Tag Archives: 2 Peter

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Focus On The Process

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Our Daily Bread

2 Peter 1:2-11

If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. —2 Peter 1:8

In William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well, he says that many writers suffer from “the tyranny of the final product.” They are so concerned with selling their article or book, they neglect learning the process of how to think, plan, and organize. A jumbled manuscript, Zinsser believes, is produced when “the writer, his eye on the finish line, never gave enough thought to how to run the race.”

Author and minister A. W. Tozer applies that principle to our spiritual lives. In his book The Root of the Righteous, Tozer describes our tendency to be “concerned only with the fruit . . . [and] ignore the root out of which the fruit sprang.”

The apostle Peter reminded first-century believers that Christlike living and effective service result from a process. He urged them to grow in eight areas of spiritual development: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Peter 1:5-7). If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, Peter said, “you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.8).

God calls us to a wonderful process of learning to know Him, with the assurance that it will lead to productive service in His name and for His honor. —David McCasland

Lord, so often we want complete and perfect solutions

here and now. But You work graciously in Your good

time. Let Your goodness and patience and virtue

shine through us so that we may bless others.

The Christian life is a process in which we learn complete dependence on God.

Bible in a year: Job 14-16; Acts 9:22-43

Insight

God has given us everything we need for living a holy life (2 Peter 1:3). Therefore, Peter exhorts us to respond diligently to these great promises and abundant provisions of divine power (vv.4-5) by making every effort to grow in faith, graciousness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, devotedness, kindness, and love (vv.5-7).

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Forgetfulness

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For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. —2 Peter 1:12

A number of years ago, I received one of those dreaded notices in the mail. It was time for me to take my driving test again. I thought, I’ve been driving for many years. I don’t think I need to read the manual again. When I showed up at the DMV for my appointment, I was handed a written test. Some of the questions stumped me a bit, but I thought I did reasonably well. I realized that I could only miss three. I took my test back to the DMV employee and watched her as she pulled out a red pen and, with great relish, began to look over my test. She marked one . . . two, then three, four, five, six. . . .

“You have to take the test again,” she told me.

I took it again and passed the test — barely. It was a humiliating experience. Because I have driven every day for years, I thought I knew all of the basics. But obviously I didn’t. It reminded me that I don’t necessarily know as much as I think I do.

There are things in life that we forget. That is one of the reasons Peter wrote his second epistle. He said, “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me” (2 Peter 1:13-14). If you focus on these things that you should never forget, God says you will never stumble or fall (verse 10), and He will give you an abundant entrance into His kingdom.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The Journey Begins

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Our Daily Bread

2 Peter 1:5-11

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away. —2 Corinthians 5:17

Eighty-one years ago today a 9-year-old boy prayed to ask Jesus to be the Savior of his life. His mother wrote these words in a memory book: “Clair made a start today.”

Clair—my dad—has now walked with Christ for 8 decades. He marks the day when he made his decision to follow Christ as the beginning of his journey. Growing spiritually is a lifelong process—not a one-time event. So how does a new believer feed his faith and continue to grow? These are some things I observed in my dad’s life over the years.

He read the Scriptures regularly to increase his understanding of God and made prayer a daily part of his life (1 Chron. 16:11; 1 Thess. 5:17). Bible reading and prayer help us grow closer to God and withstand temptation (Ps. 119:11; Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Peter 2:2). The Holy Spirit began to develop the “fruit of the Spirit” in him as he surrendered his life in faith and obedience (Gal. 5:22-23). We display God’s love through our witness and service.

My dad’s spiritual journey continues and so does ours. What a privilege to have a relationship in which we can “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”! (2 Peter 3:18). —Cindy Hess Kasper

I want my heart to be in tune with God,

In every stage of life may it ring true;

I want my thoughts and words to honor Him,

To lift Him up in everything I do. —Hess

Salvation is the miracle of a moment; growth is the labor of a lifetime.

Bible in a year: Genesis 27-28; Matthew 8:18-34

 

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — God Waiting

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Our Daily Bread

John 14:1-6

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, . . . but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. —2 Peter 3:9

During the Christmas season we wait. We wait in traffic. We wait in checkout lines to purchase gifts. We wait for family to arrive. We wait to gather around a table filled with our favorite foods. We wait to open presents lovingly chosen.

All of this waiting can be a reminder to Christians that Christmas is a celebration of waiting for something much more important than holiday traditions. Like the ancient Israelites, we too are waiting for Jesus. Although He already came as the long-awaited Messiah, He has not yet come as ruler over all the earth. So today we wait for Christ’s second coming.

Christmas reminds us that God also waits . . . He waits for people to see His glory, to admit that they are lost without Him, to say yes to His love, to receive His forgiveness, to turn away from sin. While we wait for His second coming, He waits for repentance. What seems to us like God’s slowness in coming is instead His patience in waiting (2 Peter 3:9).

The Lord is waiting to have a relationship with those He loves. He made the first move when He came as baby Jesus and the sacrificial Lamb. Now He waits for us to welcome Him into our lives as Savior and Lord. —Julie Ackerman Link

God is waiting in the silence

As the world goes rushing by;

Will not someone stop and listen,

Answer quickly, “Here am I”?

—Oswald Smith © 1939 The Rodeheaver Company

God patiently keeps His promises.

Bible in a year: Ezekiel 40-41; 2 Peter 3

 

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Seeds & Soils

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Our Daily Bread

Matthew 13:1-9

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. —2 Peter 3:18

If you like growing pumpkins, you have probably heard of Dill’s Atlantic Giant variety of premium pumpkin seeds. Developed on a family farm in Atlantic Canada, the pumpkins grown from these seeds have set records around the world. In 2011, a pumpkin grown in Quebec set a new world record at 1,818.5 pounds (825 kg). That size of pumpkin could yield almost 1,000 pieces of pie!

When news reporters asked how this pumpkin could grow to such a size, the farmer replied that it had to do with the soil. The seeds were of a special large variety, but the soil still had to be right or the pumpkin wouldn’t grow properly.

The Lord Jesus used an illustration in which He compared different types of ground to a person’s response to God’s Word (Matt. 13). Some seeds were eaten by the birds, others started to grow but were choked by the weeds, and some grew up instantly but had no soil to further their growth. But the seeds that fell on the good soil “yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (v.8).

Each of us needs to ask, “What kind of soil am I?” The Lord wants to plant His Word in our hearts so we can grow in our knowledge of Him. —Brent Hackett, RBC Canada Director

More about Jesus let me learn,

More of His holy will discern;

Spirit of God, my teacher be,

Showing the things of Christ to me. —Hewitt

The fruit of the Spirit grows in the soil of obedience.

Bible in a year: Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2

 

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – From the Mouth of God

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John MacArthur

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Second Timothy 3:16 speaks of the inspiration of Scripture. “Inspired” is the translation of a Greek word that literally means “God-breathed.” Every word of Scripture is from the mouth of God.

Theologians speak of inspiration as the mysterious process by which God worked through the authors of Scripture to produce inerrant and divinely authoritative writings. Inspiration is a mystery because Scripture doesn’t explain specifically how it occurred. The only glimpse we have is this from 2 Peter: “Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (vv. 20-21).

“Interpretation” speaks of origin. Scripture didn’t originate on the human level, but with the Holy Spirit, who moved upon the authors to write it (v. 21). “Moved” is the translation of a nautical term that describes the effects of wind upon a ship as it blows against its sails and moves it through the water. Similarly, the Spirit moved on the biblical writers to produce the Word of God in the language of men.

The human authors of Scripture knew they were writing God’s Word, and did so with confidence and authority. Often they cited or alluded to one another as authoritative agents of divine revelation (e.g., 2 Pet. 3:15-17).

On a personal level, inspiration guarantees that what Scripture says, God says. It’s His counsel to you, so you can study and obey it with full assurance that it is true and will never lead you astray.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Praise the Lord for His inspired Word.

Reaffirm your commitment to live according to its principles today.

For Further Study:

Often the New Testament affirms the inspiration of the Old Testament by attributing Old Testament quotations to God Himself. For example, compare these Old Testament passages with their New Testament counterparts: Genesis 2:24 with Matthew 19:4-5; Psalm 2:1 with Acts 4:24-25; Isaiah 55:3 with Acts 13:34; Psalm 16:10 with Acts 13:35; Psalm 95:7 with Hebrews 3:7.

How might you respond to someone who says that the Bible is merely the words of devout religious men?

 

 

 

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Instability

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“Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.” Genesis 49:4

Suggested Further Reading: 2 Peter 3:14-18

Who are these unstable ones? When they were boys they could never complete a game; they must always be having something fresh; and now they are just as childish as when they were children. Look at them in doctrine: you never know where to find them. You meet them one day, and they are very full of some super doctrine; they have been to some strong Calvinist place, and nothing will suit them except the very highest doctrine, and that must be spiced with a little of the gall of bitterness, or they cannot think it is the genuine thing. Very likely next week they will be Arminians; they will give up all idea of a fixed fate, and talk of free-will, and man’s responsibility like the most earnest Primitive Methodist. Then they steer another way. “Nothing is right but the Church of England. Is it not established by law? Ought not every Christian to go to his parish church?” Let them alone; they will be at the most schismatical shop in the metropolis before long. Or if they do not change their denomination they are always changing their minister. A new minister starts up; there is no one, since the apostles, like him; they take a seat and join the church; he is everything to them. In three months they have done with him; another minister rises up some distance off, and these people are not particular how far they walk; so they go to hear him. He is the great man of the age; he will see every man’s candle out, and his will burn on. But a little trouble comes on the church, and they leave him. They have no attachment to anything; they are merely feathers in the wind, or corks on the wave.

For meditation: Do you recognise yourself here? If not, guard your own stability carefully. But if you do, realise that we are not supposed to remain babes in Christ, but are to grow up (Ephesians 4:14,15). Perhaps you are not sure whether Spurgeon is describing you; one question may help you decide—who has the rule over you? (Hebrews 13:7,17).

Sermon no. 158

11 October (1857)