Jesus is all one needs to go through the storms of Life

 

2 Peter 1:5-8

 

June 19, 2022

 

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  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.

 

The Church today has lost in many ways virtue, for it is doing as it wishes not honoring God’s spoken or written word.  It lacks integrity, and a high moral standard, divorce today in the Church is equal to the non-believing world.  So that is an area each of us can work on and not forget to add knowledge, not the worldly stuff, but what God has spoken in his word.

 

What about knowledge with self-control, how are you doing in the self-control department?   It seems that many of us need a refresher course in the area of self-control.  I often find I lose it when driving a car.  However that is not using the knowledge God has given us.  That has become an object of prayer, and I must make that decision before driving.  The Church needs self-control in many areas, controlling self-discipline, in eating, doing what you tell your wife or child or boss, or God, you will do.  Discipline is required to be a person with self-control.  It is a must for a dad in the way he guides his family. The flesh in general likes to do as it pleases, but a disciplined life requires one to not allow the flesh to rule.  In most areas, I’ve been blessed to be able to live that life, no matter how much I crave something that is not in my best interest I can remove it from my life.  I am a person who likes sweets and bread, but to maintain a healthy life I often do without.  I always want it but I do not allow it to control me.

 

With Steadfastness, it is about commitment, loyalty, dependability, faithfulness, and being able to be trusted with your word.  Yet when we add godliness, it means one must follow the teaching of Scripture and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. 

 

What about godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love, the only place one finds true love, is love that puts the other person before self.  That kind of love is not taught. It comes from God only.

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One more Scripture 

That is a must to understand

 

Galatians 2:20

 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

I was 27 in a hotel room I asked Jesus to forgive my sinful life of trying to get my needs met outside of Christ.  I was a Baptist, a tither and yet in my heart, I understood that I had never entered into Christ, I wanted God's blessing but did not want His authority over my life.  A Baptist but not part of His Church!  That night I opened the hotel Bible to Romans 10:9-10 and asked Jesus to forgive me for wanting to be a little god, and ask him to take control of my life.  I enter into Christ and He enters into me.  I did not become a perfect person, far from it but I began to see so many areas in my life that God desired to change, one of the big ones was how I treated my wife.  How to seek first His kingdom. I’ve had many blessings and failures when I forgot to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He allowed me to have a few bad wrecks.

 

I have no doubt many are tied to a denomination but have never entered into Christ, I had not lived till I began to allow the Spirit of God to do a house cleaning in my life, the first thing He did was open my eyes to relationship, and be transparent with those who were sent into my life.  It's now been  53 years and I’m still a mess, but 2 ½ months in the hospital or medical care, on your back in a quiet room, give God's Spirit the time to talk to a rascal like me, and I’ve listened and came home on April 18 and prayed with my wife who is the love of my life and we asked The Father to show us the new calling He has for our life.

 

So if one is to be a follower of Christ, we must ask the Father to give us a desire to increase in all of these areas. Then we will be effective, and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice