Ducks in the early spring.
Turtles huddling together.
Heron fishing.
Deer spying on humans.
Awe, the wonder of nature!
Photographing Animals
1
Be on Guard
2 Peter 3:17-18
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Peter’s words, “knowing this,” means knowing that the false prophets are distorting Scripture. And he indicates that they are to be aware of it and be on guard (to be prayerful and to anticipate any trouble) beforehand, or before they are “carried away, or deceived. And if they are deceived, they would fall from their own steadfastness. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, Paul tells us that we are to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Hence, the purpose of steadfastness is to do the work of the Lord, not to do our own works, in order to look good in front of others.
In verse 18, the last verse of this letter, Peter stresses very importantly, that we are to “grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” And, in my opinion, if we follow this advice, He will keep us close to His side and out of the way of false teachers and all evil influences.
Be at Peace with God
2 Peter 3:14-16
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Here Peter goes on to say that since we are eager for His coming, we ought also to be at peace with God and to live blamelessly (without grumbling about things, Phil. 2:14-15). And remember that our Lord is patiently waiting for people to repent and be saved; and that is why His coming may seem to take long.
Peter here mentions the Apostle Paul, who wrote on this same subject of His coming; that he was given wisdom from the Lord to understand these hard topics. But Peter wanted them to know that false prophets (particularly those who are “untaught” or have been instructed wrongly) have distorted Paul’s teaching on this subject, and also on all Scriptures. (Today there are many seminaries that are quite liberal and distort the truth of Scripture, so that those who attend graduate without knowing the truth.)
Expecting His Coming
2 Peter 3:12-13
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Along with the effort of trying to live in holiness and godliness (v. 11), we ought to live in expectation of His coming with eager desire for it; because on the other side of the great destruction is all that is new—a new heaven and earth which is totally righteous.
Our Inspiration for Holy Conduct
2 Peter 3:11
11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
These words are meant not as a question but as an exclamation. Peter is saying that in light of their disastrous future, they ought to be a godly people with holy conduct, for two reasons: 1) to show to God their trust and love for Him; and 2) so that others in the world will see their courageous faith and will desire to be like them.
God’s Judgment will be Sudden and Unexpected
2 Peter 3:10
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
“The day of the Lord” refers to the judgments of the Lord during the time of the Tribulation, and then also, 1000 years later at the end of the millennial kingdom before the creation of the new heaven and new earth.
The coming of that day, “like a thief,” indicates that His judgment will be sudden, unexpected, and disastrous, especially to the unprepared.
The next phrase, “the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up,” is descriptive of what will happen during both the Tribulation and the destruction of the earth and the universe after the millennial kingdom. However, as I mentioned earlier, the destruction and the burning during the Tribulation is just on the surface of the earth, but the entire destruction of the earth and universe will come at the very end. This verse seems to refer mainly to that final destruction (referred to again in verse 12).
God Promises Judgment
2 Peter 3:8-9
8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The key words in these verses are “His promise,” meaning the promise of His coming to bring judgment with fire (v. 7). In verse eight Peter implied that God sees time differently than we do. He sees all the days of one thousand years just as clearly as He sees one day. He is a transcendent eternal being. He is not restricted by the passage of time as we are. He exists in an eternal present state. God has given us the laws of time so that we may be accountable for all that we do in our life. But He exists outside of those restrictions.
Hence, if we think that the Lord is slow in His coming, He is not—even as we count slowness. He is waiting for us to come to Him in repentance so that we will not perish by His judgment.
The Destruction of the Ungodly
2 Peter 3:7
7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
The next judgment of God will not be by water but by fire. We don’t know when it will come; it will be on God’s time table. Actually, it will be in two phases. First, it will come during the seven-year Tribulation, in which fire will burn off much of the surface of the earth. Then, after the one-thousand-year reign of Christ, the renewed earth and the universe will be completely destroyed by fire (2 Pt. 3:10-13; Rev. 20:9-11).
God will Quickly Bring Judgment
2 Peter 3:5-6
5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
Here Peter points out the flaw in their thinking—that all things in nature continues as it has from the beginning of creation (v.4) by an evolutionary process. He points out two explosive events in world history that were nothing like what they were suggesting.
1. That the world was created instantaneously (and perhaps explosively) by God’s voice in 6 days.
2. That the world was later destroy (because of man’s sin) quickly and destructively by water.
Again, these events came to the earth not by any long evolutionary process, but suddenly by the word of God. And in this same way He will come and bring His judgment.
How Walz and Frey Celebrated Memorial Day
This Memorial Day most Americans celebrated by memorializing those who died in combat for our country. But Minnesota’s governor and their Minneapolis mayor chose to remember one George Floyd, a convict and a drug user, who died by a Fentanyl overdose.
Most democrat politicians denied this fact and instead called his death a murder by a white police officer who ruffed him up while arresting him. But while he was being arrested, he definitely had symptoms of a fentanyl overdose. According to the Fremont Police Department,
“Signs of fentanyl overdose may include, slow breathing or no breathing, drowsiness, disorientation, sedation, pinpoint pupils, skin rash, or clammy skin. Symptoms usually occur within minutes of exposure or ingestion. Fentanyl overdose lowers the heart rate and depresses the respiratory system.”
It is time see this case for what it is. Enough of blaming police for doing their job. And please, we need to stop worshipping George Floyd. He is not a hero.
Stephen Nielsen 