{"id":459,"date":"2017-07-23T15:51:52","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T23:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2017-07-23T15:51:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T23:51:52","slug":"devotion-2-peter-13-11-beautiful-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=459","title":{"rendered":"Devotion 2 Peter 1:3-11 Beautiful Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"
2 Peter 1:3-11\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0His divine power\u00a0has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him\u00a0who called us\u00a0by his own glory and goodness.<\/span><\/span>\u00a04\u00a0Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,\u00a0so that through them you may participate in the divine nature,\u00a0having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.\u00a0 5\u00a0For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;<\/span>\u00a06\u00a0and to knowledge, self-control;\u00a0and to self-control, perseverance;\u00a0and to perseverance, godliness;<\/span>\u00a07\u00a0and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.<\/span>\u00a08\u00a0For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive\u00a0in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/span>\u00a09\u00a0But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind,\u00a0forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.\u00a0 \u00a010\u00a0Therefore, my brothers and sisters,\u00a0make every effort to confirm your calling\u00a0and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,<\/span>\u00a011\u00a0and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom\u00a0of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201c<\/span>His divine power\u00a0has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him\u00a0who called us\u00a0by his own glory and goodness<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a04\u00a0Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,\u00a0so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.<\/span><\/span>\u201d\u00a0 Revealed within these scriptures is the struggle that is still with us.\u00a0 By having God the Holy Spirit within us, we have all that we need to live exactly, yes perfectly, as God has called us to live.\u00a0 We have all that we need to know and experience the fullness of God in our lives.\u00a0 With the Holy Spirit we have within us the ability to know the character, the qualities, and beauty of God.\u00a0 In all these things we have the full victory of God within us now, yet the victory is not complete until we are finally out of these bodies of death and revealed to be with Him in our eternal bodies (Romans 7:14-25<\/b>).\u00a0 We must remember that we are born into this world as a citizen of it.\u00a0 Not the world that God intended us to live in, but a fallen world, a fractured world, a world that was pulled out of perfection because of the rebellion of man.\u00a0 Peter says that by the great promises of God we have escaped the corruption of the world.\u00a0 Escaped \u2013 like a wild animal that was trapped, and then released back into the wild, we run from what once held us.\u00a0 We run from temptation.\u00a0 We run from bad habits that lead us to sin.\u00a0 We run because Jesus has released us from the trap that held us prisoner so that we may be free. We run from a peril that would have been eternal death.\u00a0 Thank you Lord for setting us free.\u00a0 Freedom is to no longer be pulled in chains to do the things of the world, but having the chains broken so that we may be free to serve and please our God.<\/div>\n
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We are not only set free to flee the evil ways of this corrupt world, but once freed, we are guided by the Holy Spirit within. He is our teacher and our guide to, if we heed His voice, avoid the traps that the enemy sets along the way.\u00a0\u00a0Genesis 22:8<\/b>\u00a0\u201cAbraham answered, \u201cGod himself will provide\u00a0the lamb\u00a0for the burnt offering, my son.\u201d And the two of them went on together.<\/span>\u201d Here a sacrifice was needed.\u00a0 When times were most desperate, the faith in God, and the knowledge of God Himself, that Abraham had, was borne out.\u00a0 God Himself provided Himself as the answer.\u00a0 Jesus is the Truth that set us free and He is the answer that, through the Holy Spirit, God provides to us to lead us home and avoid to be ensnared.\u00a0 Going further, should we stray and again be trapped, it is God Himself who, by the work of Jesus that was completed once and for all, will open the jaws of the trap that holds and hurts us, to set us free.\u00a0 God really has thought it all out.\u00a0 Our victory is complete by the promises of God.\u00a0 It is easy for us to draw back from promises because man makes promises and does not keep them. We must not equate the promises of God to the promises of man.\u00a0 God keeps His promises, He cannot do otherwise.\u00a0 He keeps them every single time.\u00a0 Every. Single. Time.\u00a0 Praise God, we are eternally safe in Him.<\/div>\n
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VV5-9<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 As we grow in our faith, these characteristics that are inherent in God become ours.\u00a0 We become more and more like our God.\u00a0 We increasingly know more of who He is.\u00a0 Our faith in Him grows.\u00a0 Our trust grows.\u00a0 When we have a close friend that we spend a lot of time around, we both grow increasingly alike.\u00a0 Having heard pastors of megachurches, and knowing who their mentors have been, I smile as I hear speaking mannerisms often echoed in the one who was mentored.\u00a0 So we, looking to God, begin to sound like, and love like, He does.\u00a0 We truly become \u201cChips off the Old Block.\u201d\u00a0 How wonderfully exciting!\u00a0 We have double meaning as we cry out \u201cCome quick Lord.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, come back soon and take us home.\u00a0 Also, yes Lord come back to the world by changing me.\u00a0\u00a0 Come back to the world by living through me.\u00a0 May I become so much like You Lord Jesus that the world is drawn to You.\u00a0 Oh, yes, yes, yes!\u00a0 Make me new, make me like you Lord Jesus!\u00a0 And the world, will be drawn to you and it will be a better place.\u00a0 If all those who are called by His name would live as He has called us to live, the world will organically become much more what we vote and hope it will be.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Lord Jesus, please, make me new and live in and through me.<\/div>\n
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V10-11<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Make every effort to confirm your calling.\u00a0 What is the effort we are to make?\u00a0 We are to draw nearer to the Lord.\u00a0 We are to love Him more today than we did yesterday.\u00a0 How do we do that?\u00a0 We start our prayers off by, and also we do throughout the day, consider how great and wonderful He is, and how great and wonderful He has been to us.\u00a0 That leads us to gratitude and the giving of thanks.\u00a0 As we draw near to Him, as we \u201chang out\u201d with Him more than any other person, as we love and treasure Him, we are transformed by Him.\u00a0 How does this confirm our calling and election?\u00a0 Knowing that we ourselves cannot change our evil ways, as they are being changed, we do not rob God and take credit for the changes in our lives.\u00a0 We readily thank Him and praise Him and point people who notice the changes to Him.\u00a0 Even in this is we find a mystery from the mysteries of God.\u00a0 He calls us to make the effort, and He enables us to make the effort, and somehow He leaves it our responsibility and gives us the blessing for doing so.\u00a0 Herein is the mystery that is involved in a God who has given us free will and at the same time chosen, called, elected, enabled and enables.\u00a0 How do all these come together? \u00a0Good question!\u00a0 Yet isn\u2019t it much more important that we know it does because He knows how it comes together.\u00a0 After all, He is the grand Architect of it all! \u00a0\u00a0Men argue about the how.\u00a0 I am most gratified that I am convinced that I know that the Lord has worked it all out and He Himself will never fail me.\u00a0 I am the one who testifies against myself that I often fail.\u00a0 I am the one who testifies that it is the Lord who never fails me.\u00a0 He never has.\u00a0 He never will.\u00a0 By the love of God I love God and by the love of God I pull closer to God.\u00a0 Within that, I have responsibility.\u00a0 Also, by that, God reveals that I am His own.\u00a0 It is the same principle that is with persevering through trials.\u00a0 God is good!\u00a0 God loves us.\u00a0 He has done it all.\u00a0 Yet He calls upon our free will.\u00a0 It is so beautiful.\u00a0 It is so mysterious.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/div>\n
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Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0– But as for me, I watch<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>in hope<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>for the<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Lord<\/span><\/span>, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>me.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown you, O man, what<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>is<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>good; And what does the<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Lord<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Peter 1:3-11\u00a0–\u00a0His divine power\u00a0has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him\u00a0who called us\u00a0by his own glory and goodness.\u00a04\u00a0Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,\u00a0so that through them you may participate in the divine nature,\u00a0having escaped the corruption in the world caused by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1953,2062,2050,86,1087,1145,1250,408,2051,2053,1421,2067,2068,449,2059,2069,2049,1923,2055,1865,1860,7,2060,1136,62,2064,8,275,1834,2052,94,2063,2048,2061,2066,2054,2058,174,1697,17,1130,10,1146,2056,2065,2057],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-abraham","tag-affection","tag-architect","tag-beautiful","tag-blind","tag-brothers","tag-calling","tag-chains","tag-characteristics","tag-chip-of-the-old-block","tag-citizen","tag-cleansed","tag-confirm","tag-devotion","tag-divine","tag-election","tag-enabled","tag-enables","tag-fractured","tag-genesis","tag-glory","tag-god","tag-godly","tag-goodness","tag-holy-spirit","tag-ineffective","tag-jesus","tag-knowledge","tag-lord-jesus-christ","tag-mannerisms","tag-micah","tag-mutual-affection","tag-mysteries-of-god","tag-mystery","tag-nearsighted","tag-organically","tag-peril-death","tag-power","tag-praise-the-lord","tag-psalm","tag-revealed","tag-romans","tag-sisters","tag-temptation","tag-unproductive","tag-wild-animal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}