SCOFFERS WILL COME

[52]
LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES - Peter

Read 2 Peter 2-3

     But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you... 2 Peter 2:1a NKJV

* * *

     Peter writes, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle...that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets,...knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,    (2 Peter 3:1a,2a,3)
     These false teachers will question everything from the Genesis account of creation to the promised Second Coming of Christ. They will refute the gospel “even denying the Lord who bought them...And many will follow their destructive ways... “(2:1b-2a) Furthermore, they will ridicule believers 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." (3:4)

* * *

     Lord, I thank you for the wonderful promise that “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.” (3:9) May we be found faithful until the day You take us home..

* * *

    “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”   2 Peter 3:17-18 NKJV

JARS OF CLAY

LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES - Corinthians

[15]

Read 2 Corinthians 4-5

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

* * *

In this letter Paul encourages the Corinthian church to endure in their trials. He said of himself and his companions, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” (2 Corinthians 1:8b-9a)

Though they themselves were “jars of clay”, he said, they endured because of the all surpassing power of God. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day...” (2 Corinthians 4:16)

In view of eternity and what Christ accomplished for us on the cross, Paul reminds them, “...he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” ( 2 Corinthians 5:15)

* * *

Lord, I will probably never face the kind of opposition that Paul and the early church had to face, but I know that there are Christians throughout the world who are being persecuted. Lord, show your all-surpassing power to them, and help me to remember that I too have access to this power in my life through your Holy Spirit.

* * *

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us... 2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV