Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

FRIDAY MAY 8


ALL ABOARD

READ:
1 Peter 3:9
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The Lord is...
longsuffering
toward us, not
willing that any
should perish.
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One day when I dropped my husband off at our local train station, I watched as the conductor scanned the area for stragglers. A woman with wet hair bounded from the parking lot and up into the train. Then, a man in a dark suit strode to the platform and climbed aboard. The conductor waited patiently while several more late-comers sprinted to the tracks and boarded at the last moment.

Just as the conductor was patient with people boarding the train, God patiently waits for people to come to know Him. However, someday Jesus will return and "the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat" (2 Peter 3:10). When this happens, or when our physical bodies die, it will be too late to establish a relationship with God.

"The Lord is...longsuffering toward us," Peter says, "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (v.9). If you have delayed deciding to follow Christ, there is good news__you can still commit yourself to Him. "If you declare with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (ROM 109 NIV). He is calling. Will you run in His direction? __Jennifer Benson Schuldt

** Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling calling for you and for me, see, on the
portals He's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me: "Come home."

**************************Today's Bible Reading __ 2 Peter 3:1-13***************************
1 Beloved, I now write to you... 2 that you may be
mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the
apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this firs: that
scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their
own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning of creation"....

6 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the
Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise...but
is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in
which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the
elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the
works that are in it will be burned up.

11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and
godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the
day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved,
being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Peter wrote to a persecuted and suffering
group of Christians, which is why he highlighted the faithfulness of
God. Peter wanted them to remember that the Lord would fulfill
the promise of His second coming (v. 13).