Good morning. This morning were going to get a little happier than we have been. We're going to look at the first chapter of second Peter. The first half of this chapter is so poetical. Poetical – from a fisherman? Absolutely! So many things come in pairs. I will point them out in parentheses. Starting with verse two: Grace and peace (1) be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord (2); seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness (3), through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence (4). For by these has granted to us His precious and magnificent (5) promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Five pairs in just a few verses. God Himself has given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness. He gave it to us when we made Jesus Lord of our lives. We didn't have to seek it; we didn't have to earn it. He gave it to us! How did He give it to us – through the true knowledge of Him. He gave us all of those promises; not just little ones, but magnificent ones. Why? That we might become partakers of the divine nature. God's very nature is living inside of us. That nature wants to live according to God's word. We don't have to drum up that desire – it's already living inside us! We just have to allow it control of our lives. That's the hard part. As I've said before, we have to let go and let God. Our very innermost being wants to live according to God's word. It's up to us to choose whether to do so or not. We have to give up our will and surrender to His. Too many times that's hard to do. But it's not to harm us – it's for our very own good. Father help the reader to know just how much You love him/her; and just how much You've given him/her – he/she has all he/she needs through Your magnificent promises to him/her.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

  Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
Read more

Merry Christmas!

   Good morning, and Merry Christmas! We are going to digress and look at the first Christmas. This was something that had been foretold centuries before; and yet people still did not understand what was going to happen. They were thinking that the Messiah was going to come as an adult and was going to re-establish the nation of Israel above all other nations. They were not expecting Him to come as a baby, supposedly born to a carpenter and placed in a manger. Many things had to happen at precisely the right time. You had to have the right person to be His mother and the right person to be His supposed father. You had to have a reason for them to be in Bethlehem on the night He was born – the census. It had to be when shepherds would be in the field near Bethlehem watching their flocks. And just at the right time – an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them...
Read more
  Good morning. So Peter just told them that basically they were responsible for the death of Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we will see much later, it seems that at this point in time they believed that you could not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit without first being baptized in water. It appears that that idea did not change until chapter 10 after God baptized Cornelius and his family in the Holy Spirit before they were water baptized. Now lest someone think that this was just for the people in the first century Peter then says, for the promise (of the Father - baptism in the Holy Spirit) is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. That means us! And...
Read more