’t want “anyone to perish.” That is why He appears to be slow. He has tremendous patience with us, waiting for us to admit our sin and to ask for His forgiveness.
Nevertheless, the time will come when His patience will cease. He will destroy the earth. He made it and so He has both the authority and the power to destroy it. (See also Genesis 6:5-7.) What an awesome prospect.
That is why we need to share the Good News with as many people as we can so they are saved, and also why we need to “live holy and godly lives” so that we do not perish with the rebellious.
So, let’s each of us help introduce the lost people to the God who loves them and gave His Son for them. Who is the one God has laid on your heart for this year?
Time is running out. Keep spreading the Good News.
Keep yourself pure, holy and set apart to and for God. Be ‘Sold out for Jesus’.
And above all else – keep focused. This earth is not all there is – the best is yet to come.
Download the above Ring of Truth devotion as a PDF.
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