Fast Like Peanut Butter

Daily Post: Jiffy

Regardless of whether you like “store brand” or “name brand” peanut butter, neither one can be eaten quickly.  Peanut Butter doesn’t spread quickly either, it sticks to the bread and makes you work it a little, before it yields to go where you want.  Take a bite and if it sticks to the roof of your mouth, or to a couple of your teeth, good luck getting it un-stuck without a bit of work.  Such is the nature of peanut butter.   Some would think if you add a little honey or jelly to the sandwich, it would loosen things up a bit, and make the peanut butter a little less sticky.  Not really.  It makes me think perhaps the makers of “Jiffy” peanut butter were having some fun at my expense.

Some find it easy to think this way about God, and His Word, like He’s a cosmic jokester and having a little fun at my expense.  Folks who feel this way take a couple of verses from the New Testament and build a whole theology around the concept of “time.”  First they use the words of Jesus in John 14.

John 14:1-3
Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.  You know the way to where I am going.

But most of us are like Thomas, who basically responded, “We don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Jesus.”  Maybe he thinks Jesus is pulling a fast one on them, and he feels a little left out.  “Tell me quick, what are you talking about!”  But John chapter 14 through 16 is one long explanation, or exhortation, of what is about to happen, and the implications and consequences of what Jesus is about to do.  There are no quick explanations.  There is no jiffy.

So we add the words of Peter, written much later, after the Resurrection, and the establishment of the Church.

2 Peter 3:3-4
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

Now, there have been mockers and bullies since these words were written.  Yet, it seems in these last few years with all the social media blitz, and the “fake” news phenomenon, that more and more the world is adopting the attitude, “well, Christian, Jesus said he’d be back in JIFFY, where is He?  It’s a joke right? He really left you here on your own! ha!”

When things around you are going haywire, when the world seems one small “launch” button away from nuclear war, when you’re relationships are all strained to the point of no return, and you wonder “Where is the promise of His coming?”… don’t be confused by the wrong  idea that Jesus said, I’ll be back in a jiffy.  He didn’t.  He said He would come back.

The last verses often used to mis-construe the idea of Jesus coming back in a jiffy comes out of the last book in the Bible.  Now just think logically for a moment.  It’s the “last” book, and it deals with “last” things.  This means when you read this information, you should read it through the filter of “when time is up.”  So, look at what Jesus says about when “time is up.”

Revelation 3:11
I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

In Revelation 22, Jesus says “I am coming quickly” three times for emphasis.  So many people take these verse out of context of the book of Revelation, and shout, “See it must be in my lifetime because HE SAID, I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

How is it that we miss the point that God’s timetable is not based in the human concept of time?  None of the promises of Jesus return were ever given in the construct of human time or timetables. In Revelation, God was just explaining how only after HIS own timetable and original plan for humanity had run its course, Jesus would come back quickly.  It’s not a big joke, it’s a serious intent to accomplish all God intends to do.  Peter really helps us understand this better.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

What God really wants to do in a “jiffy,” is provide grace to all who have not yet said “yes” to His offer of salvation.  He is patient.  He is kind, loving, generous, and forgiving.  He does not wish one single person to go on living today, or throughout eternity, without His love and mercy.  God wants them all to come to Him through repentance, and trust Jesus for salvation.

If folks really understood the love of God, they would run to Jesus, in a jiffy.

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