Pastor’s Blog 9.5.18

Last week we ended with this set of scriptures:

2 Peter 1:5-11

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. NKJV

There is an old school saying that “a man is only as good as his word”. I have never found someone I agree with on everything, have you? If you answer yes, I would say “so far”. With the current rate of divorce and relational betrayal going on in our secular and church cultures, one thing we must remember is – God is faithful! He will never leave or forsake us, and even though we can leave and forsake Him, he will never be to blame. All change is with us because God isn’t changing… He doesn’t need to because He is right. Verse 10 above says “if we do these things we will never stumble”. That’s about as close to an ironclad guarantee as you will ever get!

So, as we begin in faith and continue to allow God to mold our virtue or character, we begin a blessed successful life don’t we? The corresponding list of developmental things that follow are like building a house sequentially and ending up with a home that will protect us from the elements for a lifetime! I think of so many who start in faith but don’t continue to develop the other characteristics (being Godliness) and self-sabotage is the result.

How about you? What if you rated yourself on a scale of 1-10 with each of these characteristics. How would you rate yourself? Can you be honest in self-assessment? Can you allow others to help you see your blind spots so you can grow into the blessed life? Or will you become offended when someone points out your needed areas of growth?

Virtue
Knowledge
Self-Control
Perseverance
Godliness
Brotherly Kindness and love

Here are so verses to meditate on:

Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. NKJV

Psalm 141:5 Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked. NKJV

Hebrews 12:5-11 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. NKJV