Good morning. Hope you had
a great day yesterday. Today's inspiration comes from second Peter. It's a long
series of things that I will interrupt as we go along. For this reason also,
applying all diligence (in other words, it's not going to happen all on its own.
You have to really work at it and stay with it.) in your faith supply moral
excellence (One thing lacking today with too many Christians is moral
excellence. They are too lax. They let things slide. You can barely tell the
difference between them and people in the world. Remember we should do the
right thing even when it's to our harm.), and in your moral excellence,
knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control (What, me control myself? Don't
we have freedom? Just because we can doesn't mean we should. What we do when no
one is looking reveals who is in charge of our life.), and in your
self-control, perseverance (we have to stick with it even when doing good seems
to not bring any benefit, or even harms us.), and in your perseverance,
godliness (that seems like a good goal. However you can become like the
Pharisees. You have a rigid set of rules that determines that you are godly and
no one else is.); and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your
brotherly kindness, love (you can have brotherly kindness, but without love it
is meaningless. You only do it to prove that you are godly.). For if these
qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless not
unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks
these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification
from his former sins. As long as you practice these things, you will never
stumble. So there you have it. If you ever wanted to know how to keep from
stumbling, well here is a list. Father help us all to be diligent to have these
qualities in our lives. Help us to show Your love to those around us. We want
people to see You in our lives, so that they will want to become believers
also.
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...
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