2 Peter 3:10-11

 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,

Here it is, the middle of the night, and I have just got up and my mind is upset by fiction and then reality sinks in when I get a letter from Victim Services that my brother-in-law has been removed from his current parole review and will not be getting out of prison. Why that is important to us is because he is the one that set our house on fire back in 2009.

This is a fair warning about how escaping reality into a world of entertainment can consume our very thoughts because the world can be a very disturbing place. Many of us have gone through some very painful experiences. It is for each of us to decide how to mourn and when our mourning period can be replaced with a new reality.

As I sought help from His Word this verse came to me as being appropriate to my work for the Lord. This ties into recent posts about those things that will be changed in ways beyond our control. As I said in yesterday’s post, our sins will not be forgotten. Here today, we find more scriptures that indicate that everything done will be exposed.

What that means to me is private and personal. My Lord has given me peace about that which I have done but that does not mean I do not have to answer to them. What is done cannot be undone. Now today, Peter’s words, inspired by God, remind me what I am today and what I do with Christ matters more than my past.

My past haunts me and I would be a liar if I did not say it did not. More often than not my past life feels like fiction and holds no reality for me today. Like the fiction that upset me last night because it did not go the way I wanted, I do not get to author that outcome and I do not get to write the outcome of my future. I do however have to live it out to discover how this life in Christ plays out.

How would we feel about the end Peter speaks to in the above scripture?

That is very personal. I will not tell anyone how to feel about it. We all have a past, a present and a future. I don’t get to write that story for you. It is your story and you have to make it about your relationship with God, not me.

This is your life, your story and Peter is asking what you are going to do with the time left. As for me, I will seek the Lord and seek instruction for what He would have us do together.

I am not alone.

• Jeremiah 38:1
  Jeremiah Cast into the Cistern
  Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people:
• Jeremiah 38:6
  So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

Who are these men that put Jeremiah in a waterless well? Why should their names be recorded for posterity? Names are often repeated in the bible and it is difficult to determine who it is that holds a particular name in any one place. Hence the inclusion of parentage. These names would be lost in history if it were not for the writings of Jeremiah.

I ask myself why it is important to include these names? It is recorded in verse 4 “Then the officials said to the king, “Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.” It was unnamed officials that brought this to the attention of the King. Why weren’t they named?

Jeremiah 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

So Pashhur was the King’s grandson and the well belonged to his father.

What is the point of all this?

Do not rely on your family name to protect you from the wrath of God, from public shaming, and be sure that your sins will be remembered.

So what was the sin of these 4 named men?

I can only look within myself and say what my sin would be if I had friends like these.

And that is the lesson of naming.