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Being Effective...

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:8) One of my passions (compulsions) since 2020 is becoming competent. I want to be able to take care of myself so that I’m not a burden to others and so I can help those who need it. I’m trying to learn about gardening and all sorts of practical skills toward that end. But what today’s verse suggests is that the faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love mentioned in yesterday’s passage will prevent me from being ineffective and unproductive in my knowledge of Jesus Christ - and by extension, in my knowledge of everyone else. The two ideas go hand-in-hand. If we are going to be effective in my knowledge of Jesus Christ or others, learning how to do practical things will increase our ability to act on our faith, do good, control ourselves

Learn To Use Your Tools

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting they have been cleansed from their past sins. (II Peter 1:5-9) Yesterday, the points were that living a godly life isn’t necessarily as complicated, difficult, or dramatic as we may make it out to be, and that God is, has, and makes available all we need to live a godly life. In today’s passage. So why does Peter start listing off qualities we’re supposed to “make every effort” to add to our lives? Isn’t that the opposite of what he said yesterday? If someone gives you a tool

Not Enough

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desire s. (II Peter 1:3-4) I’ve told the story before of arguing with God (in the logical, not the emotional sense) about not being a jogger, or a poet, or “good enough” or “ready” because I didn’t have something, didn’t do something, didn’t something something necessary to be whatever I was denying. Then this verse says that God has already given me everything I need for a godly life. Oh, maybe He gave everyone else what they needed. Clearly, He missed me in the shuffle. Someone else must have a double dose. I’m exaggerating - a tiny bit. I suspect I’m not the only one who thinks, “I have everything I need? Is He crazy?” Just to start with, I don’t

The Biggest Temptations

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) The Bible makes it clear that Eve was deceived. In Under Cover , John Bever points out that the first thing the serpent does is to change the focus from all that she could freely do to the one thing she was told not to do. He went on to suggest that God was withholding godhood or equality with God from her, when the truth is that equality with God simply isn’t possible. One must be les

Idols

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them . (Hebrews 7:25) In some ways, the ancient pagans had it easy. They had statues to show them their gods. That’s probably one of the reasons the Roman Catholic Church got so into crucifixes and stained-glass windows. Another reason was to depict the stories told in Scripture to people who couldn’t read or didn’t have books. The Jews were commanded not to make images to represent God. Eventually, He sent His own representation and Representative, who lived sinlessly, taught, performed miracles, died, and rose again. Only 20 years later, however, Paul was chiding the Corinthian church for getting hung up and divided over Peter, Paul, and Apollos. We’re still doing the same thing today. Whether it’s preachers, teachers, celebrities, athletes or their teams, scientists or other experts, or politicians, we choose our champions and are ready to g

Worry

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? (Matthew 6:25) Yesterday, I listened to a three-part discussion between John Ortberg and another clinical psychologist on this passage, and remembered a time years ago when I realized that I was literally worrying about nothing. I recognized that what I was doing was worrying. I asked myself what I was worrying about - and could not come up with an answer. I was (and am?) so in the habit of worrying that even without a locus, I was just doing what came naturally. As I’ve shared before, I also tend to worry about “missing my exit” whether on a road trip (thank God for GPSes!) or in life. God has made it clear to me that He won’t let me miss my exit. But I’m in a time of life that feels like I’m trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be when I grow up - and the problem is that I think I have to b