The Patience of God

Hello! It has been quite some time since we added to our English blog. Maybe you have given up! Please don't. If you read this blog, drop us a note at: bbhenriquez@setarnet.aw We would be encouraged if you did. This picture was taken December 16th, our 10th wedding anniversary date! If you want to see a few more log on to our Papiamento blog and you can see a few more pictures of that special event. How we praise God for these wonderful ten years of life together. Whoever would have thought a single missionary at 72 years of age would have such a privilige to spend ten years with the first Antillean national pastor in Aruba? And what could he not write of ten years with a single Canadian strong-willed missionary who had lived alone all her years!! What a book we could write of only ten years!! They have been good.

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Nos for our message today: In the first letter of 1st Peter in the New Testament, we can read in the third chapter and in verses 18-22, how God patiently waited in the days of Noah as he built the ark before the flood. And by His grace only a few people were saved from the flood, only eight persons in all. The rest perished together with all their possessions and also all the animals.

I have to admit and confess that this is a portion of Scripture written by the Apostle Peter that is not easy to understand, much less to explain. But there is this one truth so precious that we human beings have, and that is, SALVATION is offered today to all people everywhere, so that we do not need to fear eternal perdition. We may not have a Noah’s Ark today to rescue us from the punishment and judgment of God. But, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, Who died on the cross for our sins, and Whom, God the Father raised from the dead, Who can and patiently waits to rescue us from the evil era in which we are actually living in. (Read Galatians 1:1-5).

We read that in the time when Noah was building the ark, God was patiently waiting for people of that time to repent and return to God, their Maker. That is true, for Noah is called a preacher of righteousness in the Scriptures. (Read 2 Peter 2:1-5 or read the entire chapter). Today many of us think we are better than the people that perished in the day of the great deluge, or we think we are better than those that died when God punished the people of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire, burning them and all their possessions, which is a lesson, an example, for each one of us who are living today, and for those who will yet live. And that message is for us, yes, for each one of us who reads this message. We are living today on this planet called EARTH are living in the last days and they are difficult times. Two thousand years have gone by during which time the Gospel, which the Scripture calls: the Gospel of God and of Christ. It is also called the Gospel of the grace of God that is being proclaimed.

Dear friends loved by God, today while writing this short message I want to remind you, me that we are not better than the people in the times of Noah, nor better than those who crucified our Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone, who neglects the Gospel today, is in effect, in accord with such that rejected Christ in the time when He was on earth in human form. The true message of God for us today, which includes all people whose language is Papiamento as well, is: Repent and believe the Gospel. Repentance includes that each one of us, personally, admit our culpability of sin and receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. May I repeat? Every one of us! This includes every man, every woman, adult or youth, whether rich or poor, educated or not, civil servants of all degrees.

The Scriptures are very clear that He is patiently waiting today for us to repent, because He is not willing that any should perish. But the day will come when judgment will fall. Will you be ready? Will I be ready?