Monday, September 16, 2019

A Thousand Year Day

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends:  A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.  The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think.  No, he is being patient for your sake.  He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.  But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.  Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.  Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,  looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.  On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.  But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.  2 Peter 3:8-13

Stories abound about God seeing time in that relative description of Peter’s where he tells us God’s view is who cares whether it’s a thousand years or a day.  One of those stories is about the guy who wanted to get rich.  He had a thousand dollars, and he wanted a million…quick.  So, he prayed, trying to strike a bargain with God.  He promised the Lord he would sing in the choir, work two days a week at the soup kitchen, and work tirelessly for world peace if God would only multiply his thousand by a thousand (that’s a million for those of us who aren’t math majors!).  But it didn’t happen.  When the man complained to God, he pointed to the verse where Jesus said to ask anything…God answered…OK…that’s in there, I’ll do it.  The guy thanked God profusely and asked, by the way, can you do that today…I’ve got some bills due.  After all, said the schemer, if a thousand is like a day, it shouldn’t mean anything to take a thousand and make it a million.  To that God said, sure; just wait a minute.
Sometimes – no, a lot of times – because we don’t see like God sees, we tend to doubt the way things are.  We see in a linear fashion; we remember yesterday, experience today, and wonder about tomorrow.  As Creator, God transcends time; he is not constrained to dwell within His own creation.  Rather he gave us time as a gift to deal with our fallen nature.  Had we continued as Adam and Eve were created, with immutable bodies not subject to disease and death, we would be consigned to spend forever in what Paul called the body of this death.  For me that would mean an eternity with a bad back, and forty extra pounds; I am a big fan of new heavens and earth, and the transformation from this old body to the new and improved!
And therein we find the gift that transcends the body of death; in the same way God is above time, space, and our imagination, what He has prepared for those who love Him is immortal, immutable, and glorious beyond description when, as resurrected, we walk with the Lord in the heavenlies, surrounded by His righteousness, splendor, and grace.
For You Today
Peter urges us to live our lives preparing for that day.  Whether it happens this day, or in a thousand years, it will be more than worth whatever you leave behind to follow Him.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

 
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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

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