Posted in Faith Builders
JESUS IS COMING SOON! MARANATHA LORD!
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Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
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By this power we have been given the precious promises of God, and the ability to partake in the divine nature, that is we have been given the chance to one day be transformed into His image. Being set free from the depravity of this fallen world, we will one day be transformed into pure, undistorted images of God.
Because of these promises and assurance, we need to be diligent in making the most of what we have been given. We are told to "add" to the things we have been given. The Greek word translated "add" in this verse can mean "add" in the same sense it does in English, that is to contribute or fully supply something, but it can also mean to aid and assist, or to minister nourishment to something. So we are to aid, assist, and minister nourishment to all hose things God has given us which pertain to life and godliness.
We are like farmers who already have all things that pertain to farming and reaping a good harvest. The farmer may have land with rich fertile soil, a plow, plenty of water, sunshine, seed, and fertilizer, however he must put them to use if he desires a bountiful harvest. If the land is never plowed, if the seed is never planted, watered, or fertilized, he won't have a harvest. So we also must put to use these things God has given us, and nurture them to maturity. In doing so we will enjoy an increase, and abundance of fruit in our walk with our Lord.
We have been given faith, we must put that faith into practice to produce virtue. It is interesting that the Greek word translated virtue means "valor" and "excellence". So what does valor mean? The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines valor as "strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness : personal bravery". It is our faith, put into practice, that will give us this strength of mind or spirit, this personal bravery that we need to do what God has called us to do. Our faith in God tells us we don't need to fear, then this strength of mind and spirit will allow us to do all that God calls us to, and to do it with excellence.
We are also told add to knowledge to that virtue. So faith comes first, which gives rise to the valor we need to live Godly, then we need to tend to knowledge. By careful study of God's word, we will learn what we should do and how we should walk, this will give us the chance to nourish and encourage self-control in order to live by that knowledge. Self-control will require the use of our perseverance, because every day we will face many challenges to that self-control, and will need to keep going, and not give up. This will all aid and nurture godliness in our lives. We also need to nurture brotherly kindness and love.
If we don't nurture, nourish, and encourage that which God has supplied us with, we will experience lack, and we will find ourselves unable to keep our eyes on eternity, but rather will shortsightedly look only to the moment. We will not look back and remember our past, nor will we look ahead to our future with Christ. We focus on the present moment and what we want right now. We will even forget that we have been cleansed from our past sins, will forget that we are set free. If we forget that we are free from our past sins, we will find ourselves falling back into them.
We need to be diligent in all this, in order "to make our call and election sure". This is not to say that we are in danger of losing our salvation, or that our election by God is in question, rather it is to assure our own hearts as 1 JOHN 3:19 says, and to keep us from stumbling back into a lifestyle of sin and becoming useless to God.
If we do these things, we will not be unfruitful, we will not be useless to God and to His kingdom. Rather, we will enjoy a bountiful harvest of godly fruit.
Lord, the last thing I ever want is to be useless to you. I desire to serve you with my whole heart. I desire to be used of You to bring others into Your kingdom. Help me Lord to make use of all that you have given to me, to nurture those things and nourish them to maturity in my life, and therefore to enjoy a bountiful harvest of spiritual fruit, and to be of use to You for Your purposes.
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Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
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1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,In Christ we have been given everything we need to live as God calls us to. We cannot claim that we don't have self-control, or patience, or anything else we need for Godly living, because if we are saved, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and if we have the Holy Spirit in us, we will have the fruit of the Spirit. That fruit comes to us by the divine power of God, through knowing Christ.
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:1-11, New King James Version)
By this power we have been given the precious promises of God, and the ability to partake in the divine nature, that is we have been given the chance to one day be transformed into His image. Being set free from the depravity of this fallen world, we will one day be transformed into pure, undistorted images of God.
Because of these promises and assurance, we need to be diligent in making the most of what we have been given. We are told to "add" to the things we have been given. The Greek word translated "add" in this verse can mean "add" in the same sense it does in English, that is to contribute or fully supply something, but it can also mean to aid and assist, or to minister nourishment to something. So we are to aid, assist, and minister nourishment to all hose things God has given us which pertain to life and godliness.
We are like farmers who already have all things that pertain to farming and reaping a good harvest. The farmer may have land with rich fertile soil, a plow, plenty of water, sunshine, seed, and fertilizer, however he must put them to use if he desires a bountiful harvest. If the land is never plowed, if the seed is never planted, watered, or fertilized, he won't have a harvest. So we also must put to use these things God has given us, and nurture them to maturity. In doing so we will enjoy an increase, and abundance of fruit in our walk with our Lord.
We have been given faith, we must put that faith into practice to produce virtue. It is interesting that the Greek word translated virtue means "valor" and "excellence". So what does valor mean? The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines valor as "strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness : personal bravery". It is our faith, put into practice, that will give us this strength of mind or spirit, this personal bravery that we need to do what God has called us to do. Our faith in God tells us we don't need to fear, then this strength of mind and spirit will allow us to do all that God calls us to, and to do it with excellence.
We are also told add to knowledge to that virtue. So faith comes first, which gives rise to the valor we need to live Godly, then we need to tend to knowledge. By careful study of God's word, we will learn what we should do and how we should walk, this will give us the chance to nourish and encourage self-control in order to live by that knowledge. Self-control will require the use of our perseverance, because every day we will face many challenges to that self-control, and will need to keep going, and not give up. This will all aid and nurture godliness in our lives. We also need to nurture brotherly kindness and love.
If we don't nurture, nourish, and encourage that which God has supplied us with, we will experience lack, and we will find ourselves unable to keep our eyes on eternity, but rather will shortsightedly look only to the moment. We will not look back and remember our past, nor will we look ahead to our future with Christ. We focus on the present moment and what we want right now. We will even forget that we have been cleansed from our past sins, will forget that we are set free. If we forget that we are free from our past sins, we will find ourselves falling back into them.
We need to be diligent in all this, in order "to make our call and election sure". This is not to say that we are in danger of losing our salvation, or that our election by God is in question, rather it is to assure our own hearts as 1 JOHN 3:19 says, and to keep us from stumbling back into a lifestyle of sin and becoming useless to God.
If we do these things, we will not be unfruitful, we will not be useless to God and to His kingdom. Rather, we will enjoy a bountiful harvest of godly fruit.
Lord, the last thing I ever want is to be useless to you. I desire to serve you with my whole heart. I desire to be used of You to bring others into Your kingdom. Help me Lord to make use of all that you have given to me, to nurture those things and nourish them to maturity in my life, and therefore to enjoy a bountiful harvest of spiritual fruit, and to be of use to You for Your purposes.
