Friday, Apr 24, 2009

4-24 Of Time and Scrooge McDuck

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Miracles happen! With God all things are possible. Susan and I sat across from a few of our friends as they told us the amazing story of how God provided a new home for them! They can’t get a loan the conventional way because of a business bust due to health issues some years ago. But they have been trusting God anyway! They asked, “Lord if you can use this house as a blessing for your kingdom, then provide it!” That’s a powerful prayer! What an incredible story. Would you believe it if someone offered you a house with… no money down! They will hold the note for 30 years! The interest rate is 6%! The house is on the river! They’ll throw in a riding lawn mower with it! That is the deal maker! You can’t pass up the lawn mower! And did I mention that they will drop the price by $25,000! Then to top it off, these people who have never met each other before did it all on a handshake and hoped that they would be the best of friends for the next thirty years! Now there are some more details that are just as amazing that I won’t mention here! God is at work! Perhaps this doesn’t fit the strict definition of a miracle… but it is one to me! Just remember, miracles happen, especially when you are seeking God’s kingdom first!

Today's Scripture reading is 1 Samuel 9; Proverbs 28; Romans 4
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com - Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

I’m sort of a Scrooge McDuck fan. I like him because he illustrates a few scriptural principles well, like this one… “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” This poor scripture has been abused and misused more than most. We tend to see what we want to see, and if you believe that the earth has been around for a few billion years, this may well be your favorite verse! “See! One day is a thousand years! That means the six days of creation could have been six thousand years long!” OK. Let’s just say I give that point to you for the sake of argument. How does an extra 6,000 years get you anywhere near the billion or six that you desperately want for your evolutionary scheme? Ka Ching! No Sale. But let’s get back to the book… nowhere does it say that a day IS a thousand years, it says a day is AS a thousand years TO THE LORD! (not to us). That means that a day seems like a thousand years, and a thousand years seems like just a day to the Lord. Time is irrelevant to God, he has all the time in the world to invest in one second. That’s why he can hear your prayers (along with the other 6 billion), dilly dally for a while, take a long vacation, sip lemonade, take a nap and come back and you still are on the same sentence! Enter Scrooge McDuck to illustrate. To Scrooge, a penny is as a million dollars, and a million dollars is as a penny. In other words Scrooge is such a miser that if you steal even one penny he wakes up in the middle of the night with cold sweats! He would no more part with a penny than he would with a million! But he has so many millions of dollars that just one million is like spare change to him. So what’s the point of this passage? Time and spare change are unchanged! A day is still a day, and a dollar is still a dollar (until inflation hits). But God is not constrained by time! He is never early, never late, never caught by surprise. Even at one second till midnight he’s got all the time in the world to bring his plan to completion, all without sweating it! His plan will always come to pass. So why should we sweat it?

Dear eternal God! Help me to have patience when you want me to wait, to be trusting when I’m in a pinch and to believe in all circumstances that you are all knowing, all wise and on top of the situation. You’ve got it under control! It’s nothing for you to do the impossible at any moment! Convince me of that truth!

He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 9:41 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

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