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Today’s Scoffers Called Out in Antiquity

The Apostle Peter wrote an amazing devotional to encourage the church about what would happen in the last days on the planet before the Lord’s return. He provides this prophecy to encourage believers towards good and proper thinking in a world where people mock or scoff at God’s story and promises.

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. – 2 Peter 3:1-7

A quick summary of each verse in that passage:
A reminder to think about what is good and true.
By remembering what is written in the Bible.
Scoffers will make fun of the Bible so they feel better about living in sin.
Scoffers will deny that Jesus will return, claiming that the natural world goes on today as it always has.
Scoffers intentionally forget that God created the world.
Scoffers intentionally forget that God flooded the world.
They scoff at the idea of an afterlife and God’s judgment.

Peter’s prophecy speaks directly to modern atheists, much of modern culture, and science that denies the supernatural and only sees the world as natural. One crazy thing about the naturalist’s perspective is that as scientific knowledge accrues, much of what gets labeled “natural” appears to be supernatural.

Life is one thing that seems normal and natural. We are used to it and it is all around us, but it is miraculous and remarkable. For example, there is no such thing as a “simple cell” as Charles Darwin described it in his book on “The Origin of the Species.” Every cell is a vast array of complex biological machinery that no human is even close to imagining how it might have come into being without a creator. As Ray Comfort of Living Waters ministries likes to put it, “When you see a building you automatically know there was a builder, when you see a painting you know there was a painter.” Likewise, every cell proclaims there was a creator.

Take another moment to consider Peter’s prediction and give God thanks for his magnificent hand of creation, provision, and salvation.

Pastor John Riley

by John Riley

The Who of the Beginning

When telling a story, sometimes a narrator will say, “This is where it all began.” It’s a way to set the scene and give context for the beginning of a story. However, in the Scriptures, “Where is all began” is replaced with, “Who began it all.” The Bible isn’t as concerned with where or how it began, but with who is responsible for the beginning.

Have you ever walked outside at night, looked up in the sky, and allowed the grandeur of it all to rest on you? If you were to walk outside at night and hold out a dime at arm’s length, the coin would block out 15 million stars from your view if your eyes could see with that power. The vastness of the universe can be overwhelming, but behind it all is a simple, undeniable truth: everything that begins must have a cause. Everything that has a beginning has a Beginning. The universe had a beginning, so the universe must have had a Beginner.

The Bible opens with a bold statement: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God wasn’t created; he wasn’t caused. He simply is. He existed before time, before matter, before the first breath of creation. The book of Hebrews reminds us, “By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). God isn’t just the one who knocks over the first domino that sets creation in motion, he’s the one who created each domino and speaks the whole cosmos into being.

If God is powerful enough to create everything from nothing, then he is powerful enough to handle whatever you’re facing today. The same God who spoke galaxies into motion is the same God who sees you, knows you, and cares about you. The same power that formed the stars is at work in your life.

Maybe you’re in a season where life feels chaotic. Maybe uncertainty, loss, or fear has left you feeling unsteady. But the one who set the universe in motion and holds it all together has not forgotten you. The reality of God’s creative prowess isn’t just about the beginning of time - it’s about the God who is still active, still present, and still moving in your story.

So today, take a deep breath. Look up at the sky. Let the vastness of creation remind you that you are held by the one who began it all. He is your creator, your steady foundation, and your eternal hope.

Pastor Ryan Paulson

by Ryan Paulson

Two Books

Romans 1:20 “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

To have a divine nature is to possess all the attributes that make God who He is. Francis Bacon said, “God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, Scripture. But he has written a second book called Creation.”

The divine and eternal God is the concept that God exists outside of time and has always and will always exist. This means that God is not subject to time and does not move through time as we do.

We humans live, move, and exist in time. God relates to time as the Creator of it. God interacts with time as the Ruler and Sustainer of it. God is not bound by time but sees all time equally from beginning to end. He is also the Lord over everything within time. As Lord, He interacts according to His divine nature within time.

God speaks and reveals himself through his creation–”The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1-4)
In Genesis 1 God doesn’t say, “In the beginning, He (God) was created.” God is here at the very beginning of time. His Word declares His eternal nature. When this world was created, and time with it, God already was.

Throughout Scripture, the eternal God is affirmed as in Psalm 90:2–” Before the mountains were born, or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

This Chris Tomlin song “Indescribable” speaks to God’s eternal power and divine nature. I hope you will be blessed as you listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLMVqNwypjA

Deb Hill

by Deb Hill

Hell and Hawaii

Romans 6:23

In the 19th century, those suffering from leprosy in Hawaii were sent to Molokai, a remote island designated for quarantine. It wasn’t an act of cruelty—it was an act of containment and protection. Leprosy was incurable at the time, highly contagious, and absolutely devastating. The colony existed to keep the disease from spreading to the rest of the population. It was heartbreaking but necessary.

Now, imagine if the government had done nothing. What if they had allowed leprosy to spread unchecked? That wouldn’t have been love - it would have been neglect. The only loving option was to separate the disease from the healthy so that others could continue to live.

This is a picture of why hell exists. Sin is a disease. It corrupts, wounds, and ultimately destroys. God is creating a new, restored world - one where love, peace, and righteousness reign. But he cannot allow sin to infect that world. For God to make all things new, he must deal with the sin that corrupts, destroys, and unleashes death into his world.

The truth is that a loving God must judge evil; otherwise, he isn’t truly loving at all. If God allowed sin to go unchecked, his new creation would be no different than the old, broken one. Some people, especially during our day, really struggle with that truth. They imagine that love and judgment are opposites. But love demands justice. If God didn’t care about death and destruction, he wouldn’t be loving. The Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” A God who doesn’t judge isn’t kind - he’s unloving. And that’s not the God of Scripture.

That is why hell exists. It’s not a place for those God wants to send away - it’s for those who refuse his healing. Like those suffering from leprosy who were unwilling or unable to leave Molokai, hell is the quarantine for sin and rebellion against God. It’s torment and punishment, but it is the sad reality of those who refuse God’s healing offered through Jesus.

However, there is good news: God has provided a cure. Through Jesus, we can be healed of our sins, forgiven, and restored. We don’t have to remain spiritually dead and diseased. Jesus took the penalty of sin upon himself so that we could step into life. So the question is: Will you receive his healing, or will you choose to hold onto the disease that separates you from him? The choice is ours. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Praise be to God.

Pastor Ryan Paulson

by Ryan Paulson

Identity For Eternity

In Luke 16, we met a very rich man and a very poor man, named Lazarus. That’s how they’re identified, but there is much more to these two men beyond the labels “rich” and “poor”.
Identity is important. Who am I? Who are you? What’s your true identity—who you are? Poor man Lazarus had a hard, painful life full of hunger and literal sores. In Matthew 5, Jesus looks out at a crowd of his followers and says, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” I’m guessing there might have been a few listeners like poor Lazarus in the crowd that day. And Jesus saw and said they were much more than their daily lives of difficulty.

What was the rich man’s identity, beyond his riches? Beyond the fashion and gourmet foods, we learn that he knew the poor man Lazarus well, probably saw him daily. He sat there at his gate, desperately in need. In the first century, it was assumed that if someone was wealthy, then wealth was a reward from God for their righteous conduct. But since the rich man dies and ends up tormented in hell, we can assume his identity was far from “righteous”. While alive, the rich man had every opportunity to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He could love others as he loved himself—others like his neighbor Lazarus.

You see, how we live reveals who we truly are. Identity is shaped by behavior. We can say we “believe” something, but that belief is proved true or false by how we behave, how we speak, how we share with others, how we love.

What I DO displays who I honestly am.

It’s no fun to picture this rich man, now full of regret. The text says, he’s burning in agony in the fire. It’s difficult to think about and talk of God’s judgment, even though he warns us in Matthew 7 that "wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. May we be encouraged today by poor Lazarus. Because Lazarus became a truly rich man, he found the narrow gate that led him to everlasting life, the richest life of all. Few find that gate, but Jesus commands all of us in Luke 13 to MAKE EVERY EFFORT to enter through the narrow door, because many…..will try to enter and will not be able to. Christian, may we make every effort to live out our true identity in Christ faithfully and sincerely, one day at a time.

Donielle Winter
EFCC Member

by Donielle Winter

Thy Will Be Done

There is much I don’t understand or have certainty about. On a small scale, I don’t know what I’ll make for dinner tonight. On the larger scale, I don’t know what’s at the end of the universe. (For that matter, at this very moment, I don’t know whether or not Pluto is categorized as a planet; I’ll Google it later!) But God is infinitely wise and understanding, unsearchable (Isaiah 40:28) and He’s given us Scripture containing truths of history, prophetic words, and opportunity to understand His character. So with that in mind, I humbly read Luke 16:19-31 and ask, “What would you have me learn from this God? What does parable mean?”

At a glance, I notice a theme of contrast between the two characters. The rich man lived a life of comfort and self-centeredness, lacking compassion for the poor man, Lazarus, at his gate. Lazarus lived at the gate of the rich man, where he could get scraps of food to sustain him. The rich man was clothed in purple, signifying wealth and honor. While Lazarus was clothed in sores, signifying his poverty and misery. After death, the rich man found himself in torment while Lazarus found himself comforted. The name of the rich man is never stated and yet the poor man’s name is recorded as Lazarus.

There is a profound difference—a chasm if you will—between these two men but nothing more impactful than the states of their souls. Scripture tells us that a “chasm has been fixed” (verse 26) when referring to their eternal states, meaning choices were made and consequences are irreversible. It’s not that God made decisions for these men—quite the contrary. God makes Himself knowable through invisible qualities, powerful and divine, that beg a choice to be made and leave people without excuse (Romans 1:20). God’s desire has always been to spend eternity with all of mankind and He chases after each of us with an invitation, but it’s up to us whether we bend our will and accept it.

I’m reminded of the C.S. Lewis quote,

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock, it is open.”

How about you? Have you accepted God’s invitation of Jesus? The Son of God invites you to experience his love and eternal hospitality and “dwell in the house of the Lord all your days, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). If so, AMAZING! Who else needs to hear of his beauty and experience His lavish goodness? Pray for them now and ask God how you might be part of their journey of faith. I am certain you won’t regret it!

Jessica Klootwyk
Discipleship Director

by Jessica Klootwyk

Understanding God’s Love

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in love.” Psalm 145:8

The hardest part of being a parent, I think, is making sure your children feel loved while establishing boundaries to keep them safe and help them navigate life. We want them to learn that their choices can have unwanted consequences, appropriate for their age and maturity. We want them to learn that the stove is hot, they need help crossing busy streets, etc. When they are little, we want them to slowly learn they can trust us to keep them safe.

We sometimes want to focus more on our loving God, rather than the holy, sovereign God who is both gracious and just. He is both, but judgment and wrath aren’t part of God’s character, they are responses that come from his character. Confronted by unholiness, a holy God responds. Confronted by extreme sin or evil, a righteous God responds.

When we see the evils of this world, we want justice and mercy. God’s hunger for right is so strong that he won’t stop until wrong is righted, and evil is no more.

The other side of God’s anger is mercy, which wants to give us everything we need to resist wrong and do what’s right. God’s perfect love and justice collided when Jesus died on the cross, resulting in eternal grace for those who believe. Without God’s righteous anger, we have no hope, no Gospel. Our heavenly Father’s anger or judgment assures us that all things will be made new.

As a parent, you love your children but at times need to discipline them. They have to learn what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior from loving, patient parents. In a greater way, God loves us, but he also disciplines us when we need it. Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the world is the proof God loves us, he took the judgment we deserve. However, God will not force anyone to go to heaven, it is our choice to follow him or reject him.

“He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9

Deb Hill
EFCC Staff

by Deb Hill