Peter Described It...We Should Follow It...2Peter 1:5-9

Vital aspects of the Christian life

The list follows – like the rungs of a ladder, with faith at the bottom and love at the top. The seven couplets describe a balanced Christian life and character. It is a beautiful well-rounded picture of what we ought to be, beginning with faith as the root, and the full flower of Christian character. 

Add to faith goodness. Faith has to be balanced by goodness. Doctrine leads to duty; belief leads to behaviour. The goodness implied by the Greek is a good upright life such as the heathen would recognise, goodness in action. Doing what is right in the sight of God, strength of will and moral energy, a day’s work for a day’s pay, an honest job, being dependable, reliable, actual, doing the extra bit, quality work, displaying the character of Jesus. 

Add to goodness knowledge. Goodness has to be balanced by knowledge. Not to be naïve or ignorant, but to understand what we believe and where we stand. Not knocked off balance by every wind of doctrine. Give a reason for your faith and life, why you believe what you do and act the way you act. See how faith applies in practical areas of life. Loving God with your mind, being transformed by the renewing of your mind. After all, the battle for life and holiness begins with the mind. 

Add to knowledge self-control. Firm control and mastery of feelings, affections, tempers, passions, bodily desires and appetites, and money and the tongue. Things which are good in their place, and wonderful servants, but ruinous when they are in control. If we do not master them, they soon master us. Self-control is not popular nowadays, when emphasis is on self-expression, self-assertion and self-indulgence. Beware of the superspiritual approach that tries to pretend we do not need this. All sorts of things are paraded before our eyes and ears nowadays. We are not sheltered from much. And we are flesh and blood like everyone else. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit. We have much to learn from athletes who exercise the sternest discipline and self-control to win their crown. 

Add to self-control perseverance. Perseverance, patience, steadfastness – these are badly needed because even if we can control ourselves, we cannot control our circumstances, and life has much to throw at us. Physical pain, family troubles, many irritations. As Christians we are in a minority and there is plenty to discourage. God seems so inactive. We are in a hurry, and He is not. But we must keep on, unmoved by difficulty or hardship. Believe in God’s calling of us. All is under the hand of the wise and loving God. We know Him in Christ. We have experienced His divine power. That holds us up. We can see everything in the calm light of eternity. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). True mature faith endures, shows stickability. We are God’s children and we are going to have a glorious inheritance. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1). 

Add to perseverance godliness. Right relationship with God and with others. Reverence for God leading to respect for others. Practical awareness of God in every aspect of life. Pleasing God in everything. The glory of God is our motive in all activity. The will of God is our direction in life. Those who fear God find Him a great reality, and have reverence before Him. When they sing praise, they mean it from the heart. They approach the Bible knowing it is God’s Word. The Godly man sets the Lord always before him (Psalm 16:8). Description of Elisha: I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God (2 Kings 4:9) – he reminded people of God. He was God-like. 

Add to godliness brotherly kindness. The Greek word filadelfia is a favourite word of Peter’s.  If we are Godly, we must be brotherly. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20). 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (Matthew 25:40). Let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Galatians 6:10). It is not always easy in practice. Some Christians try our patience and are hard to love. But brotherly love means bearing one another’s burdens, preserving unity, watching our tongues, and not putting a stumbling block before others. 

Add to brotherly kindness love. The top rung of the ladder – love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13). God’s attitude to us is sheer love. He loved us when we were not worthy or attractive. He desired our highest good, and it cost Him the greatest price. He is the model and pattern of our love. Our love should be as wide and inclusive as His. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. God supplies the love. God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). The fruit of the spirit is love.. (Galatians 5:22). 

So we have this ladder, this beautiful picture of Christian character. All the musical parts needed for perfect harmony are here. All the ingredients needed for a healing medicine are here. In view of our new birth, God’s power providing us with enabling, we must make every effort to equip ourselves with such character, adding to our faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. We know our hearts – and we know how much we need all the power of God to meet such a challenge. It would be hopeless to try to attain these things as an unconverted man. But for the believer, it is within reach.

PamzSpamz

God Bless You All

June 21st.  2011

 

The Pencil

A PENCIL MAKER TOLD THE PENCIL 5 IMPORTANT LESSONS JUST BEFORE PUTTING IT IN THE BOX :
1.) EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL ALWAYS LEAVE A MARK ..

2.) YOU CAN ALWAYS CORRECT THE MISTAKES YOU MAKE.

...3.) WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS WHAT IS INSIDE OF YOU.

4.) IN LIFE , YOU WILL UNDERGO PAINFUL SHARPENINGS, WHICH WILL ONLY MAKE YOU BETTER.

5.) TO BE THE BEST PENCIL, YOU MUST ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE HELD AND GUIDED BY THE HAND THAT HOLDS YOU.

We all need to be constantly sharpened. This parable may encourage you to know that you are a special person, with unique God-given talents and abilities. Only you can fulfill the purpose which you were born to accomplish. Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot be changed and, like the pencil, always remember that the most important part of who you are, is what's inside of you and then allow yourself to be guided and sharpened by the hand of God.

God Not Seen, Sees Our Heart...

Jesus said it often: The Father sees in secret. Amazingly, it is from this secret world of our hearts that God's heart seeks pleasure. And when He finds a soul who, as an act of worship, gives of himself or perseveres in prayer or suffers patiently or loves purely, with such the Father is well pleased; indeed, He is drawn to such as these.

Let us ponder deeply: We can bring pleasure to God! What a wondrous privilege! Since it is possible, let us not grope in darkness, but specifically isolate that one way above all which touches the heart of God. Paul said that God "was pleased to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15-16).

To set our goal to reveal Christ is to arouse God's pleasure at its highest levels. No one, nor any thing, brings pleasure to the Father as does seeing His Son. Every time we obey Jesus, giving Him access to this world, we please God. Each time Christ forgives or loves or blesses through us, the heart of God finds pleasure in our lives.

Jesus did only the things He first saw His Father do; He lived to give pleasure to God. Let us also seek to know how, in every situation, we may reveal Christ. For in the love between the Father and His Son the river of God's pleasure flows.

Oh God, the thought that my life may bring pleasure to You is so high, I can barely believe it. Lord, look upon me as Your workmanship; create in me that which will most glorify You. Make my life an aroma of thanksgiving that ever brings pleasure to Your heart.

Dreams

Visibly shaken, his eyes wet with tears, he approached cautiously me following my message on “Tomorrow” from Joshua 3:5.  His story was all too common.  There was a time when God spoke a dream into his spirit to plant churches in Malaysia and as time has gone by, the dream faded in the midst of life, family, busyness, issues, disappointments, failures, etc.  His present situation was not bad but the dream that once soaked his heart with passion was not yet realized.  The tears in his eyes were evidence that God was at work–restoring the dreams–recapturing his heart for the future.
There were others but today, God reminded his people in the California Camp Meeting that dreams define who we are and without our dreams we are likely to be frustrated with ministry and other issues in our lives. There is a God dream in all of us.  Quite frankly, much of the weariness in ministry is about our spending energy on things that are not connected to the dreams God has put into our hearts.  We have to recapture our dreams!
The Church of God needs to return to dreaming again.  The excuses we make for times changing and economy, etc do not address the fact that God is creative and He calls us to dream and imagine with him about our “tomorrows.”  It cannot be that we stop dreaming.  We are not corporate leaders. We are not answerable to stockholders who have financial investment in our decisions. We are servants of God and this work is His creation and we serve Him.
Leaving the hall today, a young man who had just graduated from the CAMS program stopped to appreciate the message.  As I took his hand, the tears came and we talked about his future.  Though he has no experience in ministry and little insight about tomorrow–there was an obvious connection–God has given him a dream.  He needs to go for it–and I told him so!
God, help us keep dreaming.  Tomorrow beckons and it belongs to the heart that refuses to stop dreaming and imagining what God could possibly be up to in tomorrow.
I want to see…don’t you?

This was written by William Isaacs...thought it was a great keeper...