SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/4/2012 9:36:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Christian Life Begins with
Faith PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2Peter
1:1-4
Message
of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we
began to look at 2Peter chapter one. I wanted
to go over the first four verses, but only got through the first two, so we
will pick up where we left off yesterday.
The reason that I am now in 2Peter is because when I began my Spiritual
Diaries in this book in 2004 I seemed to have either missed doing them on the
first eleven verses or lost them from my computer. At any rate I wanted to fill in the blanks so
to speak so that my commentary on 2Peter would be complete.
This
faith involves God’s power (v. 3):
“3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining
to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His
own glory and excellence.”
“3 By his divine power, God has
given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of
this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his
marvelous glory and excellence.” (NLT)
Peter was writing to believers who
were being infiltrated by false teachers.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles his commentary on 2nd Peter, 2nd
and 3rd John, and also Jude “Be Alert.” All of these three letters have something in
common and that is that the enemy was trying to infiltrate into the church with
false teachers. Satan was sowing tares
into the wheat and these three authors were writing to those who were true
believers in order to warn them. Peter
begins his second letter with encouragement and in verse three he reminds them
that because of their faith in Jesus Christ, because they have been born into the
family of God they have power given to them by God
The unsaved sinner is dead (“1 And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now
working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in
the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and
were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”) (Ephesians 2:1-3) Only Christ can raise him from the dead (“"Truly,
truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has
eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into
life.”) (John 5:24) We have a wonderful picture of this in the
Gospel of John where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Jesus spoke only to Lazarus who had been in
the grave for four days, and according to his sister he would stink because of
being in the grave that long. When
Lazarus came out of the grave Jesus told those around him to remove the grave
clothes that he was wearing. This
pictures those who have been born again, born into the family of God, for when
this happens we are born complete and in need of nothing, “and in Him you have
been made complete,” (Col. 2:10a). The
false teachers of that day and of this day say that when a person is born
again, born into the family of God there are still some things that they need,
but that is not true, for we have everything complete in Jesus Christ. We are to grow up in Christ, and this happens
as we walk with Him, study His Word, for Peter writes in his first letter that
like new born babies we are to desire the Word of God which is like milk to a
baby.
When a new born baby is born they
are equipped for everything they need, and they only need to grow, and so Peter
is saying to us as believers we need to grow and we are equipped with
everything to do that. The false
teachers of that day would tell them that these new believers needed to be
circumcised and keep the Law of Moses, but this was not true. When they were born into God’s family they
were complete, in need of nothing.
When a person is born again they
have to begin to walk with the Lord, and the goal of every believer is found in
Romans 8:29 where Paul writes, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn
among many brethren.” When we get to
heaven we will be conformed to the image of our Savior and Lord, but while we
are on earth we should become more and more like Him for after all Jesus left
us here on earth to do His work, and Paul writes that we are a part of His
body. Jesus told His disciples that it
was good for Him to leave them because as their numbers grew there would be
more people to do His word and more work would get done for the glory of the
Lord. We have in us the same power that
raised Jesus Christ from the grave, and we are to use that power to live the
Christian life, to do the works that God prepared for us to do in eternity past
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10)
We do this work by remaining or abiding in the Vine as Jesus taught us
in John 15.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful that when I became a born again believer in Jesus Christ on Jan. 26,
1974 that I was born complete and I was born with power to do the work that I
have been called to do. My desire is to
abide in the Vine in order that I can do the work of the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To abide in the Vine so that I can do the work that I have been called
to do that will bring glory to my Lord.
6/4/2012
10:40:39 AM
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