If you are familiar with the prophets, you know they often told stories and then made spiritual application.  We can read from Jewish histories that the rabbis did the same thing.  It was a standard teaching method.  In fact, some of the stories had the same elements, just as many jokes begin, “A rabbi, a priest, and a lawyer…”  I have read in at least one source that the rich man and the poor beggar were staple characters in teaching stories all across the mid-east, even as far west as Egypt, one reason we should be careful about calling Luke 16 a “true story.”  Jesus was known as a rabbi because he used some of the same methods.
            I have known people who insisted that preachers and teachers should not “tell stories.”  The Bible has plenty, they say, so use them.  While in the past I agreed more than I disagreed, I have come to a change of mind.  Yes, Jesus used some of the events from the Old Testament in his teaching, but far more often he used the events of every day life in stories we call parables.  So I tell stories too.
            Some people ask me how in the world I come up with the applications to all my stories.  The answer to that is another reason I tell them.  Some of them come easily but often I have to think for awhile to find a spiritual application.  Guess what I am not doing while my mind is busy with spiritual things?  Guess what does not happen while I search the scriptures trying to find pertinent passages?  Far better to spend your time searching for applications to the events in your life than to brood over them, becoming depressed and bitter.  Far better to see a way to improve yourself than to blame others as if the whole world were out to get you and you are the only one these things happen to. 
            Life is the training ground for an eternal existence.  If I cannot become spiritual enough to handle things here, how will I ever become suitable for a spiritual existence with a Spirit Deity?  That is our goal, but the way some of us lead our lives, never learning from them, I wonder if we know it, or even care. 
            Try today to make some spiritual applications from the things that happen to you.  Think about your past and the many times you could have learned a lesson if your eyes and ears had been open to them.  It is really not that difficult.  If I can do it, anyone can.
 
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing you shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which you hear, and heard them not, Matt 13:10-17.
 
Dene Ward

I don’t know how many times in my life I have heard people say the Law of Moses was a matter of form religion only, that the heart did not matter to God one way or the other.  How anyone could think this of a religion whose mantra seemed to be Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Deut 6:5) is beyond my comprehension.  Yet all of us have blind spots where what we have heard all our lives keeps us from seeing things right under our noses.
            Here is a list of passages to read at your convenience in the next week.  It will amaze you, stun you, and forever more settle the matter.  God expected his people to live the Law every day of their lives, not just on the Sabbath.  He has always wanted their hearts.  Isa 1:11-17; 29:13; 30:8-14; 58:13,14; 66:1,2; Jer 7:8-10; 8:8,9; 22:3,4; Eze 33:13, 30-33; 34:1-31; Hos 6:4-6; 10:12; 12:6; Amos 5:11-15; 8:4-10; Mic 6:6-8.    
            Yes, form was important to God.  It showed exactly how much faith and devotion his people had to obey him in even the smallest details.  As God told Moses, See that you make things according to the pattern which was shown you in Mount [Sinai], Ex 25:40.  Jesus even said the Pharisees were right to be careful to follow the Law exactly:  Whatever [the Pharisees] bid you, do and observe…for these things (tithing even their herbs) you ought to have done, Matt 23:1,23.  But he went on to say that the heart was even more important:  You have left undone the weightier matters of the Law, justice, mercy, and faith.  God expected their obedient following of the pattern of worship to match an obedient life of righteousness, coming from a pure heart of faith, love, and mercy.  He flatly told them that none of their worship would be accepted otherwise.
            Why do you think Jesus was so angry with the scribes and Pharisees?  They prided themselves on knowing and keeping the Law, but they seemed totally ignorant of those scriptures listed above.  He quoted several of those passages to them (Matt 9:13; 13:14,15; 15:8,9), ending with, Go learn what this means, the ultimate insult to a scribe, a “teacher” of the Law.
            Those Jewish leaders were still under the Law at the time.  Do we, who have a better covenant, a better priest, and better forgiveness, think God will expect any less of us?  God demands more than simply following His law to the letter.  He expects a life of service from us, Inasmuch as you have done this unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it also unto me, Matt 25:40.  Let’s not sit on our pews congratulating ourselves because we are following all the rituals correctly, if we have left so much else undone throughout the week.  As Peter reminds us in 1 Pet 4:17, judgment will begin with us.  We had better make sure our hearts are ready for it.
 
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.  Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melodies of your viols.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream, Amos 5:21-24.
 
Dene Ward
 

Here in north Florida we don’t look at the calendar to tell the season.  We generally have about 5 months of summer, nearly 3 months each of spring and fall, and 4 -6 weeks of winter. 
            Since I moved to the country I have noticed that each season has its own feel and smell.  About the first week of October the morning air becomes crisp and dry, for Florida anyway, and I know fall has arrived.  It may leave a week later, but we know that by the first of November it is generally here to stay. 
            Then shortly before the holiday season I will be greeted by the smell of wood fires and a damp cold that seeps into your bones.  I lived in Illinois for two years so I know what below zero weather is like, but even up there you could quickly run the trash out in your shirtsleeves at 45 degrees.  Down here that same temperature will set your teeth chattering in just a few short minutes.  It’s winter! 
            Sometime around Valentine’s Day the warm sunshine on your back spreads like a soothing ointment, and soon the air is heavy with the perfume of azaleas, dogwoods, gardenias, wisteria and the first roses of the year.  Rakes scratch the ground and black plastic bags stack up in every yard.  The acrid smell of burning leaves fills the air and the spring green of new leaves lights up the sky.  Jack Frost may paint your garden one more time in March, but spring has definitely sprung! 
            By the first of May a wet morning fog drips on until about 10, and the flower smells have mellowed into the watermelon smell of new-mown grass.  Just standing outside for ten minutes will leave your hair damp with both humidity and perspiration.  The long, hot summer has begun.
            It has taken awhile but now I relish every change of season.  I used to wish away the long, humid summers precisely because they were that way.  Then when my children started school, I wished away the rest of the year because the summer was the only time I had them to myself.  But I spent the first part of my life wishing it away as well.  I couldn’t wait to start school.  Then I couldn’t wait for college.  Then I couldn’t wait to get married.  Then I couldn’t wait to have children.  And now what?  I have an empty nest and my life is well over half over.  Is that why we say that middle age brings wisdom?  Why did it take so long for me to figure this out?
            God wants us to enjoy our lives.  Yes, we suffer trials and even some minor persecution.  But as much as is possible he expects us to live well and laugh well.  1 Pet 3:10 …love life and see good days.  Psa 118:24, This is the day which Jehovah has made; rejoice and be glad in it.  Eccl 3:11, He has made everything beautiful in its time, also he has set eternity in their hearts.  Eccl  5:18, Behold that which I have seen to be good and comely is for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy good in all his labor wherein he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him, for this is his portion.  Finally, I have learned to take joy in every day.
            If you are still young, don’t wish your life away.  It may seem that your children will never grow up, that you will never have time for yourself and your spouse again, that everything you really want is somewhere out there in the future.  Take a minute and look around.  God wants you to enjoy the present.  If you cannot learn that now, then when those future things come along, you won’t know how to enjoy them either.  I have seen so many who are never satisfied with what they have, and who ruin the time they have left looking for something better.  Learn to be happy and content because one of these days you may find yourself wishing you had back all those days you wished away in the first place.
 
He that would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication.  But the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, 1 Pet 3:10-12.
 
Dene Ward
 

The beginning of a three part series that will continue tomorrow and Wednesday.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Eccl 1:9
 
I was reading through Genesis 19 preparing for a class on Lot’s wife and daughters when suddenly the verse above sprang to mind.  Over and over I saw things I have seen all my life and the thought came unbidden, “We are living in Sodom.” 

No, I was not thinking about modern issues.  None of the things that I noticed in the text that afternoon had anything to do with that, at least not specifically.  In fact, the things I noticed had been happening through my entire life, even as far back as the 1960s when everyone thinks we were still innocent and relatively godly.  Let’s see if you see what I did.
 
Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly…But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!” Gen 19:6-9
 
Whenever any moral issue comes up, if you express any sort of disapproval--even if all you do is refuse to participate—suddenly you are accused of “judging.”  Never mind that is exactly what is done to you by this accusation.  That does not matter.  It happened all those thousands of years ago and it happens now.  People have not changed.  If you behave differently than others, you are “judging.”  No one can tolerate being seen as less than righteous, even when righteousness is the last thing on their minds.

Since it is such a universal, and timeless, reaction, maybe we should ask ourselves this:  Has anyone accused me of being judgmental lately?  If not, why not?  Is it just that I only associate with Christians, with good moral friends and neighbors?  Or is it that I have not expressed any disapproval lately, nor refused to participate, whether it be in gossip, slander, drinking, pornography, foul language, immodest dress, or any other acts a Christian needs to abhor? 

Paul said:  and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; Eph 5:11.  We do a whole lot better with the first half of that command than the last.  I think it is because we do not want even the mild persecution that comes along with it.  We want to be liked—by the world.  We don’t want to be accused of “judging.”

Even “righteous Lot” was accused of judging.  Peter says he “was greatly distressed by the conduct of the wicked” (2 Pet 2:7).  Given the rest of his life, do we really want to be viewed as less righteous than he?
 
Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them. Rom 1:29-32
 
Dene Ward

Have you had a child, or perhaps an older relative, do this?  They notice a sore on their arm or leg and they sit there and pick at it over and over until suddenly they hold out the offending appendage and cry, "Look! It's bleeding!!"
            "Of course it's bleeding!" you want to shout back at them.  After all, they are the primary reason for that.
            We are a complaining people, but if something is bothering you, if it nags at you again and again and again, maybe the fault is your own.  Maybe you've sat there picking at it in your mind, over and over, until it finally bleeds.  Now you have something real to worry about.
            I do realize that all anxiety is not quite that simple.  Some of us do have issues in that regard.  But others just can't seem to leave well enough alone.  Nothing suits us until the blood flows.  And that is exactly the basis for all whining and complaining, for if it is truly something serious that is worth discussing and being concerned about, something you can actually fix, then that's what you do—fix it.  And that is far less satisfying to some people than seeing a problem worsen by constantly picking at it.
            We don't just do this to others.  We often do it to ourselves, wondering "what if" until all possibilities have been exhausted and then starting over again.  Pick, pick, pick.
            You know what the vet does when a dog has a sore spot or a surgery incision or something else he is likely to lick and worry at all day?  He puts a plastic cone around the dog's neck, the "cone of shame" some have taken to calling it humorously.  Maybe we need one of those too.  Leave it alone.  If it takes picking at to make it bleed, it probably isn't that serious to begin with.
            Put an imaginary cone around your neck today.  Christ came to give us peace.  We will never have it until we stop all the picking.
 
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (Phil 4:8-9).
 
Dene Ward

Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)
            Peter and John had healed the lame man the day before.  As always, they used this obvious miracle as an opportunity to teach the gathered crowd and the result was another couple thousand people becoming part of this new and rapidly growing group.  The powers-that-be heard about it and came too—the rulers, elders, scribes, the high priest and a lot of his family.  Can't have something like this going on, can we?  Their primary concern was probably their own power over the people and their pull with the Roman authority.  Anything that hurt either of those things had to be dealt with.
            But the thing I really want us to see this morning is this:  they could tell that Peter and John "had been with Jesus."  Maybe some of them recognized them, some might have even known about the blood relationship between Jesus and John, but there was something different about these men.  For unlearned men they handled themselves extremely well, with discretion when called for, but bravery when necessary, and their speech was as if they were trained by the best teachers.  And yet, I believe it was even more than that.  They simply acted the way Jesus had acted.
            I can think of nothing I had rather anyone say about me more than this:  you can tell she has been with Jesus.  How can that happen when he is no longer here?  I can read his words every day.  I can study his life in the gospels.  And, as Peter tells us, I can follow in his footsteps.  We're not talking about times like the one here when people were questioning the apostles and they had to give an answer in public under close scrutiny and in danger of physical persecution.  We are talking about ordinary life.
            When you go to work, can your co-workers tell you have been with Jesus?  When you drive your car, can the other drivers tell you have been with Jesus?  When you attend your child's Little League game, can the other parents tell you have been with Jesus?  When you post on Facebook, can people tell you have been with Jesus?  Or does it look like you have been spending your time with someone else entirely different?
            Today as you go about your life, whatever you do, wherever you go, whoever you come in contact with, make sure they can see from your words and your behavior that you spend your whole life with Jesus.
 
He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. (1John 2:6)

Dene Ward

The two-lane mountain road wound tight and steep, first up, then down, again and again.  The landscape was beautiful, sharp ridges softened by a leafy covering of fall colors—gold, canary yellow, pumpkin orange, rust, candy apple red, and cranberry, accented by an evergreen here and there and the bare gray branches of early shedders.  How much of did I see?  Not much.
            That twisty little road kept all my attention.  It was crawling with tourists who, unlike my hillbilly husband, did not know how to drive in the mountains.  The road itself didn't help.  We tried to hug the white line on the outside edge, but occasionally it disappeared, having crumbled into a foot or more deep hole, with no guard rail in sight.   Still, we had to stay as close as possible because every third or fourth car coming around the bend toward us had strayed over the center line.  A time or two we were nearly side-swiped, our rearview mirrors coming within inches of high-fiving one another.  Those fifteen miles were anything but relaxing and enjoyable.
            Yet I am sure that if there had been an accident, every one of those folks would have sworn in court that they had not even touched that double yellow line, much less crossed it, and would have really believed they were telling the truth.
            Aren't we the same?  We see those double yellow lines in our lives—the Thou shalt nots that God has designed for our good--and do our best to stay away from them.  But curves in the road of life have a way of swinging us around, sometimes further than we ever intended.  Or the distracting scenery of concern and worry or just simple busyness makes us careless and we drift into that oncoming traffic without ever realizing it until it's too late and the damage has been done, damage that can wreck your life far worse than a shattered mirror or scraped fender.  We may think we would never do such a thing—whatever that thing may be—but the devil can keep us in such a whirl with the circumstances of life that we never notice what we've done and will even deny it to the last breath.
            Be careful today as you wind your way over the hills and valleys and around the perilous curves of life.  Don't stray over the double yellow line.  Don't even get close to it.
 
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. ​With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! (Ps 119:9-10)
 
Dene Ward
 

I have been doing a lot of outside reading for some classes I am teaching, and find myself reading blurbs on the backs of these books at odd times, usually when my mind needs a rest from all the scholarly stuff my old and feeble brain is trying to make sense of.  I saw this one a few weeks ago and it stopped me in my tracks.
            “In Story as Torah Gordon Wenham showed how biblical narrative texts little used by ethicists, can inform Christian moral teaching.”  John Barton, University of Oxford.
            In other words, the man has written a book in which he uses the Bible “stories,” as we are prone to call them, to teach us right and wrong.  First, I do understand that the word “inform” has a special meaning in scholarly circles, but it still seems plain to me that the critic is saying that using the Bible this way is highly unusual, in fact, a groundbreaking idea. 
            I sit here wondering why they are reading their Bibles at all if they have not figured this out before.  We do this every Sunday in Bible classes.  I did it every day when my children were growing up.  I do it now when my grandsons come for a visit.  We talk about the Bible narratives and how they teach us we should be behaving in our lives.  We talk about Noah and how “everyone is doing it,” proves that “it” is probably wrong.  We talk about Daniel and how important prayer is, and how God takes care of the faithful.  We talk about Elijah and the One True God.  We talk about Judas and betrayal, about Peter and impetuosity—and then forgiveness.  We talk about Jonah and God’s love for everyone and our responsibility to share that love.  My children grew up knowing what the Bible is for.  What in the world did these people think they should do with it?
            And we can laugh at them and think ourselves so much better than they, but are we?  We know the Bible is to be used to “inform” our lives, but does it?  Does the sermon go in one ear and out the other?  Do the Bible classes become exercises in finding yet another way to bring up my pet hobby, or to show everyone how much I know instead of finding something I need to improve on?  Do I give the right answers and then go out and live the wrong ones?
            Before we laugh at men who have become a little too smart for their own good, let’s check our own behavior.  We may know better, but are we doing it?
 
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come, 1Cor 10:6-11.
 
Dene Ward
 

Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. 2Cor 10:7.
            We’ve been examining all the repeated lessons in the New Testament, the ones the writers felt needed a rerun because they were that important.  Usually we look at the passage in context.  This one we will take squarely out of context.  The message still works and it is rerun again and again, in every context imaginable.  We obviously need, as the passage says, reminding.
            Some of the Corinthians were still having difficulty accepting Paul as an apostle.  In this short verse he reminds them of what should have been obvious:  We both belong to Christ.  That should have had an impact on them when they considered what he was telling them and how they received him.  Don’t you judge the motives of a brother differently than anyone else?  You ought to because you know he has sworn allegiance to the same Lord as you, the one who demands a lifestyle that abhors sin.  He isn’t a pagan.  And that kinship creates an instant bond no matter where you may run into one another.
            This lesson has been taught in the scripture since the beginning.  The fact that Cain killed his own brother made that murder even worse.  When Lot and Abraham began having difficulties, Abraham came to him to work things out.  It shouldn’t be like this, he told Lot, because, “We are brethren,” Gen 13:8.  When Moses saw the two Hebrews fighting he said to them, “You are brothers.  Why do you wrong each other?” Acts 7:26. 
            Yes, if we are brethren, if we both belong to Christ, it should make a difference in how we treat one another.  Peter goes so far as to say that obeying the truth should have the effect of producing in us not just cold, formal love for each other, but an intense and passionate love, one that never pretends.   Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 1Pet 1:22.  If I do not feel that way about my brothers and sisters, he seems to be saying, then maybe I haven’t really “obeyed the truth.”
            John agrees.  He says if we do not love our brethren, we are in darkness and in death; that we are liars and murderers, 1 John 2:9-11; 3:14-19; 4:20,21.  Christ died for us all.  If he loved me that much, he loved you that much, too, which means I should love you that much and you me.  We are instantly bound together in the same emotional context of gratitude and wonder and unity. 
            I know, I know.  You’ve heard these “love” lessons all your life.  When you hear another starting, you almost sigh and roll your eyes.  “Again?  What else is there to say?”
            Nothing.  It’s a rerun, but it’s a rerun found in nearly every book of the Bible.  That means it’s worth our hearing again.  And again.  And again. 
            Unless you think you’ve already got this one whipped?
 
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Eph 4:2-3.
 
Dene Ward

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly, 2Pet 3:1-7.

Before we get to the meat of the matter, please notice the beginning of this little reminder Peter wrote.  He wanted us to remember “the commandment of our Lord and Savior through your apostles.”  Did you catch that?  A lot of people out there insist on red letter editions not so the words of Jesus will be obvious to them, but so they can ignore anything in black and white.  “Only the words of Jesus,” they say, are worth listening to.  The apostles and their teaching do not matter.

Oh yes we do, Peter says.  Where do you think you got those words of Jesus?  We reported them to you.  We wrote them.  As Jesus Himself said (in red letters) “Teach them to observe all things I command you,” Matt 28:20.  If you ignore the words of the apostles you are ignoring the words of Jesus, whether they are red or purple or blue with pink polka dots.

And his words continue on to remind us that God will indeed destroy this world.  When?  That we are not told, but do not, Peter says, forget it.  Do not count God as unfaithful to His promise.  The people in the time of the flood didn’t believe either.  And they only had 120 years to wait.

But think of this:  the Jews had been waiting for thousands of years.  They waited through the times of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the growth of that family from one “only begotten son” to a clan of 70.  They waited through the slavery in Egypt, about 400 years.  They waited through the times of the Judges, another 350 or so.  They waited through the united and divided kingdoms, another 400 plus or minus.  Then they waited through a horrible destruction, captivity, and eventual restoration, about 300 more, and finally they waited through 400 years of absolute silence from God.

Yet the faithful were still looking when the Messiah came upon the scene.  Some seem to have given up, but the Joseph and Marys, the Zacharias and Elizabeths, the Simeons and Annas, the Salomes and Zebedees, there were enough still waiting, still believing, to form that first church on Pentecost.  And they found yet more.

We have been waiting about the same amount of time they did, and we have something more.  We have the examples of promises fulfilled, from the flood, to the Abrahamic promises, to the coming of the Messiah.  God kept all those promises and He will keep this last one. 

Our unbelieving society will tell you it’s just a myth, it won’t happen, if it does, it will be man’s doing and not God’s.  So go ahead and live your life as you please.  You are not accountable to a mythological being who doesn’t really exist anyway.  That is Satan talking.  He will use every ruse in the book and making you feel foolish for your faith is just one of them.  Don’t climb on the bandwagon with the rest of the world.  God has given us evidence.  Clear your mind and examine it. 

You can be among the faithful few who still looked, who still hoped, who still dreamed of the day when their Lord would come in power and glory.  They saw that Messiah come to earth, perform miracles, teach Divine truths as they had never been taught before, and rise from the dead.  Don’t give up hope, Peter says.  Remember all the times God kept His promises.  Remind yourself often.  It may be the most important rerun of a lesson you ever hear.
 
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. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, 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, 2Pet 3:9-10.
 
Dene Ward