Who Is To Come

Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 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.”  2 Peter 3:3-4

'He was' and 'He is' each have their problems for those who will not believe in the Christ. But if the past tense is easier and the present one more difficult, then the third separates the faithful from the fallen with the sword of the Word. Many in this world would rather continue on as before until somehow fallen humans achieve some sort of utopian-ageless-evolved paradise on Earth. (You may estimate for yourself how well we are doing on that!) The Revelation 1:7 tells of tribes mourning when Jesus returns (also Matt 24:30). Perhaps that will happen just after they think aging has been stopped. As for me, I think I have aged one day for each day I've been alive. (I guess that makes sense.) What the promise of our Lord's return grants to those who believe in Him is, well, the promise of His return! Like the aging thing, it just sort of makes sense to us. Since I cannot point to the hour, day, month, and year of His return, and neither can anyone else, many refuse to believe this appointment will ever arrive. And so they scoff, and may be scoffing at the moment of our Lord's return. 

Pray for those who refuse to believe, while there is still time for repentance,

Bucky

He Is

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. Hebrews 1:1-2

In the early part of the first of what would come to be known as the Anno Domini centuries, Jesus was in Galilee and Judea growing up and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. With the evidence of their eyes, the disciples of Jesus along with a great many others were quite comfortable with 'He is'. The scribes and Pharisees were somewhat less comfortable, but they did not believe in Him. Belief of course brings us to faith, and by faith we speak of Jesus of Nazareth as a 'He is' even now, about 2,000 years after he began the ministry that changed the world. While the execution by Rome of this same Jesus gave all those who refuse to believe in Him a comfortable 'He was', we by faith know of the resurrection on the third day. We do not have the evidence of our eyes yet, but from John 20:29, we have this assurance:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Bucky

He Was

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

Not many people, I think, will have a problem with the 'he was' part when speaking of the man who lived in the first century A.D. Jesus is known through the Bible record and by other historical records such as Josephus. However, to some of those people during what we would consider the 'he was' time, Jesus said that he was from a time before their time, way before their time:

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” John 8:58

Properly freaked out by this, they stooped to gather some rocks to make him a 'he was' right there and then. But His time had not yet come.

Rejoice in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Wait On the Lord

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!
  -- Psalm 27:14

David, the youth who found the king's army waiting in fear, because of that giant fellow, and acted in courage, would later write psalms of waiting on the Lord. As it was time for him to act in one circumstance, other circumstances taught David the value of waiting on the Lord. Wisdom comes from the Lord to teach us also when it is time to act and when to wait in prayer for the Lord.

Of course to the world around us, it will often look like acting quickly equals rash foolishness and waiting in prayer appears to be doing nothing. And the voice of temptation will be there to help us know how the world sees us in those times too. This is why we need the strengthening of the heart only our Lord can provide!

Have a blessed day in Christ Jesus,

Bucky

New Speech, Please!

He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
  -- 1 Peter 3:10

The verse today looks like a psalm, and it is as Peter wrote from Psalm 34 in his letter. And it still addresses issues we have today. So a psalm of David from about 1,000 years before Jesus, came to a letter from Peter written about 2,000 years before our time, and still we struggle with those two lips and one tongue.

May God grant us mercy, and clean, loving, and encouraging speech.

Bucky

An Unlikely Gospel

As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.  Mark 2:14

Each of us may recall back in those days of our youth when we were caught in that hard place where experience came from jobs, but jobs were closed to us by that same lack of experience. Many of the jobs we ended up taking we would have easily given up to follow a traveling rabbi, if we had  such a thing in our time. However, let's say we each had a job that paid really well, as in destined for great wealth kind of well paid, and there was personal security in that job from the governing authority, and performing well in that job directly benefited our savings accounts. Sounds too good to be true! The tax collectors in Levi's (Matthew's) time had it that way, and they liked their jobs. Their only problem was that their nation and people hated them for doing those jobs. No doubt counting their money in the evening helped them get over their most-hated status. What could be more unlikely then for a travelling rabbi with no money to call one of the most hated men of Galilee to follow him and give up that lucrative job? I guess it would be for the tax collector to drop everything and take off following that same rabbi! And so from a couple of highly unlikely choices, we have the wonders of the Gospel of Matthew. 

Praise Jesus for choosing the unlikely ones,

Bucky

A Prayer For Jesus

Help us, O God of our salvation,
For the glory of Your name;
And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins,
For Your name's sake!
  --  Psalm 79:9 

Centuries before the Christ came to Bethlehem, Asaph wrote a psalm praying that the Savior would come and deliver them. This prayer for Jesus asked God for just what His Son did for us as told in the gospels. What an awesome answer to this prayer God gave to us in His Son Jesus!

Bucky