Today I have gone to the opening se ssions and heard from various Melburnians talking about their take on the soail aspects of myprofession, and being quite defensive about it. Austra,lia is in a time of austerity and all state spending is being challenged –and when the state sprnds 4% of the GDP on health and expects that to double there is a lot of pressure.

This is inevitable in a socailized or semi socailized system. Economists want ROI, and do not see the people.

Now how dies this relate to the text for today.  It seems that the veary questioning and demand that ther3 is evidence of Christ returning misses the point.

Chrisf delays for mercy. So wae can change.  When he comes,we will no longer have those options.

2 PETER 3:1-10

1This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in them I am trying to arouse your sincere intention by reminding you 2that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. 3First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts 4and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”5They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water, 6through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished.7But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.

8But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

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The phrase “deliberately ignore” is important, for it is how we  can end up in error.  When we find ourselves leaving passages alone because it spezks to our sin… we know we have a wprk of repentance to do. And we know that this world is fallen, people will not be with us in the hard times. (If you want to know who has yiur back, get audited, go bankrupt or get divorced).

The bigger error is when we let our ideology filter the text. It blinds us to the feaching, requires we do logical backflips (or doublethink) and will blind us to our errors.

The best example is twisting wives submitto husbands, and slaves to masterx, to masfers submit to slaves, huxbzndx to wives, becausd wec xhoulc only have to submit tohose who are like Christ, without sinor stain.  This is called the work of the Spirit in this age –when it is the worship of self esteem (idolatry) and rebellion.

But Christ has not come yet, not today. Perhaps tomorrow: thw world is on the brink of destruction,  for we have had the tools of thrmonuclear destruction all my life.

And while Christ has not come, yet, we need to get our house into order.

PS. I have not been able to edit and linkas well as usual: the wordpress app isgood butnot as good as the full interface