2 Peter 1:16
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, be we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
As I have been really contemplating the Christian life and the message of the gospel I have to agree that what we believe are not cleverly devised tales by any means. Christianity is ridiculous! Think about it for a second, we believe in a Sovereign God who created everything and He wants to have a personal relationship with each and every man. But this relationship cannot happen because of our sin but when He created us He knew that we would sin so He came up with a plan that would make Him the object of suffering at His own hand! If I was to make up a religion of my own it would not be this! But I can and will attest to the power and coming of Jesus Christ. Christianity stands out in my mind because it is the only religion that is not centered on what we do. Salvation through works is a cornerstone belief of all other religious views. So man in his natural state will immediately pick up on the idea that if we do accept the free gift that is offered then we would be able to live a life of sin without our eternal destination being questioned. Once a person is saved they are sealed into the family and kingdom of God. But Paul addresses this very thing in Romans. We could but may it never be! God wants us to live the abundant life, a life that is focused on two things, God and others. How can we follow a God who was willing to sacrifice Himself on our behalf and not sacrifice ourselves for others? Do You not feel convicted? I know when I think about the truth, the ridiculous truth, I cannot help but be faced with my own horrible selfishness.
I have seen God’s power not only in my life but in the lives of others and I have to admit that part of my faith is based in pragmatism. True Christianity works, Living for God empowers us to be selfless. Our goal as Christians is not to make sense of life but to strive for people to know God in this life. People are always searching for purpose and reasons to exists. Even the atheists come up with some purpose to live. Paul says in Corinthians how foolish the word of God is to those who do not believe. We will be mocked for our standards of sexuality and morality. We will be mocked for opposing homosexuality and for waiting until marriage for sex. We challenge the natural! Challenging the natural can only been seen as absurd to those who do not believe in the supernatural. Why do we deny ourselves the pleasure of the natural? God made men and women to have sex! Why do we as Christians not engage in what feels so right and natural? It is because we have the supernatural in the word of God. I cannot remember what book C.S. Lewis talks about the idea of Christian absurdity but He basically used it as a proof for His faith. Mankind would not have mad this religion and it should not be popular! We are to sacrifice ourselves on this earth to glorify a God and our reward is God! Nirvana is an eternal escape, heaven in Islam is just the selfish pleasures of this earth, Mormonism lets you become God of your own world. Heaven for the Christian in eternity of perfect worship to the One Holy God. Even our heaven is not about us so stop making it out that way! God saves us for His own will! Nothing about being a Christian is about you it is all about God. And God is good. Do you want good in your life? Stop trying to escape the pain of this world, stop searching for comforts, stop living for the pleasures that are so natural and seek God.
I have seen the good that comes from living for God, The joy that is found in people seeing God in my life! That is life! Live in a way that people will know that you are an eyewitness to the power and coming of Jesus Christ our Lord! Stop looking for God and see Him!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
2 Peter 1:15
2 Peter 1:15
And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
This verse flies in the face of modern outreach practices. We are so concerned as evangelists to go spread the gospel that we are not concerned with the earthly future of those who come to know Christ. Think about this for a second, the Bible tells us that prior to salvation we are all enemies of God (Rom. 5:11). But once we become Christians our enemy is Satan. So while we are in sin God is our enemy but He loved us enough to die for us. Now that we are saved our enemy is one who hates us with a passion and is seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). So when we tell someone the gospel and they accept if we do not follow up with them then we are setting them up for failure. If we are not diligent to pursue the people we share God’s word with we are actually very selfish! How can I say that? We shared the greatest news with these people right? Yes and this is a good thing. I know many of you have heard this so many times but we are not called to make converts we are called to make disciples. It is true that there will always be a time when we will be called away from the people who have influenced our spiritual walks just as we will be called away from those we have influenced. The question we must ask ourselves is after our discipler leaves are we in good enough shape to live for God on our own? When it is time for you to leave your disciple have you been diligent, knowing that they can feed themselves? We do not want to make many shallow, empty, powerless converts but we want to develop strong, righteous, powerful disciples of Jesus Christ.
And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
This verse flies in the face of modern outreach practices. We are so concerned as evangelists to go spread the gospel that we are not concerned with the earthly future of those who come to know Christ. Think about this for a second, the Bible tells us that prior to salvation we are all enemies of God (Rom. 5:11). But once we become Christians our enemy is Satan. So while we are in sin God is our enemy but He loved us enough to die for us. Now that we are saved our enemy is one who hates us with a passion and is seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). So when we tell someone the gospel and they accept if we do not follow up with them then we are setting them up for failure. If we are not diligent to pursue the people we share God’s word with we are actually very selfish! How can I say that? We shared the greatest news with these people right? Yes and this is a good thing. I know many of you have heard this so many times but we are not called to make converts we are called to make disciples. It is true that there will always be a time when we will be called away from the people who have influenced our spiritual walks just as we will be called away from those we have influenced. The question we must ask ourselves is after our discipler leaves are we in good enough shape to live for God on our own? When it is time for you to leave your disciple have you been diligent, knowing that they can feed themselves? We do not want to make many shallow, empty, powerless converts but we want to develop strong, righteous, powerful disciples of Jesus Christ.
Friday, October 24, 2008
2 Peter 1:13, 14
2 Peter 1:13, 14
I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made known to me.
How often do we forget that this life is so limited? Even after we see first hand so much death in this world we are still convinced that we will live out a full 85 years on this earth. Death and pain happen to other people. We will not get sick and we most certainly will not die! This is the natural thought process. We are called as believers in Christ to hold an eternal view. We should live our lives as Peter did. We should expect the imminent return of Christ or rather our imminent departure from this world. Our lives are but vapors in the timeline of eternity. Paul had this view when he declared that for him “to die is gain but to live is Christ.” I have prayer this very prayer myself. I was in the hospital earlier this year with MRSA. I was in so much pain I could not stand without tears welling up in my eyes. I have scars to this day from a deadly infection that cannot be killed. I have never been much of a healthy person and had I been born 100 years earlier I would never have lived to be 23 years old. If some bug starts to go around I will be the first to get it! I cannot wait to escape this corrupted flesh and be glorified! But since God has seen fit to place me in a time where modern medicine can keep me alive I must acknowledge that for me to live is Christ. Selfishly I would love to just go home to heaven. I mean think about it, heaven, we will no longer sin causing God grief, we will have perfect fellowship with the only being who truly matters!
I want to stir up a reminder in you. We must keep in mind that Jesus Christ is our Lord and savior. We must live this life in view of what God has done for us. If we try to live this life for ourselves we will simply be disappointed because there is nothing that satisfies outside of Christ. What other gods are worth living for? The world seems to think that sex is the greatest God. The thing is with sex you are never satisfied unless You are within the purpose of God. Why do you think the world thinks that quantity is better than quality? Sex is an empty action without God and it only leaves You desiring more. This is true for all sin I simply chose sex because it is what is pushed in our face constantly from our culture. Not only does worshiping a false god like sex destroy our relationship with God but it kills our relationship with others. All sin is focused on self. We must escape ourselves and consider other people better than us. By that I mean spend your time praying for your fellow believers. Anytime you find yourself caught up in temptation you are focusing more on yourself than anything else. It is natural for us to seek our own self gratification but it is supernatural for us to seek the gratification of others. We must pour our lives out for others.
Jesus Christ is life. This world is the closest thing to hell we Christians will ever experience and for the non-Christian this is the closest thing to heaven. The world thinks they own pleasure but God is the author of pleasure and all the world can do is push us to experience it in an improper way, at an improper time, or to an improper degree. Sex is a beautiful gift God has given as a picture of the intimacy He wants to have with us. All the world does is worship the picture instead of the painter! Pleasure without God just drives us to look for more and more pleasure. It would be better for us Christians to be taken to heaven at the moment of salvation but we know that God keeps us here to show the people of this world that there is something greater. A love and a truth that is greater than the natural. We will be ridiculed, made fun of, scoffed, but we must endure. I will gladly live through hell on this earth if it means just one person can enter into heaven through my testimony. Better for us to suffer on this hellish earth and end up in heaven than to let people enjoy the pleasures for a season but spend eternity in hell! Do we love the lost?
I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made known to me.
How often do we forget that this life is so limited? Even after we see first hand so much death in this world we are still convinced that we will live out a full 85 years on this earth. Death and pain happen to other people. We will not get sick and we most certainly will not die! This is the natural thought process. We are called as believers in Christ to hold an eternal view. We should live our lives as Peter did. We should expect the imminent return of Christ or rather our imminent departure from this world. Our lives are but vapors in the timeline of eternity. Paul had this view when he declared that for him “to die is gain but to live is Christ.” I have prayer this very prayer myself. I was in the hospital earlier this year with MRSA. I was in so much pain I could not stand without tears welling up in my eyes. I have scars to this day from a deadly infection that cannot be killed. I have never been much of a healthy person and had I been born 100 years earlier I would never have lived to be 23 years old. If some bug starts to go around I will be the first to get it! I cannot wait to escape this corrupted flesh and be glorified! But since God has seen fit to place me in a time where modern medicine can keep me alive I must acknowledge that for me to live is Christ. Selfishly I would love to just go home to heaven. I mean think about it, heaven, we will no longer sin causing God grief, we will have perfect fellowship with the only being who truly matters!
I want to stir up a reminder in you. We must keep in mind that Jesus Christ is our Lord and savior. We must live this life in view of what God has done for us. If we try to live this life for ourselves we will simply be disappointed because there is nothing that satisfies outside of Christ. What other gods are worth living for? The world seems to think that sex is the greatest God. The thing is with sex you are never satisfied unless You are within the purpose of God. Why do you think the world thinks that quantity is better than quality? Sex is an empty action without God and it only leaves You desiring more. This is true for all sin I simply chose sex because it is what is pushed in our face constantly from our culture. Not only does worshiping a false god like sex destroy our relationship with God but it kills our relationship with others. All sin is focused on self. We must escape ourselves and consider other people better than us. By that I mean spend your time praying for your fellow believers. Anytime you find yourself caught up in temptation you are focusing more on yourself than anything else. It is natural for us to seek our own self gratification but it is supernatural for us to seek the gratification of others. We must pour our lives out for others.
Jesus Christ is life. This world is the closest thing to hell we Christians will ever experience and for the non-Christian this is the closest thing to heaven. The world thinks they own pleasure but God is the author of pleasure and all the world can do is push us to experience it in an improper way, at an improper time, or to an improper degree. Sex is a beautiful gift God has given as a picture of the intimacy He wants to have with us. All the world does is worship the picture instead of the painter! Pleasure without God just drives us to look for more and more pleasure. It would be better for us Christians to be taken to heaven at the moment of salvation but we know that God keeps us here to show the people of this world that there is something greater. A love and a truth that is greater than the natural. We will be ridiculed, made fun of, scoffed, but we must endure. I will gladly live through hell on this earth if it means just one person can enter into heaven through my testimony. Better for us to suffer on this hellish earth and end up in heaven than to let people enjoy the pleasures for a season but spend eternity in hell! Do we love the lost?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
2 Peter 1:12
2 Peter 1:12
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
One of the greatest mistakes we can make as Christians is to fail to remember. It is natural for humans to want to ignore or shrug of reminders. Part of justifying our sin is to know what God has to say but to simply push it to the back of our minds. We are in a dangerous state when we find ourselves saying, “I know, I know.” I will be perfectly honest by telling You that this is a huge area for me at times. God has really worked on my heart, He has humbled me, it took pain and confusion to get here because I did not heed reminders. So, let me take up the charge and pass it on to you. Peter acknowledges what his readers know but he knows that we simply put what we know on hold for what we feel. We live in an impulse driven society. A is over and he is going through your music and suddenly he gives you a weird look, “What?” you ask. Then he simply shows you a CD you bought and all you can tell him is, “impulse buy.” Impulse buys are never good buys and we know this but we still make them! We are driven by our emotions but it is our knowledge of God that keeps us on track. The mistake we make as Christians is that we forget what lese we are supposed to view God through. We stop viewing Him based on His word and we start looking at Him through our emotions. The God of our emotions is very, very skewed.
Another reason we do not like reminders is because of our human pride. “I know, I know” is such a prideful statement. James tells us in chapter 1:19, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear. Slow to speak and slow to anger.” It is a humbling experience when You have to be reminded of the things you already know. What does James exhort us to do? We must put aside our pride and listen! If you find yourself quick to speak you are struggling with pride. We must be humble and this ties directly into what the Christian life should be! Our lives as Christians should be outwardly focused. Do we value our friend’s advice who are praying for us daily? Are we praying for our friend’s? It is our job as fellow Christians to point each other towards Christ. We all have blind spots in our lives, some intentional, some we are completely unaware that they exist.
Now that we have discussed the idea of receiving reminders we must be quick to look at the other side. When we are the ones giving the reminder how do we approach the situation? If a reminder must be accepted in all humility I think it must be given in greater humility! So how can we point out the speak in our brother’s eye when we know there is a plank in ours? We must examine our motives. Motives are such a messy area of life because we are ultimately selfish people. I know we all have had moments where we think we are acting selflessly but when it boils down we realize that even our selfless behavior is selfishly motivated! We humans are funny creatures. But this is the reminder I must offer you go back and reread verse four. We are selfish in our human nature but we posses the divine nature! God is able to purify our motives. I have found that my prayer life has been greatly improved by praying for other people. My motives in those prayers are pure and objective because I am not involved. It is when I pray for myself that I have trouble discerning my motives. So when you feel you must remind someone of what they already know get someone outside the situation to pray for both of you. You do not have to tell them what is going on just seek their prayer. We are to live in community and to consider others better than ourselves.
Next time you catch yourself saying, “I know, I know” stop immediately and seek forgiveness from God for your pride! Pray with the person who is reminding you for a humble spirit and be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.
Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
One of the greatest mistakes we can make as Christians is to fail to remember. It is natural for humans to want to ignore or shrug of reminders. Part of justifying our sin is to know what God has to say but to simply push it to the back of our minds. We are in a dangerous state when we find ourselves saying, “I know, I know.” I will be perfectly honest by telling You that this is a huge area for me at times. God has really worked on my heart, He has humbled me, it took pain and confusion to get here because I did not heed reminders. So, let me take up the charge and pass it on to you. Peter acknowledges what his readers know but he knows that we simply put what we know on hold for what we feel. We live in an impulse driven society. A is over and he is going through your music and suddenly he gives you a weird look, “What?” you ask. Then he simply shows you a CD you bought and all you can tell him is, “impulse buy.” Impulse buys are never good buys and we know this but we still make them! We are driven by our emotions but it is our knowledge of God that keeps us on track. The mistake we make as Christians is that we forget what lese we are supposed to view God through. We stop viewing Him based on His word and we start looking at Him through our emotions. The God of our emotions is very, very skewed.
Another reason we do not like reminders is because of our human pride. “I know, I know” is such a prideful statement. James tells us in chapter 1:19, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear. Slow to speak and slow to anger.” It is a humbling experience when You have to be reminded of the things you already know. What does James exhort us to do? We must put aside our pride and listen! If you find yourself quick to speak you are struggling with pride. We must be humble and this ties directly into what the Christian life should be! Our lives as Christians should be outwardly focused. Do we value our friend’s advice who are praying for us daily? Are we praying for our friend’s? It is our job as fellow Christians to point each other towards Christ. We all have blind spots in our lives, some intentional, some we are completely unaware that they exist.
Now that we have discussed the idea of receiving reminders we must be quick to look at the other side. When we are the ones giving the reminder how do we approach the situation? If a reminder must be accepted in all humility I think it must be given in greater humility! So how can we point out the speak in our brother’s eye when we know there is a plank in ours? We must examine our motives. Motives are such a messy area of life because we are ultimately selfish people. I know we all have had moments where we think we are acting selflessly but when it boils down we realize that even our selfless behavior is selfishly motivated! We humans are funny creatures. But this is the reminder I must offer you go back and reread verse four. We are selfish in our human nature but we posses the divine nature! God is able to purify our motives. I have found that my prayer life has been greatly improved by praying for other people. My motives in those prayers are pure and objective because I am not involved. It is when I pray for myself that I have trouble discerning my motives. So when you feel you must remind someone of what they already know get someone outside the situation to pray for both of you. You do not have to tell them what is going on just seek their prayer. We are to live in community and to consider others better than ourselves.
Next time you catch yourself saying, “I know, I know” stop immediately and seek forgiveness from God for your pride! Pray with the person who is reminding you for a humble spirit and be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
2 Peter 1:11
2 Peter 1:11
for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
When do we enter into the kingdom of God and why is it important to us that it be abundantly supplied to us? I have to think that Peter is talking about entrance upon salvation in this verse because of the context. Everything he has said thus far has been in regards to our salvation and Christian life here on earth. We enter into the kingdom of God the moment of salvation. At salvation we are declared righteous (justified), we start becoming more like Jesus (sanctification), we are now coheirs with Jesus (adoption), all of these things happen at the moment of salvation! So it is a great thing that our entrance into His kingdom is abundantly supplied to us. Jesus does not start us out with just a little and give us more as we follow Him. I believe that going back to what Peter said in verse 3 is true that we have everything at the beginning. We lack nothing once we are saved we have everything we need to be successful in Christ. How easy it is to look at people we consider to be great Christians and wish we could be like them or we are intimidated by their relationship with God but we need to realize that we have the fullness they have supplied to us already! Partake of what God has given You! When I was an intern in Virginia Beach I used to tell some of my students that they need to remember that they have the same Holy Spirit that I have they just have to let Him work in their lives. If I speak and the words that leave my mouth happen to impact their lives it is simply the Holy Spirit at work. This is the same Holy Spirit that indwells all believers!
The Christian life is a struggle to put down the flesh and to let the Spirit fills us. There is pain in Christianity because we are not where we should be. God has to open doors in our lives that we want to keep closed, He has to peel back layers and layers of sinful habits. I love C.S. Lewis and in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader there is a scene where Eustace who had been turned into a dragon is told to bathe in a pool by Aslan to ease the pain in his arm. But before he can bathe Aslan tells him to undress from his dragon form. No matter how many layers of snakelike skin he shed he still remained in his dragon form. Finally he gave up and turned to Aslan for help. Aslan ripped into his flesh with his claws and the process was described as the most painful yet most enjoyable experience of Eustace’s life. Aslan pulled back the layers of dragon skin to reveal the true Eustace but it took great pain to get there. This is how it is for us as we attempt to live in the abundant life Christ has given to us upon entrance into His kingdom. There will be great pain as He pulls back the dragon skin of our old natures and reveals the true us underneath. While it is hard and painful it is more that worth it in the end.
(if you have not read Lewis you need to stop reading this blog and pick up one of his books! I recommend you start with The Screwtape Letters or Mere Christianity.)
for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
When do we enter into the kingdom of God and why is it important to us that it be abundantly supplied to us? I have to think that Peter is talking about entrance upon salvation in this verse because of the context. Everything he has said thus far has been in regards to our salvation and Christian life here on earth. We enter into the kingdom of God the moment of salvation. At salvation we are declared righteous (justified), we start becoming more like Jesus (sanctification), we are now coheirs with Jesus (adoption), all of these things happen at the moment of salvation! So it is a great thing that our entrance into His kingdom is abundantly supplied to us. Jesus does not start us out with just a little and give us more as we follow Him. I believe that going back to what Peter said in verse 3 is true that we have everything at the beginning. We lack nothing once we are saved we have everything we need to be successful in Christ. How easy it is to look at people we consider to be great Christians and wish we could be like them or we are intimidated by their relationship with God but we need to realize that we have the fullness they have supplied to us already! Partake of what God has given You! When I was an intern in Virginia Beach I used to tell some of my students that they need to remember that they have the same Holy Spirit that I have they just have to let Him work in their lives. If I speak and the words that leave my mouth happen to impact their lives it is simply the Holy Spirit at work. This is the same Holy Spirit that indwells all believers!
The Christian life is a struggle to put down the flesh and to let the Spirit fills us. There is pain in Christianity because we are not where we should be. God has to open doors in our lives that we want to keep closed, He has to peel back layers and layers of sinful habits. I love C.S. Lewis and in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader there is a scene where Eustace who had been turned into a dragon is told to bathe in a pool by Aslan to ease the pain in his arm. But before he can bathe Aslan tells him to undress from his dragon form. No matter how many layers of snakelike skin he shed he still remained in his dragon form. Finally he gave up and turned to Aslan for help. Aslan ripped into his flesh with his claws and the process was described as the most painful yet most enjoyable experience of Eustace’s life. Aslan pulled back the layers of dragon skin to reveal the true Eustace but it took great pain to get there. This is how it is for us as we attempt to live in the abundant life Christ has given to us upon entrance into His kingdom. There will be great pain as He pulls back the dragon skin of our old natures and reveals the true us underneath. While it is hard and painful it is more that worth it in the end.
(if you have not read Lewis you need to stop reading this blog and pick up one of his books! I recommend you start with The Screwtape Letters or Mere Christianity.)
Saturday, October 18, 2008
2 Peter 1:10
2 Peter 1:10
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
In light of everything that Peter has said we are to be diligent to make sure about God’s calling and choosing of us. When we discuss callings as Christians we are normally talking about God’s specific will for us. We look to the example of the Old Testament prophets and how God called them and lead them in His specific will. We may also even look to the calling of the apostles for examples of how we should seek God’s calling on our lives. But is God’s calling on our lives specific or general? There are many Christians who will say that God’s will is specific and He created you as an individual to do a specific work that only You can do. While there are others who say that God has appointed specific tasks and wants Christians in general to fill them. In all honesty I am not sure where I fall on this spectrum. On one hand I feel called to ministry but I am not sure of a specific calling to one area of ministry. Also my call to ministry was not audible or specific it was more of a conviction. I was convicted that I was not truly giving God my entire life and once I turned it over to Him I felt that I should be in ministry. Well this is all a rabbit trail away from the real calling Peter is talking about here. I do not believe he is addressing the issue of calling to works but of calling to grace.
We are to be diligent to seek out our salvation, to verify that we are saved. All of us struggle with doubts and many of us are terrified by the comment Jesus makes in Matthew 7:23 “I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!’” This is why Peter has presented us with this little self-examination. We will always struggle with doubts about our salvation or the reality of God because no matter how much we may want to we cannot prove that He does exist! We have great evidence and experience but there will still be room for doubt. This is why we must be diligent to seek what the Bible says. I tend to be very pragmatic about Christianity at first, I tell people it is hard but it works. This reasoning could apply to any lifestyle but Christianity stands apart from all the rest. Our faith is not based on what we do but what has been done for us. That alone sets us apart from every other religion man has ever conceived. If you look back at Matthew 7 you will see that the men Jesus is talking about are appealing to their works for salvation. Our salvation is accomplished by the work of Christ and given to us as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have no right to brag in our salvation because we did not save ourselves! It is so easy to forget what Christ did for us because we get caught up in doing for God. We naturally want to turn our gifted salvation into earned salvation this is why we must be diligent to make certain about HIS calling and HIS choosing. God is the one who has done everything and our works are a reaction of praise and thanksgiving! James talks about faith and works because how can people tell that we have faith unless our actions back it up? Yay Jesus, I am saved now I am going to do whatever I want! Does that sound like the Christian life? NO! Look at what Peter says next.
For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
We are to keep in mind everything that God has done for us and in response we supply the qualities mentioned in the prior verses. I still think that the sanctified Christian life must be primarily focused on others. The Bible tells us to pray with righteous motives and I have found something out, it is so easy to pray with righteous motives when you are praying for other people! If you are not praying for your fellow believers then you are robbing yourself of such a simple joy. When we pray for each other we can see God work because we are praying with right motives. I do not have to worry about praying for myself because I know I have other people praying for me! People who are praying for God’s will above all else. I have also found it is much easier to live a more sinless life when I am actively pray for others. Sin is ultimately about selfishness and when we pray selflessly for others the appeal of sin decreases in our lives. I wish I could say that I was better at being selfless and I pray that I would put others ahead of myself. We must fill our lives with prayer for other people. If we are focused on others we will not sin! I wish we could achieve sinless perfection this side of Heaven but we are too selfish to ever truly strive for it here on Earth. I am convinced of this, if you want to be more sanctified in this life stop praying for yourself and pray for others. We must be focused on God first and other second. If you are afraid that your personal prayer requests will not be lifted up remember that Christ Himself is praying for us in Heaven! Let your friends know your requests so that they can pray for you. This is the Christian life, we get to take joy in watching each other grow in love and faith in the One who died and gave Himself up for us!
I would love to pray for you so please feel free to leave your requests in the comments. I only ask if you see other people prayer requests posted there then before you post pray for those needs. We must be a community if believers who lift one another up in prayer!
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
In light of everything that Peter has said we are to be diligent to make sure about God’s calling and choosing of us. When we discuss callings as Christians we are normally talking about God’s specific will for us. We look to the example of the Old Testament prophets and how God called them and lead them in His specific will. We may also even look to the calling of the apostles for examples of how we should seek God’s calling on our lives. But is God’s calling on our lives specific or general? There are many Christians who will say that God’s will is specific and He created you as an individual to do a specific work that only You can do. While there are others who say that God has appointed specific tasks and wants Christians in general to fill them. In all honesty I am not sure where I fall on this spectrum. On one hand I feel called to ministry but I am not sure of a specific calling to one area of ministry. Also my call to ministry was not audible or specific it was more of a conviction. I was convicted that I was not truly giving God my entire life and once I turned it over to Him I felt that I should be in ministry. Well this is all a rabbit trail away from the real calling Peter is talking about here. I do not believe he is addressing the issue of calling to works but of calling to grace.
We are to be diligent to seek out our salvation, to verify that we are saved. All of us struggle with doubts and many of us are terrified by the comment Jesus makes in Matthew 7:23 “I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!’” This is why Peter has presented us with this little self-examination. We will always struggle with doubts about our salvation or the reality of God because no matter how much we may want to we cannot prove that He does exist! We have great evidence and experience but there will still be room for doubt. This is why we must be diligent to seek what the Bible says. I tend to be very pragmatic about Christianity at first, I tell people it is hard but it works. This reasoning could apply to any lifestyle but Christianity stands apart from all the rest. Our faith is not based on what we do but what has been done for us. That alone sets us apart from every other religion man has ever conceived. If you look back at Matthew 7 you will see that the men Jesus is talking about are appealing to their works for salvation. Our salvation is accomplished by the work of Christ and given to us as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have no right to brag in our salvation because we did not save ourselves! It is so easy to forget what Christ did for us because we get caught up in doing for God. We naturally want to turn our gifted salvation into earned salvation this is why we must be diligent to make certain about HIS calling and HIS choosing. God is the one who has done everything and our works are a reaction of praise and thanksgiving! James talks about faith and works because how can people tell that we have faith unless our actions back it up? Yay Jesus, I am saved now I am going to do whatever I want! Does that sound like the Christian life? NO! Look at what Peter says next.
For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
We are to keep in mind everything that God has done for us and in response we supply the qualities mentioned in the prior verses. I still think that the sanctified Christian life must be primarily focused on others. The Bible tells us to pray with righteous motives and I have found something out, it is so easy to pray with righteous motives when you are praying for other people! If you are not praying for your fellow believers then you are robbing yourself of such a simple joy. When we pray for each other we can see God work because we are praying with right motives. I do not have to worry about praying for myself because I know I have other people praying for me! People who are praying for God’s will above all else. I have also found it is much easier to live a more sinless life when I am actively pray for others. Sin is ultimately about selfishness and when we pray selflessly for others the appeal of sin decreases in our lives. I wish I could say that I was better at being selfless and I pray that I would put others ahead of myself. We must fill our lives with prayer for other people. If we are focused on others we will not sin! I wish we could achieve sinless perfection this side of Heaven but we are too selfish to ever truly strive for it here on Earth. I am convinced of this, if you want to be more sanctified in this life stop praying for yourself and pray for others. We must be focused on God first and other second. If you are afraid that your personal prayer requests will not be lifted up remember that Christ Himself is praying for us in Heaven! Let your friends know your requests so that they can pray for you. This is the Christian life, we get to take joy in watching each other grow in love and faith in the One who died and gave Himself up for us!
I would love to pray for you so please feel free to leave your requests in the comments. I only ask if you see other people prayer requests posted there then before you post pray for those needs. We must be a community if believers who lift one another up in prayer!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
2 Peter 1:9
2 Peter 1:9
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
Yesterday we looked at what it means if we posses the qualities that have been discussed over the past week. Today we must examine what it means if we do not posses them. There are advocates in Christianity of the loss of salvation and I would have to imagine that they would believe that if you do not posses any of the qualities mentioned before than you might have lost your salvation. There are still others who may claim since you do not posses them that you were never truly saved in the first place but I believe that Peter is sending a different message. His message is so comforting and encouraging. Before I go on I must state that I believe once one becomes a believer in Christ they cannot be removed from that position. I believe that God did not only forgive the us for the sins that we have committed but he has forgiven us for all sins. We have been forgiven of rape and genocide but most of us (hopefully all of us) will never actually engage in those sins but our status in light of those sins is forgiven. This is why Paul is so quick in Romans to shout to us, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we how died to sin still live in it? Sin can no longer rend us from the hand of God because on the cross sin died. This idea is so important to Christian forgiveness because we are called to forgive as we have been forgiven or to the extent of what we have been forgiven for. We are called to forgive all sins because we have been forgiven for all sins! I have been forgiven for genocide a sin that I have never committed and I am to forgive those who have committed it. If Hitler or Stalin on their deaths beds turned to Christ and asked for His forgiveness He would grant it to them. Christ has already paid the price of sin and while this truly is a hard concept to grasp it is amazing! It is license to engage in more sin or sin we have never committed? Absolutely not! Sin was nailed to a cross 2000 years ago and while Jesus rose victorious from the grave sin did not!
So what then if we are lacking the qualities that show us to be useful and fruitful of God? Peter does not tell us we have lost our salvation but he tells us to get our vision checked. If we are lacking we must be blind or shortsighted. Peter does not doubt the salvation of his readers and he does not condemn them here but her reminds them of what God has already done. Some Christians believe that Christ never really got off the cross but He is continually being nailed to the cross as new sins are committed but this simply is not taught in Scripture. Jesus is victorious and all we must do is open our eyes or put on our glasses! How do we do this? How can we fix our spiritual eyesight? We must remember what was done for us and put aside what we have done. “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 44:18, 19 Do not focus on the past and do not look to the future but focus on Jesus Christ right now. Jesus died for your sins and you have been declared by God as righteous in His sight. If you could lose your salvation then God would be a liar. You have been freed from all sins and there is no double jeopardy. So I urge you brothers and sisters in Christ be diligent and do not forget what has been done for you! Do not be paralyzed by past mistakes or scared to face the future but right now, this very moment, turn to God. Seek God in the present and your future will be filled with Him. Fill your days with prayer for other people and do not stop! 1 Thessalonians 5:17. It is never too late to turn back to Jesus! It is so easy to get caught up in this life and to forget the gospel. We cannot forget the gospel and we must continue to preach it to ourselves even though we are already saved it is easy to forget and to get so focused on our own works. Do not forget your purification from former sins!
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
Yesterday we looked at what it means if we posses the qualities that have been discussed over the past week. Today we must examine what it means if we do not posses them. There are advocates in Christianity of the loss of salvation and I would have to imagine that they would believe that if you do not posses any of the qualities mentioned before than you might have lost your salvation. There are still others who may claim since you do not posses them that you were never truly saved in the first place but I believe that Peter is sending a different message. His message is so comforting and encouraging. Before I go on I must state that I believe once one becomes a believer in Christ they cannot be removed from that position. I believe that God did not only forgive the us for the sins that we have committed but he has forgiven us for all sins. We have been forgiven of rape and genocide but most of us (hopefully all of us) will never actually engage in those sins but our status in light of those sins is forgiven. This is why Paul is so quick in Romans to shout to us, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we how died to sin still live in it? Sin can no longer rend us from the hand of God because on the cross sin died. This idea is so important to Christian forgiveness because we are called to forgive as we have been forgiven or to the extent of what we have been forgiven for. We are called to forgive all sins because we have been forgiven for all sins! I have been forgiven for genocide a sin that I have never committed and I am to forgive those who have committed it. If Hitler or Stalin on their deaths beds turned to Christ and asked for His forgiveness He would grant it to them. Christ has already paid the price of sin and while this truly is a hard concept to grasp it is amazing! It is license to engage in more sin or sin we have never committed? Absolutely not! Sin was nailed to a cross 2000 years ago and while Jesus rose victorious from the grave sin did not!
So what then if we are lacking the qualities that show us to be useful and fruitful of God? Peter does not tell us we have lost our salvation but he tells us to get our vision checked. If we are lacking we must be blind or shortsighted. Peter does not doubt the salvation of his readers and he does not condemn them here but her reminds them of what God has already done. Some Christians believe that Christ never really got off the cross but He is continually being nailed to the cross as new sins are committed but this simply is not taught in Scripture. Jesus is victorious and all we must do is open our eyes or put on our glasses! How do we do this? How can we fix our spiritual eyesight? We must remember what was done for us and put aside what we have done. “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 44:18, 19 Do not focus on the past and do not look to the future but focus on Jesus Christ right now. Jesus died for your sins and you have been declared by God as righteous in His sight. If you could lose your salvation then God would be a liar. You have been freed from all sins and there is no double jeopardy. So I urge you brothers and sisters in Christ be diligent and do not forget what has been done for you! Do not be paralyzed by past mistakes or scared to face the future but right now, this very moment, turn to God. Seek God in the present and your future will be filled with Him. Fill your days with prayer for other people and do not stop! 1 Thessalonians 5:17. It is never too late to turn back to Jesus! It is so easy to get caught up in this life and to forget the gospel. We cannot forget the gospel and we must continue to preach it to ourselves even though we are already saved it is easy to forget and to get so focused on our own works. Do not forget your purification from former sins!
Monday, October 13, 2008
2 Peter 1:8
2 Peter 1:8
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of out Lord Jesus Christ.
As we grow in our faith we need to have spiritual check-ups to see how we are doing. Peter has just presented us with a list of qualities that we can use to see how we are doing in our sanctification. We do not expect to be perfect in our Christian lives but we do expect progress. Think back over the past few days as you have read over this list and how do you measure up? I am not bringing this up to be a discouragement but an encouragement. Do you see any of these things present in your life? I will not ask if you are satisfied because no one should be satisfied with their progress. We are to always continue on and press forward to a more perfect state. Jesus Christ has come and saved us from our former sins. It is the devils goal to isolate believers and to render them useless through sin or unrighteous shame. Guilt that brings us to our knees for reconciliation is a good thing but shame that does not allow us to get up is a terrible thing!
We do not always feel like we are of any use to God and we may even question our salvation because we do not see fruit or evidence of Christ in our lives (we will deal with this issue more tomorrow) but read the list do you have any of these qualities? I do not care how small or how few you have at the moment be encouraged because if you posses some of these and you see them growing and increasing you are useful to God. Jesus does not need us to do His will but He has chosen to work through us. We all have the tendency to take control of a situation when we see someone performing a task poorly or inefficiently. Think about God’s situation and the job that He wants to have accomplished. He does not step in and remove us but He equips us and encourages us to do His work. He is so patient and loving. Are you being diligent in seeking how to do His work more effectively? Are we making an attempt to serve our Master with all of our hearts? Do we attempt to supply an moral excellence to our faith? Are we passive in our relationship with God? How does it make you feel when you deal with passive friends, when you are the only one putting in effort? God does not want us to be passive in our relationship with Him. He does not want to be the one who is always calling us or arranging a time to hang out. God wants us to be active in our relationship with Him. We need to plan a get together with God and be diligent to keep it. We cannot just sit back and let God do all the work in our lives! God provides the power to live the Christian life but we need to surrender actively our old nature. We need to be more active in our relationship with God and this list that we have just spent the past few days exploring is a good way to test your activity.
These actions are in no way meant to be a repayment for God’s salvation. We cannot add works to what God has already done for us. We use this list of actions to show God how much we love Him. You can tell your friends how much you care for them or your significant other how much you love him or her but it is your actions that prove your relationship. God does not want empty words but obedience. We sacrifice for our friends but because we love them does it feel like sacrifice? Be encouraged in your faith and your relationship with God today. If you do feel like you are struggling then be diligent and get in God’s word. Have a conversation with Him.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of out Lord Jesus Christ.
As we grow in our faith we need to have spiritual check-ups to see how we are doing. Peter has just presented us with a list of qualities that we can use to see how we are doing in our sanctification. We do not expect to be perfect in our Christian lives but we do expect progress. Think back over the past few days as you have read over this list and how do you measure up? I am not bringing this up to be a discouragement but an encouragement. Do you see any of these things present in your life? I will not ask if you are satisfied because no one should be satisfied with their progress. We are to always continue on and press forward to a more perfect state. Jesus Christ has come and saved us from our former sins. It is the devils goal to isolate believers and to render them useless through sin or unrighteous shame. Guilt that brings us to our knees for reconciliation is a good thing but shame that does not allow us to get up is a terrible thing!
We do not always feel like we are of any use to God and we may even question our salvation because we do not see fruit or evidence of Christ in our lives (we will deal with this issue more tomorrow) but read the list do you have any of these qualities? I do not care how small or how few you have at the moment be encouraged because if you posses some of these and you see them growing and increasing you are useful to God. Jesus does not need us to do His will but He has chosen to work through us. We all have the tendency to take control of a situation when we see someone performing a task poorly or inefficiently. Think about God’s situation and the job that He wants to have accomplished. He does not step in and remove us but He equips us and encourages us to do His work. He is so patient and loving. Are you being diligent in seeking how to do His work more effectively? Are we making an attempt to serve our Master with all of our hearts? Do we attempt to supply an moral excellence to our faith? Are we passive in our relationship with God? How does it make you feel when you deal with passive friends, when you are the only one putting in effort? God does not want us to be passive in our relationship with Him. He does not want to be the one who is always calling us or arranging a time to hang out. God wants us to be active in our relationship with Him. We need to plan a get together with God and be diligent to keep it. We cannot just sit back and let God do all the work in our lives! God provides the power to live the Christian life but we need to surrender actively our old nature. We need to be more active in our relationship with God and this list that we have just spent the past few days exploring is a good way to test your activity.
These actions are in no way meant to be a repayment for God’s salvation. We cannot add works to what God has already done for us. We use this list of actions to show God how much we love Him. You can tell your friends how much you care for them or your significant other how much you love him or her but it is your actions that prove your relationship. God does not want empty words but obedience. We sacrifice for our friends but because we love them does it feel like sacrifice? Be encouraged in your faith and your relationship with God today. If you do feel like you are struggling then be diligent and get in God’s word. Have a conversation with Him.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
2 Peter 1:7
2 Peter 1:7
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness, love.
The more I read the New Testament the more I am convinced that Sanctification is others focused. True life is found in valuing others as more important than yourself. God who is the only being with the right to be selfish gave His life for us. He does not need our love and affection but He in His nature is selfless valuing us enough to become man, bear the sin of the world, and die for our sake. He did this for us while we were still enemies of Him! Right now our nation is at war and the terrorists are our enemies. We are fighting them to protect our nation and families and they are our enemies. Would we die for them willingly? God became man and died for us to offer the chance of salvation! Would you die for your enemy so he could have the chance of salvation? As we grow in godliness we are to develop brotherly kindness, but who is our brother? I cannot help but think of the parable of the good Samaritan. The whole point of the parable is that we are to love EVERYONE with the same intensity that we love ourselves. This is a picture of brotherly kindness and we cannot posses it without godliness. It is impossible for anyone in his own sinful nature to be 100% selfless. We care about our own worries and our own wants and desires. We see this in children at such an early age. When two children are given cookies they immediately look to see who has the larger cookie. They are not grateful that they were given a cookie but angered because they were wronged when it came to cookie size. It takes God living through us to be selfless.
Once we start living our lives with an attitude of brotherly kindness we can experience true love. When Paul talks about true love in Corinthians he shows us that love is about others before it is about us. The early Church in acts lived this principle as a group until we are introduce to Ananias and Sapphira. These two tried to use the true love of their fellow believers for selfish gain and God killed them! The danger in selfless living is that others will not act selfless in return but what does that matter? If we are truly following God we are sustained. People will always take advantage of the selfless, we do it to each other we do it to God, but we are called to be selfless no matter the cost. Jesus Christ laid down His life for His enemies so that they could become coheirs in His holy inheritance! Are we willing to die for our enemies, are we even willing to die for our friends?
If we want to see the world fall in love with God we must stop being so selfish!
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness, love.
The more I read the New Testament the more I am convinced that Sanctification is others focused. True life is found in valuing others as more important than yourself. God who is the only being with the right to be selfish gave His life for us. He does not need our love and affection but He in His nature is selfless valuing us enough to become man, bear the sin of the world, and die for our sake. He did this for us while we were still enemies of Him! Right now our nation is at war and the terrorists are our enemies. We are fighting them to protect our nation and families and they are our enemies. Would we die for them willingly? God became man and died for us to offer the chance of salvation! Would you die for your enemy so he could have the chance of salvation? As we grow in godliness we are to develop brotherly kindness, but who is our brother? I cannot help but think of the parable of the good Samaritan. The whole point of the parable is that we are to love EVERYONE with the same intensity that we love ourselves. This is a picture of brotherly kindness and we cannot posses it without godliness. It is impossible for anyone in his own sinful nature to be 100% selfless. We care about our own worries and our own wants and desires. We see this in children at such an early age. When two children are given cookies they immediately look to see who has the larger cookie. They are not grateful that they were given a cookie but angered because they were wronged when it came to cookie size. It takes God living through us to be selfless.
Once we start living our lives with an attitude of brotherly kindness we can experience true love. When Paul talks about true love in Corinthians he shows us that love is about others before it is about us. The early Church in acts lived this principle as a group until we are introduce to Ananias and Sapphira. These two tried to use the true love of their fellow believers for selfish gain and God killed them! The danger in selfless living is that others will not act selfless in return but what does that matter? If we are truly following God we are sustained. People will always take advantage of the selfless, we do it to each other we do it to God, but we are called to be selfless no matter the cost. Jesus Christ laid down His life for His enemies so that they could become coheirs in His holy inheritance! Are we willing to die for our enemies, are we even willing to die for our friends?
If we want to see the world fall in love with God we must stop being so selfish!
Friday, October 10, 2008
2 Peter 1:6
2 Peter 1:6
and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
Now this is where we truly run into a disadvantage of a verse by verse study of the Bible. Thought by thought would be a much better way to approach this passage of scripture instead of fragmenting it the way we have but this is what we have chosen so we will continue on. I will simply have to keep referencing the previous verses so we do not lose sight of what is being said or the power that allows us to do these things. So before we begin lets remember that all of this is through God’s divine power and not passed on our own actions. This is also not for the purpose of earning God’s favor, these actions are our response to what God has done for us. This is the outpouring of His divine nature in us.
The true knowledge of God’s word better equips us for self-control. While we know that the divine nature has been granted to us and that it is more powerful than our human nature we still control who is victorious. It is our corrupted human nature to sin. I say corrupted because I believe that true human nature is to glorify God. When God created Adam and Eve He created them with only the knowledge of good. There was no concept of evil or wrong in the original human nature. It was human nature to want to be like God. This is the aspect that the serpent appeals to in his discussion with Eve in the garden. When Adam and Eve eat of the fruit they do become like God. Now instead of only knowing good they are not introduced to the issue of evil. As we have seen throughout human history is the fact that while God is able to comprehend good and evil and remain good man cannot. At the point where Adam and Eve became more like God their human nature was corrupted. The issue of sin and evil are now ingrained in the human nature. James shows us the different ways the divine and the human natures react to this issue of evil. James 1:13b God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. James 1:14 But each one is tempted when He is carried away by his own lust. We see here that God’s divine nature is able to withstand the knowledge of evil but the human nature cannot. We were designed by God to be blissfully naïve to the idea of evil. So how do we balance this corruption of our natures? It must be balanced by the true knowledge in God’s word and if we apply that knowledge we will be able to exercise self-control. If Eve had trusted in the knowledge she had in God she would not have eaten the fruit and If Adam had trusted in the knowledge he had he would not have let her eat of it in the first place! Self-control is founded in our knowledge of God’s mind because ours has been twisted and skewed by our unintended knowledge of evil.
Once we start the exercise of self-control we will see perseverance begin to take place. Look back at James 1 and see what he encourages us to do, consider it JOY, when you encounter hardship! How do we do that? Remember that everything you have pertaining to life (joy) and godliness has been granted to you. Because trials come to test our faith and to see if we can exercise self-control. We practice self-control by following Romans 12:1 where we daily offer up our human nature in exchange for the divine nature. The more we do this the easier it becomes. The truth is that we will never arrive at our destination here on earth so all we can do is persevere through life.
As we push on and persevere people will start to notice something changing in our lives. The bystander will see something and that is godliness. Without watching the process of transformation people would be intimidated. Live your live openly so people can witness what God is doing. You are not here on earth to just get by! You are here as a beacon of light shining out in the darkness for the world to see Jesus Christ. We need to live consistent God honoring lives. The Christian life is not about perfection it is about progress. We are already perfect in God’s eyes now we need to show people what it looks like to live in that truth. It would be a shame if people looked at us Christians and came away thinking that we are better than them. We are not, Christ is through us! We were all sinners we just happened to admit it and ask for help! Self-control is caging your nature and unleashing God’s! This is how you persevere! The beauty of living a godly life is that we do not do it God does it for us but we have to stop putting ourselves in the way.
and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
Now this is where we truly run into a disadvantage of a verse by verse study of the Bible. Thought by thought would be a much better way to approach this passage of scripture instead of fragmenting it the way we have but this is what we have chosen so we will continue on. I will simply have to keep referencing the previous verses so we do not lose sight of what is being said or the power that allows us to do these things. So before we begin lets remember that all of this is through God’s divine power and not passed on our own actions. This is also not for the purpose of earning God’s favor, these actions are our response to what God has done for us. This is the outpouring of His divine nature in us.
The true knowledge of God’s word better equips us for self-control. While we know that the divine nature has been granted to us and that it is more powerful than our human nature we still control who is victorious. It is our corrupted human nature to sin. I say corrupted because I believe that true human nature is to glorify God. When God created Adam and Eve He created them with only the knowledge of good. There was no concept of evil or wrong in the original human nature. It was human nature to want to be like God. This is the aspect that the serpent appeals to in his discussion with Eve in the garden. When Adam and Eve eat of the fruit they do become like God. Now instead of only knowing good they are not introduced to the issue of evil. As we have seen throughout human history is the fact that while God is able to comprehend good and evil and remain good man cannot. At the point where Adam and Eve became more like God their human nature was corrupted. The issue of sin and evil are now ingrained in the human nature. James shows us the different ways the divine and the human natures react to this issue of evil. James 1:13b God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. James 1:14 But each one is tempted when He is carried away by his own lust. We see here that God’s divine nature is able to withstand the knowledge of evil but the human nature cannot. We were designed by God to be blissfully naïve to the idea of evil. So how do we balance this corruption of our natures? It must be balanced by the true knowledge in God’s word and if we apply that knowledge we will be able to exercise self-control. If Eve had trusted in the knowledge she had in God she would not have eaten the fruit and If Adam had trusted in the knowledge he had he would not have let her eat of it in the first place! Self-control is founded in our knowledge of God’s mind because ours has been twisted and skewed by our unintended knowledge of evil.
Once we start the exercise of self-control we will see perseverance begin to take place. Look back at James 1 and see what he encourages us to do, consider it JOY, when you encounter hardship! How do we do that? Remember that everything you have pertaining to life (joy) and godliness has been granted to you. Because trials come to test our faith and to see if we can exercise self-control. We practice self-control by following Romans 12:1 where we daily offer up our human nature in exchange for the divine nature. The more we do this the easier it becomes. The truth is that we will never arrive at our destination here on earth so all we can do is persevere through life.
As we push on and persevere people will start to notice something changing in our lives. The bystander will see something and that is godliness. Without watching the process of transformation people would be intimidated. Live your live openly so people can witness what God is doing. You are not here on earth to just get by! You are here as a beacon of light shining out in the darkness for the world to see Jesus Christ. We need to live consistent God honoring lives. The Christian life is not about perfection it is about progress. We are already perfect in God’s eyes now we need to show people what it looks like to live in that truth. It would be a shame if people looked at us Christians and came away thinking that we are better than them. We are not, Christ is through us! We were all sinners we just happened to admit it and ask for help! Self-control is caging your nature and unleashing God’s! This is how you persevere! The beauty of living a godly life is that we do not do it God does it for us but we have to stop putting ourselves in the way.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
2 Peter 1:5
2 Peter 1:5
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
Now that we have heard all of this amazing truth about what the divine nature that is granted to us does for us as believers we must jump into the arena of application. The next few verses deal with what our practical response to God’s magnificent promises should be. Do not forget that these are a response to what God has done for us and that this is only possible through the grace that God has given to us. From verse four we see that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Peter does not say we will escape the corruption but we have escaped already. And for this reason we must apply all diligence. What diligence is Peter talking about? And does this fall into the area of works? The diligence that Peter is talking about is our devotion to the true knowledge of God which we know through the word of God. Often times it is so easy for a Christian to convince himself that it is better to not read the Bible out of duty than to read it with a poor spirit. I disagree because even if we read the word just to read it the Bible says in Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. It is our responsibility to be diligent in our spiritual disciplines. Keep it simple, I don’t care if you want to pray or not do it anyways! God’s nature is divine and it can and does overwhelm our own nature. So even if you approach the Bible or a time of prayer with poor intentions God has the ability to work on your heart because even though you do not want to you are being obedient. Be diligent!
And after you are done gritting your teething and setting good habits of being in the word you will find the next step something that can be accomplished instead of an insurmountable task! Peter tells us that in our faith we need to supply moral excellence. So often we want our Christian lives to be all about what God can do for us. We have turned the Christian life into a self-help exorcize. We walk up and down the Christian Inspiration isle of bookstores looking for the next Sanctification for Dummies book telling us formulas on how to be better Christians and how God wants our lives to be easy and happy. We are responsible through faith, through God’s divine nature for our moral excellence. We are already pure and holy in God’s sight as Christians that is what salvation is about! So we need to start acting like God sees us. This just popped into my head and I have not done any research on the Bible to know if this truly is a Biblical idea or not but the more we sin we are in essence making God out to be a liar! God has declared us righteous so every time we sin we contradict that statement! If our moral excellence is lacking think about our testimony to non-Christians. But how do we supply moral excellence, why is it so hard to do? It is hard because we fail at being diligent and we fail at being diligent because we fail to acknowledge the divine nature that has been given to us. Another reason I truly think we fail at supplying moral excellence is because we try to obtain excellence for ourselves. What is our motive for purity and sanctification? As I said earlier I think Christians are so preoccupied with personal sanctification as a means of personal fulfillment that they miss out on the point of being a Christian. If God was truly concerned with sanctification for our personal benefit He would remove it from the equation! We are left on this earth for other people as a witness and testimony of God’s love. It is our progressive sanctification that lets people see God! So the motive we need to have as we supply moral excellence is for the benefit of other people. It is this act of selflessness that enables us to be morally pure because we are not focusing on our selfish desires!
After we provide moral excellence we need to strive for more knowledge! As we become more morally pure we can engage the Bible on a greater level. We can dive deeper into what God is saying to us. Our moral excellence refines us and refines the lens and our focus as we read the word. But how do we supply moral excellence? We do it through being others focused so now we can read the Bible focusing on others instead of ourselves! Just Imagine what our Christian fellowship would be like if everyone is searching the Bible to learn things to share with others?
My charge to you is to put others before yourself this week. Instead of praying for yourself pray for others this week. Ask your friends what you can pray for!
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
Now that we have heard all of this amazing truth about what the divine nature that is granted to us does for us as believers we must jump into the arena of application. The next few verses deal with what our practical response to God’s magnificent promises should be. Do not forget that these are a response to what God has done for us and that this is only possible through the grace that God has given to us. From verse four we see that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Peter does not say we will escape the corruption but we have escaped already. And for this reason we must apply all diligence. What diligence is Peter talking about? And does this fall into the area of works? The diligence that Peter is talking about is our devotion to the true knowledge of God which we know through the word of God. Often times it is so easy for a Christian to convince himself that it is better to not read the Bible out of duty than to read it with a poor spirit. I disagree because even if we read the word just to read it the Bible says in Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. It is our responsibility to be diligent in our spiritual disciplines. Keep it simple, I don’t care if you want to pray or not do it anyways! God’s nature is divine and it can and does overwhelm our own nature. So even if you approach the Bible or a time of prayer with poor intentions God has the ability to work on your heart because even though you do not want to you are being obedient. Be diligent!
And after you are done gritting your teething and setting good habits of being in the word you will find the next step something that can be accomplished instead of an insurmountable task! Peter tells us that in our faith we need to supply moral excellence. So often we want our Christian lives to be all about what God can do for us. We have turned the Christian life into a self-help exorcize. We walk up and down the Christian Inspiration isle of bookstores looking for the next Sanctification for Dummies book telling us formulas on how to be better Christians and how God wants our lives to be easy and happy. We are responsible through faith, through God’s divine nature for our moral excellence. We are already pure and holy in God’s sight as Christians that is what salvation is about! So we need to start acting like God sees us. This just popped into my head and I have not done any research on the Bible to know if this truly is a Biblical idea or not but the more we sin we are in essence making God out to be a liar! God has declared us righteous so every time we sin we contradict that statement! If our moral excellence is lacking think about our testimony to non-Christians. But how do we supply moral excellence, why is it so hard to do? It is hard because we fail at being diligent and we fail at being diligent because we fail to acknowledge the divine nature that has been given to us. Another reason I truly think we fail at supplying moral excellence is because we try to obtain excellence for ourselves. What is our motive for purity and sanctification? As I said earlier I think Christians are so preoccupied with personal sanctification as a means of personal fulfillment that they miss out on the point of being a Christian. If God was truly concerned with sanctification for our personal benefit He would remove it from the equation! We are left on this earth for other people as a witness and testimony of God’s love. It is our progressive sanctification that lets people see God! So the motive we need to have as we supply moral excellence is for the benefit of other people. It is this act of selflessness that enables us to be morally pure because we are not focusing on our selfish desires!
After we provide moral excellence we need to strive for more knowledge! As we become more morally pure we can engage the Bible on a greater level. We can dive deeper into what God is saying to us. Our moral excellence refines us and refines the lens and our focus as we read the word. But how do we supply moral excellence? We do it through being others focused so now we can read the Bible focusing on others instead of ourselves! Just Imagine what our Christian fellowship would be like if everyone is searching the Bible to learn things to share with others?
My charge to you is to put others before yourself this week. Instead of praying for yourself pray for others this week. Ask your friends what you can pray for!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
2 Peter 1:4
2 Peter 1:4
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
If you have already forgotten the “these” Peter is talking about they are the fullness of life and godliness God has granted to us. We have been given everything we need for life and godliness and through that his promises are granted to us. We see here that God’s promises are magnificent but never forget that God’s value judgment places a high price on joy over happiness. God’s promises are for our joy not our happiness. American Christians have a hard time with this principle because we are Americans we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness! It is our right as Americans to pursue happiness but it is our duty to seek God as Christians. The pursuit of happiness seems to be to be the exact opposite of the pursuit of joy in God. We see this throughout the Bible and the Israelites we such a great example of this. At the very end of Judges after we have seen so many ups and downs, failures and successes, rebellion and returns, we see that everyone returned to their homes and their inheritances and they did what was right in their own eyes. These were people who were seeking happiness and not God. When we are happy it is so easy to forget what God has done in our lives. Before I go any further I need to address something. Some of you maybe thinking that I am anti-happiness and that I think the Christian life is a life of hardship and sadness. That is not the case, I love to be happy! When things in life are going great I am happy and I enjoy it. I love to be in a good mood and to laugh and to be happy but I do not live my life striving for it. Happiness is fleeting it comes and goes. There are days when I am happy and there are days when I am angry or sad but in the midst of all of that I have Joy in my God who knows what is best for me. When you are happy enjoy it and praise God but never lose sight of Him never do what is right in your own eyes! Do not forget God in His blessing because His blessing is not our god!
Joy and godliness, by these we are granted God’s promises. God promises us eternal life through His son Jesus Christ who died for our sins on the cross. We have the promise of an eternal relationship with the God of the universe. That is an awesome promise! And it is through this relationship with God that we can take part in His divine nature. “To err is human, to forgive is divine,” Alexander Pope. This quote shows us what we have in this divine nature. We have been granted the opportunity to exchange our human nature for the divine. Human nature seeks happiness because it is above all else selfish. When we partake in the divine we have the ability to be selfless and in being selfless we can experience joy. I can take joy in the spiritual growth of another even if it comes at the expense of my personal happiness but that is because of the divine! My human nature is too seek my happiness above all else but because Christ died for me I can enter into his Nature which is divine. We are all scarred by our own sinful nature we have deep wounds because we have lived life seeking our own happiness many times at the expense of others but Christ has offered us a better way a better life.
In Christ we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Lust here is our sinful desires, our selfish nature. Do we seek happiness above all else or do we seek God? When we seek God to we follow Him when he calls us to forgo our happiness for His will? It is not easy to trade happiness for joy but it is necessary. The world and our sinful nature only offers corruption. In the Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis writes that the devils cannot create a single pleasure the most they can do is to take all the pleasures God has taken and corrupt them. They do this by encouraging us to partake of God’s pleasure in an improper way, to an improper degree, or at an improper time. God created everything that is good and right. He created things like sex which the world has corrupted and claimed as its own. God calls us to live for Him by sacrificing our sinful natures daily in Romans 12 but why would we not want to? We get to trade our sinfulness for His glory! We not only escape the corruption of the world but we can enjoy God’s pleasures in the correct context to their full extent! This is what joy has to offer so I urge you seek God and his joy instead of happiness. When god blesses you and you feel happy praise Him and seek Him more earnestly. His nature is divine and in it we have the ability to truly enjoy this life.
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
If you have already forgotten the “these” Peter is talking about they are the fullness of life and godliness God has granted to us. We have been given everything we need for life and godliness and through that his promises are granted to us. We see here that God’s promises are magnificent but never forget that God’s value judgment places a high price on joy over happiness. God’s promises are for our joy not our happiness. American Christians have a hard time with this principle because we are Americans we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness! It is our right as Americans to pursue happiness but it is our duty to seek God as Christians. The pursuit of happiness seems to be to be the exact opposite of the pursuit of joy in God. We see this throughout the Bible and the Israelites we such a great example of this. At the very end of Judges after we have seen so many ups and downs, failures and successes, rebellion and returns, we see that everyone returned to their homes and their inheritances and they did what was right in their own eyes. These were people who were seeking happiness and not God. When we are happy it is so easy to forget what God has done in our lives. Before I go any further I need to address something. Some of you maybe thinking that I am anti-happiness and that I think the Christian life is a life of hardship and sadness. That is not the case, I love to be happy! When things in life are going great I am happy and I enjoy it. I love to be in a good mood and to laugh and to be happy but I do not live my life striving for it. Happiness is fleeting it comes and goes. There are days when I am happy and there are days when I am angry or sad but in the midst of all of that I have Joy in my God who knows what is best for me. When you are happy enjoy it and praise God but never lose sight of Him never do what is right in your own eyes! Do not forget God in His blessing because His blessing is not our god!
Joy and godliness, by these we are granted God’s promises. God promises us eternal life through His son Jesus Christ who died for our sins on the cross. We have the promise of an eternal relationship with the God of the universe. That is an awesome promise! And it is through this relationship with God that we can take part in His divine nature. “To err is human, to forgive is divine,” Alexander Pope. This quote shows us what we have in this divine nature. We have been granted the opportunity to exchange our human nature for the divine. Human nature seeks happiness because it is above all else selfish. When we partake in the divine we have the ability to be selfless and in being selfless we can experience joy. I can take joy in the spiritual growth of another even if it comes at the expense of my personal happiness but that is because of the divine! My human nature is too seek my happiness above all else but because Christ died for me I can enter into his Nature which is divine. We are all scarred by our own sinful nature we have deep wounds because we have lived life seeking our own happiness many times at the expense of others but Christ has offered us a better way a better life.
In Christ we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Lust here is our sinful desires, our selfish nature. Do we seek happiness above all else or do we seek God? When we seek God to we follow Him when he calls us to forgo our happiness for His will? It is not easy to trade happiness for joy but it is necessary. The world and our sinful nature only offers corruption. In the Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis writes that the devils cannot create a single pleasure the most they can do is to take all the pleasures God has taken and corrupt them. They do this by encouraging us to partake of God’s pleasure in an improper way, to an improper degree, or at an improper time. God created everything that is good and right. He created things like sex which the world has corrupted and claimed as its own. God calls us to live for Him by sacrificing our sinful natures daily in Romans 12 but why would we not want to? We get to trade our sinfulness for His glory! We not only escape the corruption of the world but we can enjoy God’s pleasures in the correct context to their full extent! This is what joy has to offer so I urge you seek God and his joy instead of happiness. When god blesses you and you feel happy praise Him and seek Him more earnestly. His nature is divine and in it we have the ability to truly enjoy this life.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
2 Peter 1:3
2 Peter 1:3
Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Maybe I am making too much of a simple word but seeing just jumped out at me. The idea that we have to be looking and aware of what God is doing around us. It is so easy to get focused on the everyday that we miss the work that God is performing right in front of us. Another thing many Christians do incorrectly is they fix their eyes on heaven but we are to fix our eyes on Christ. Christ is in the world and we need to interact with Him on a daily level. Peter is assuming that his audience is seeing what God has done and what He is continuing to do. So what has gone done for us that we are supposed to see? His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. It is important that we keep God’s divine power at the forefront of our thoughts because nothing we do outside of Him is truly effective. It is by His power not our own that we have everything we need for life and godliness. We do not have the power to live or to be godly by our own means we must rely on God for the ability to live. I love what the Bible has to say about life because it is so vastly different from what the world thinks about it. For the non-Christian happiness is the ultimate goal of life. If it makes you happy you should pursue it, no one has the right to deny you this pursuit and it should be sought above all else. God has a very different view of what life is and the most quoted verse on His thought has to be John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. But what is this abundant life that Christ talks about? John 15 tells us about abiding in Christ that is where life is. After He talks about this abiding life He does not talk about happiness but joy. John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. We see that the world strives for happiness while the Christian should strive for joy. Just look at what Christ says about the world reaction to our abundant life in John 15 the world will hate us because they hated Christ. Joy is so much more important and so much greater than happiness. If you are wondering what the difference is between the two it is an emotion versus a state of being. Happiness is the result of circumstance and emotion it can change and fluctuate but joy is a state of being. Joy is not based on our circumstance but it is based on our belief in God. We can mourn and be sad and still full of joy because we have God. God has equipped us to live this life. We do not have to earn this joy he has already given it to us by His divine power. His divine power needs to be brought up again because if joy is not based on circumstance it needs to be based on something stronger, something that does not change and that is through God’s power.
Now that we see that joy is to be our focus and not happiness it helps us to view others as more important than ourselves. Joy can be taken even when we do not get what we want because we rejoice that God does what He wants we can move on to godliness. Do you see how closely these two things tie into each other? How can we be godly if we are not full of His joy? Our joy enables us to love others more than ourselves and to allow the will of God to prevail even when in all honesty it makes us unhappy. Do you think Paul was happy to be stoned and shipwrecked? Do you think he was happy when he was beaten and lashed? We see that he was not happy with the thorn in his flesh but he was full of joy! God works in our lives through hardship so we can have joy that leads us to godliness.
How do we keep this in focus when life circumstances get so hard? Through the true knowledge of Him, we must know His word. We can make up all sorts of crazy theology about God if we ignore the true knowledge of God’s word. This is most evident today in the health and prosperity gospel. The idea that God is supremely concerned with our happiness take the focus off of God and puts it on us. I do not know about you but I have found that God is way more important than I am. I am humbled that He died for me… He died for us! We all know how messed up we are but He loves us. We have our importance not independent of Him but through Him. God’s word is full of godly people suffering. Job was not a happy man he wished he was never born but he was able to have joy in the midst of this suffering because He knew God. It was his friends who did not know God who gave him awful advise! It is so important that we base our faith on God’s word and not our emotions. God loves us and He takes care of us! He called us by His glory and His excellence! It is about Him and in Him we have joy and godliness! This is life!
Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Maybe I am making too much of a simple word but seeing just jumped out at me. The idea that we have to be looking and aware of what God is doing around us. It is so easy to get focused on the everyday that we miss the work that God is performing right in front of us. Another thing many Christians do incorrectly is they fix their eyes on heaven but we are to fix our eyes on Christ. Christ is in the world and we need to interact with Him on a daily level. Peter is assuming that his audience is seeing what God has done and what He is continuing to do. So what has gone done for us that we are supposed to see? His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. It is important that we keep God’s divine power at the forefront of our thoughts because nothing we do outside of Him is truly effective. It is by His power not our own that we have everything we need for life and godliness. We do not have the power to live or to be godly by our own means we must rely on God for the ability to live. I love what the Bible has to say about life because it is so vastly different from what the world thinks about it. For the non-Christian happiness is the ultimate goal of life. If it makes you happy you should pursue it, no one has the right to deny you this pursuit and it should be sought above all else. God has a very different view of what life is and the most quoted verse on His thought has to be John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. But what is this abundant life that Christ talks about? John 15 tells us about abiding in Christ that is where life is. After He talks about this abiding life He does not talk about happiness but joy. John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. We see that the world strives for happiness while the Christian should strive for joy. Just look at what Christ says about the world reaction to our abundant life in John 15 the world will hate us because they hated Christ. Joy is so much more important and so much greater than happiness. If you are wondering what the difference is between the two it is an emotion versus a state of being. Happiness is the result of circumstance and emotion it can change and fluctuate but joy is a state of being. Joy is not based on our circumstance but it is based on our belief in God. We can mourn and be sad and still full of joy because we have God. God has equipped us to live this life. We do not have to earn this joy he has already given it to us by His divine power. His divine power needs to be brought up again because if joy is not based on circumstance it needs to be based on something stronger, something that does not change and that is through God’s power.
Now that we see that joy is to be our focus and not happiness it helps us to view others as more important than ourselves. Joy can be taken even when we do not get what we want because we rejoice that God does what He wants we can move on to godliness. Do you see how closely these two things tie into each other? How can we be godly if we are not full of His joy? Our joy enables us to love others more than ourselves and to allow the will of God to prevail even when in all honesty it makes us unhappy. Do you think Paul was happy to be stoned and shipwrecked? Do you think he was happy when he was beaten and lashed? We see that he was not happy with the thorn in his flesh but he was full of joy! God works in our lives through hardship so we can have joy that leads us to godliness.
How do we keep this in focus when life circumstances get so hard? Through the true knowledge of Him, we must know His word. We can make up all sorts of crazy theology about God if we ignore the true knowledge of God’s word. This is most evident today in the health and prosperity gospel. The idea that God is supremely concerned with our happiness take the focus off of God and puts it on us. I do not know about you but I have found that God is way more important than I am. I am humbled that He died for me… He died for us! We all know how messed up we are but He loves us. We have our importance not independent of Him but through Him. God’s word is full of godly people suffering. Job was not a happy man he wished he was never born but he was able to have joy in the midst of this suffering because He knew God. It was his friends who did not know God who gave him awful advise! It is so important that we base our faith on God’s word and not our emotions. God loves us and He takes care of us! He called us by His glory and His excellence! It is about Him and in Him we have joy and godliness! This is life!
2 Peter 1:2
2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
The New Testament authors almost always bookend their letters with grace and peace. This is a standard greeting all throughout the New Testament and yet another thing that has fallen from our current practice of Christianity. We enter church not for fellowship but for self edification, we do not go into church with others in the forefront of our minds. We are consumed with our own thoughts. We wonder What will God teach me today? Or we are to paralyzed by our sin to look outside of ourselves. We need to greet one another with grace and peace. Peter is concerned for the people he is writing this letter to. He wants the to grow in Christ. He wants the grace and the peace that we already poses as believes to be multiplied. The Christian life cannot be satisfied with the initial level of grace and peace we are supplied with. This seems strange because upon salvation we have perfect grace and perfect peace inhabiting us through the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is about abundance, the idea that perfection can be multiplied and increase. We are still imprisoned by our flesh and sinful nature as long as we live on this earth but we know God and as we grow in knowledge of Him we are able to shed our old selves and to run into the perfection that inhabits us. Grace and peace are not really multiplied to us but through greater knowledge of Christ our flesh is divided from us. The more we know God the more grace and peace abound so that we can give it to each other. The more I read the word of God I am convinced that everything we do as Christians should be motivated by others. I should strive to know God more so I can represent His grace and peace more accurately to others. His grace and peace is not intended to be hoarded. Seek to know God not for selfish gain but so that you can pour out His grace and peace to others around you. Stop reading the word for personal gain and know God!
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
The New Testament authors almost always bookend their letters with grace and peace. This is a standard greeting all throughout the New Testament and yet another thing that has fallen from our current practice of Christianity. We enter church not for fellowship but for self edification, we do not go into church with others in the forefront of our minds. We are consumed with our own thoughts. We wonder What will God teach me today? Or we are to paralyzed by our sin to look outside of ourselves. We need to greet one another with grace and peace. Peter is concerned for the people he is writing this letter to. He wants the to grow in Christ. He wants the grace and the peace that we already poses as believes to be multiplied. The Christian life cannot be satisfied with the initial level of grace and peace we are supplied with. This seems strange because upon salvation we have perfect grace and perfect peace inhabiting us through the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is about abundance, the idea that perfection can be multiplied and increase. We are still imprisoned by our flesh and sinful nature as long as we live on this earth but we know God and as we grow in knowledge of Him we are able to shed our old selves and to run into the perfection that inhabits us. Grace and peace are not really multiplied to us but through greater knowledge of Christ our flesh is divided from us. The more we know God the more grace and peace abound so that we can give it to each other. The more I read the word of God I am convinced that everything we do as Christians should be motivated by others. I should strive to know God more so I can represent His grace and peace more accurately to others. His grace and peace is not intended to be hoarded. Seek to know God not for selfish gain but so that you can pour out His grace and peace to others around you. Stop reading the word for personal gain and know God!
2 Peter 1:1
2 Peter 1:1
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
It is so important to take notice of the simple introduction Peter offers of himself. He like Paul starts his letter by stating that he is a servant. How easy is it for us Christians to take advantage of our Christianity and to never acknowledge the fact that we are bought at a price 1 Cor. 6:20. We are saved by God and purchased into his servitude. So, we will keep this in mind as we study each verse of this book, We are servants of God! So what do we know about servants? Servants are at the mercy of their master. A servant does not have an option to follow or not he is the property of his master. We are at the advantage as Christians because our master is pure, holy and just. There is no evil in our master so it should be easy for us to follow what He commands us to do. Peter tells us who is master is, Christ! Jesus Christ is our good and holy master who sends us servants into various ministries of service. Peters act of service here specifically is to write a letter to other Christians.
Peter is writing to those of us who have been saved through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Stop here! We must try to grasp how great this truth is, we are saved through Jesus Christ’s righteousness. Why on earth would the God of the universe give us His righteousness? In perfect honesty I have no idea why we are objects of God’s love and that He would grant us his righteousness. It is through this righteousness that we are able to receive this faith. This faith is described as precious. Do we really consider our faith a precious gift? We love the fact that we have been saved but rarely do we hold as precious. When we have something precious we spend all of our time thinking about it we cherish what we view as precious. This is how we need to view this faith that we have been granted. Hold on to faith, and contemplate it, obsess over it, but do not forget that faith is nothing more than what it is based on. Faith in faith is worthless so remember that this faith is through righteousness. Not just any righteousness but Christ’s righteousness! We have faith in Christ and that must be the main thrust of anything we study. So the two things we need to keep in constant focus is that we are servants and must obey and that our servitude is precious to us.
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
It is so important to take notice of the simple introduction Peter offers of himself. He like Paul starts his letter by stating that he is a servant. How easy is it for us Christians to take advantage of our Christianity and to never acknowledge the fact that we are bought at a price 1 Cor. 6:20. We are saved by God and purchased into his servitude. So, we will keep this in mind as we study each verse of this book, We are servants of God! So what do we know about servants? Servants are at the mercy of their master. A servant does not have an option to follow or not he is the property of his master. We are at the advantage as Christians because our master is pure, holy and just. There is no evil in our master so it should be easy for us to follow what He commands us to do. Peter tells us who is master is, Christ! Jesus Christ is our good and holy master who sends us servants into various ministries of service. Peters act of service here specifically is to write a letter to other Christians.
Peter is writing to those of us who have been saved through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Stop here! We must try to grasp how great this truth is, we are saved through Jesus Christ’s righteousness. Why on earth would the God of the universe give us His righteousness? In perfect honesty I have no idea why we are objects of God’s love and that He would grant us his righteousness. It is through this righteousness that we are able to receive this faith. This faith is described as precious. Do we really consider our faith a precious gift? We love the fact that we have been saved but rarely do we hold as precious. When we have something precious we spend all of our time thinking about it we cherish what we view as precious. This is how we need to view this faith that we have been granted. Hold on to faith, and contemplate it, obsess over it, but do not forget that faith is nothing more than what it is based on. Faith in faith is worthless so remember that this faith is through righteousness. Not just any righteousness but Christ’s righteousness! We have faith in Christ and that must be the main thrust of anything we study. So the two things we need to keep in constant focus is that we are servants and must obey and that our servitude is precious to us.
My intention
Dear Reader,
I hope this blog finds you well. This blog is going to be a verse by verse study of various books of the Bible. I write the same way I talk and most of these are just my thoughts streaming out of my mind and onto the page. I want this to be used as a means of encouragement please give me feed back and let me know what you find helpful or what you find harmful. Read this blog with your Bible in hand and investigate what God is saying to you through my humble thoughts on His amazing word of grace and truth.
I hope this blog finds you well. This blog is going to be a verse by verse study of various books of the Bible. I write the same way I talk and most of these are just my thoughts streaming out of my mind and onto the page. I want this to be used as a means of encouragement please give me feed back and let me know what you find helpful or what you find harmful. Read this blog with your Bible in hand and investigate what God is saying to you through my humble thoughts on His amazing word of grace and truth.
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