Ice Cream
II Peter 3
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
We can’t change the time of God’s returning, but we are His instruments for accomplishing the things that must happen first.
Christ teaches us to pray “Your Kingdom come” God’s kingdom, is His right to rule, His authority. Jesus currently sits on the throne and rules. Satan has no authority. An article I read said that the Cross and Resurrection were like Normandy beach in WWII. Without that secure beachhead in Europe, we would not have won the war. However, even after securing that beachhead, there were many battles to be faced. Some battles won, some lost. BUT the war was won on the day we secured Normandy beach. God’s war was won on the cross. However, the church is responsible for spreading God’s Kingdom.
9/11 cost Al Qaida $500,000. They inflicted 500 Billion dollars of damage. This is an organization that is run out of caves in Pakistan. These people have been able to, in underground and subversive ways, instill a value system that people are willing to blow themselves up for.
What is wrong with us? What has God called us to?
If Al Qaida can change the face of the world as we know it, with half a million dollars, from a cave in Pakistan, motivated by hate….what is wrong with us?
We, the Church, with the creator of the world behind us, motivated by love–have we made such an impact on our generation? Would our contemporaries say we have changed the face of the world as we know it?
Some interesting facts:
- There are 6 billion people in the world.
- Americans comprise about 6% of the world’s population.
- American’s consume somewhere around 40-50% of the worlds resources.
- 8% of the world’s population own a car.
- 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water or sanitation.
- 1 billion people live in extreme poverty. Defined as poverty that kills. No access to clean water, food, shelter, or medicine to such a degree that it kills.
- Roughly every 3 seconds someone dies of starvation.
- Estimates say that it would take between 12-20 billion dollars to eliminate “poverty that kills”.
- This is about the amount of money that Americans and Europeans spend on ice cream every year.
My question is simply this:
Are we hastening the return of Christ?
Or are we too busy enjoying our ice cream?
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