SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/9/2012 8:10:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Spiritual Growth Brings Practical Results
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2Peter
1:8-11
Message
of the verses: When we began to look
at the beginning of 2nd Peter we learned that first of all “The
Christian life begins with faith, which covered verses 1-4, and then we looked
at this faith resulted in Spiritual growth in the Christian life, and this
section covered seven different characteristics that are developed in the life
of the believer as they begin to feed upon the Word of God in order to
grow. Now in today’s Spiritual Diary we
will begin to look at our spiritual lives bringing some practical results,
which will cover three evidences of true spiritual growth.
Spiritual
Growth Brings Practical Results (2Peter 1:8-11): “8 For if these qualities are yours and
are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so
nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his
former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your
calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never
fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into
the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (ESV)
“8 For if these qualities are
yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the
true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is
blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more
diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you
practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to
you.” (NASB)
Dr. Wiersbe writes at the beginning
of this section these words: “How can
the believer be certain that he is growing spiritually? Peter gave three evidences of true spiritual
growth.”
Fruitfulness
(v.8): “8 For if these qualities are
yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they
will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the (full personal)
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.” (Amplified)
I have written about bearing fruit
as seen in John chapter fifteen where Jesus is speaking to His disciples about
He as the Vine and we as the branches who bear fruit because we are attached to
the vine and because we are attached to the Vine. I have also mentioned that the “sap” that
flows from the Vine to the branches is a picture of the Holy Spirit who
produces this fruit or fruitfulness through us.
Jesus tells us to abide or remain in the Vine and this goes along with
what Peter is talking about in the first few verses of his second letter. We remain in the Vine as we depend upon the
Lord Jesus Christ to produce spiritual fruit in our lives, but remaining in the
Vine does not mean that we do nothing, for we are to continue to grow in our
Christian Life by depending upon the Lord, by depending upon the Holy Spirit to
cause us to understand His Word as we study it, and memorize it, and meditate
upon it so that we will become more and more like Jesus Christ, which is the
goal of every believer. (Romans 8:29) If
we are growing in our walk with the Lord we are moving forward, but if we stop
growing we are actually moving backwards.
We must remember that when a person is born into the family of God that
they have all they need to grow up in Christ.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “These beautiful qualities of character do exist
‘within us’ because we possess the divine nature. We must cultivate them so
that they increase and produce fruit in and through our lives.” I believe that is what Paul is speaking of
when he writes these words, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your salvation with fear and trembling.”
And just so you don’t get the wrong idea about what he is writing there
he goes on to say, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to
work for His good pleasure.”
One more thing before we move on to
the next evidence of our spiritual growth and that is what Dr. Wiersbe writes
about the word “idle” which is seen in the Amplified version and also in the
AV: “The word translated ‘idle’ also
means ‘ineffective,.’ The people who
fail to grow usually fail in everything else!”
Vision
(9): “9 For he who lacks these
qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his
former sins.” (NASB) “For whoever lacks
these qualities is blind, [spiritually] shortsighted, seeing only what is near
to him; and has become oblivious [of the fact] that he was cleansed from his
old sins.”
I like the way that the Amplified
version ends this verse when it says, “and has become oblivious [of the fact]
that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
I suppose that there are different reasons why a person becomes
oblivious to the fact that he was cleansed of his sins when he became born
again into the family of God. One of the
reasons could be what is said earlier in the verse and that is the people can
become blind or short-sighted, perhaps near-sighted would be a better way to
put it, for a near-sighted person cannot see far away, they can only see what
is right in front of them. Jesus spoke
of a church that was blind in the book of Revelations “’Because you say,
"I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and
you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked,” and then in the next verse He gives an answer to this problem of
blindness, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the
shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes
so that you may see.” Now the next verse
tells believers something that is very important to realize, “’those whom I
love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.” Now the final verse we will look at in this
section is a familiar verse that is used to help lead unbelievers to Jesus Christ,
but as we follow the context of these verses Jesus is speaking to a church,
“’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” There are some churches in the world today
that are like the church of Laodicea, which is the church that Jesus is
speaking of in these verses and that is a great tragedy indeed.
At this point I want to interject
something that I believe is important, though may be a bit off the subject at
hand. As one reads through the 2nd
and 3rd chapters of the book of Revelations they will find out that
Jesus is speaking to seven churches, and He has something to say good about all
of the churches with the exception of two of them, Laodicea being one of
them. He has rebukes for all of them
with the exception of two of them, (some commentators say only one). As we read through the list of churches and
see the different characteristics there are many commentators who would say
that as we go throughout church history the dominant church in different eras
follows the order in which the churches are listed. In Hal Lindsey’s commentary on the book of
Revelations “There is a New World Coming,” he lists the dates in history that
these seven churches were dominant in and the last church, Laodicea; he
believes that this is the age that the world is in now. When one reads what Jesus said about that
church it is hard to argue his point. I
for one agree with this view and believe that the world today is racing very
rapidly towards the end as we know it.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following at
the end of his commentary on the word “vision.”
“If we forget what God has done for us, we will not be excited to share
Christ with others. Through the blood of
Jesus Christ we have been purged and forgiven!
God has opened our eyes! Let’s
not forget what He has done! Rather,
let’s cultivate gratitude in our hearts and sharpen our spiritual vision. Life is too brief and the needs of the world
too great for God’s people to be walking around with their eyes closed!” I can
conclude with a hardy AMEN!
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have a
great desire to have my eyes open and not be blinded or short-sighted, and to
also produce fruit, but that can only be done in the power of the Holy Spirit,
and my part in all of this is to continue to “Study to show yourself approved
to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.” This is the verse that I have
chosen to be the theme of my Spiritual Diaries.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to abide in the vine, and part of this abiding is to do my part
and study and part of studying is to memorize and so I have a great desire to
put the verses that we have been looking at to memory.
Memory
Verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1 “1 Simon
Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a
faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior,
Jesus Christ:”
6/9/2012
10:17:11 AM
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