2 Peter 2-3 (ESV) by Wordle*

Today’s reading is 2 Peter 2:1-3:18.

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:17-18).

We spend so much time thinking about and talking against “falling from grace,” I wonder if we don’t push ourselves in that direction. The more we think about something, the more it occupies our hearts, the more it takes over our lives. I want to let this passage start to govern my thinking and meditating.

“Grow in grace.”

That’s what I want to focus on today. Instead of worrying about falling from grace, I’m going to focus on growing in grace. It stands to reason if I grow in grace, I don’t have to worry about falling from it. Peter says if I do that, I will not be carried away with the error of lawless people or lose my own stability. After all, I’m not even trying to have my own stability. Rather, I’m resting on God’s stability.

Keep the faith today and keep reading

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading? Click here to add your input.

PPS. For a series of sermons that came from this very thought, click here.

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*Today’s illustration was generated by the creative tool at Wordle.net. You can find all my wordles here.

Romans 7-8 (ESV) by Wordle*

Today’s reading is Romans 7:1-8:39.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).

For some reason, I keep thinking I need to save myself. I want the reins of my life. I want to be the one in control. I need to get it all fixed and then bring it to God to show how pleased He can be with me. And I wonder why I continue to be covered up with stress, anxiety, and then wander back into sin. It’s like I want to be able to say to God, “What then shall you say to these things? If I’m for You, God, does it matter who else is against You?” I need to see that this is getting everything backwards.

Instead, God is for me. Who can be against me? Satan wants me to believe that my mistakes mean God is against me. He’s not. He is for me. He is so for me, He sent Jesus to die for me. If He did that, how will He not give me all I need to overcome? I simply have to let go of my control and grant Him control. I have to trust Him. When I do, then I start to have peace and joy.

I have a choice today. I can either focus on how bad I mess things up or I can focus on how powerful God is to fix things? The first leads to despair and sin; the second leads to peace and victory. Today, I want to focus on God and His power to fix things. How about you?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. The struggle with these two chapters is they are my two favorites, jam-packed with all kinds of helpful stuff to me. I return to these chapters over and over again. It was hard to pick just one thing to talk about . So, what struck you in today’s reading? I know something had to impact you on than what I mentioned. You can add your input by clicking here.

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*Today’s illustration was generated by the creative tool at Wordle.net. You can find all my wordles here.

Today’s reading is Ephesians 3:1-4:32.

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let he sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27).

Many of us learned the #1 rule of dysfunction as we grew up.

RULE #1: Don’t Feel

Few of our parents meant to teach us this rule, but it gets passed on pretty often. Perhaps we gathered that the only legitimate feelings were our parents’ feelings. If we didn’t feel as they did about things we were punished, scorned, belittled, lectured, yelled at. We learned quickly to get rid of those feelings. Even in churches this rule gets passed on. Almost without thinking the rule is taught that Christians are supposed to always feel great. “How are you doing?” we ask someone. “Great!” the other says. “Couldn’t be better,” another says. “God’s blessing my socks off,” says a third. We wonder what is wrong with us for feeling lousy, angry, sad, hurt. But we refuse to let them see our supposedly unChristlike feelings.

But wait. Look again at what Paul says. He doesn’t say, “Don’t be angry, it is a sin.” He says, “Be angry and do not sin.” Anger is not a sin. It is simply an emotion. Anger happens. So does sadness. So does hurt. So does fear. So does regret. So does guilt. So does shame. These feelings are not sins. We don’t have to hide them. Certainly, none of these feelings is a justification for sin. Just because I’m afraid, hurt, sad, or angry doesn’t mean I get to yell at my wife and kids, calling them names, beating them. That would be sin. But the feelings themselves are okay.

But I must not let the sun go down on these emotions. I don’t think that means I have to eradicate these emotions before I go to sleep. I’m not always sure that is possible. Rather, I think I need to express these emotions in a proper and healthy way as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the stuffed emotions will come out in sinful explosions or in sinful escapes later.

It’s okay to feel. But be honest with your emotions. Define them to yourself and share them with those closest to you so you can work through them without sinning.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is 2 Corinthians 6:1-7:16.

I have to admit that 2 Corinthians 7:4 shocked me. Paul said, “I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.”

“I have great pride in you?” What? Isn’t this the congregation we all go to as the epitome of messed up churches? Isn’t this the congregation that was filled with division, had immaturity and weakness, botched the Lord’s Supper, messed up the miraculous gifts, accepted a highly immoral man? Yet, Paul is proud of them. How can that be?

Surely, this pride comes partially from their repentance with the immoral man. That is what Paul goes on to talk about in the rest of the chapter. But still. I mean they were clearly working on things but am I honestly to believe they had gone from poster church for dysfunction to example congregation between these two letters? I don’t think so. Yet, Paul was proud of them. He was expressing his pride in them.

Here’s what I learn, whether dealing with congregations or Christians, we look for improvements. This is a growth process, not a sprint to perfection. Sadly, we all too often treat Christians and churches like the dad teaching his child to swim who keeps backing up and backing up so the child can’t actually get to him. Sure, the person or church has improved here and there, but look at all that is still wrong with them. That is often how we think. We need to express our pride that they are improving just like Paul did. That, of course, will only happen when we are genuinely proud of them. That will only happen when we don’t see ourselves as their judge trying to fix them to our satisfaction.

I need to work on this.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Mark 7:1-8:38.

The healing of the blind man in two stages has often puzzled me. Jesus clearly had the power to heal the man in one shot. Why go through this two step process? The only reason I can see is as an object lesson for the apostles who continually had trouble seeing and understanding Jesus.

They had just had trouble seeing how Jesus would feed the 4000 despite having experienced the feeding of the 5000. They had just had trouble understanding Jesus when He spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees. With the blind man of Mark 8:22-26, Jesus let’s the disciples know they will see and understand in time. They are like this blind man. They are beginning to get a broad outline of Jesus and His teaching. In time, they will come to see clearly. They will grow.

This comforts me. I often feel like I only have a broad outline of what Jesus and HIs teaching are all about. That’s okay. I’m growing. As I continue in Christ, I will understand more and more. That is what being in Christ is all about: Growth. I don’t have to be perfect today. I don’t have to know everything today. Jesus is still working on me. He will conform me to His image as I continue in Him (cf. Romans 8:28-30).

Thus, my goal today is not to be absolutely perfect. My goal is to stay in Christ and draw closer to Him. He will perfect me in His time.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Luke 19:1-20:47.

What was wrong with the third servant in Luke 19:20-21. “Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.”

Fear.

He was a afraid of failure. He was afraid of His master. He was afraid of the unknown. He allowed his fears to cripple him. He was so afraid that he wouldn’t be successful and therefore that his master would punish him, that he didn’t do anything.

Here is what amazes me. He allowed his fear of punishment to so cripple him that he incurred punishment. The very thing he was so desperately trying to avoid, he caused.

That is exactly what I do sometimes. I get so wrapped up in my fears and I try to make sure my fears don’t happen, then I actually cause them to come true.

What did the servant need to do? First, he needed to get into reality. Instead of living in the fantasy of his fears of what the master might do if some unknown thing happened in some unknown future, he needed to live in the reality of the day. Second, if he was ignorant of how to use the mina, perhaps he could have asked the servant that was producing ten minas or the servant that was producing five. Instead of living in the shame that he didn’t already know how to do what they were doing, he could have simply spent some time with them and learned from them. Third, he could have at least done something. Instead of living in the fear that it would be the wrong thing and that would cause the end of the world, he could have done something and if it was a mistake, learn from it to do better before the master returns. Let’s face it, do we honestly think the 10 and 5 mina producers only had success the whole time the master was gone? Of course not. That just isn’t the way life works. They made some minas and lost some minas and when the master returned they returned what they had netted.

Wow! That is exactly what I need to do today. I need to quit living in the fantasy of my fears about some potential future that hasn’t even happened yet. I need to spend time with people who have what I want and learn how they are getting it. Instead of being paralyzed by the fear that I’ll do the wrong thing, I just need to do something. If I don’t take these approaches, I will likely cause the very punishment I’m trying to avoid in the end.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is John 21:1-25; I John 1:1-10.

As Jesus is allowing Peter to be reconciled following his trifold denial, He says something really strange. When I first read it, I thought, “Jesus, if you’re trying to pump Peter up, is this really the right way?”

In John 21:18-19, Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

To be honest with you, if I were trying to get someone to follow me and feed my sheep, I don’t think I’d tell him that the end of that whole journey is death (seemingly by crucifixion). Yet, that is exactly what Jesus says. What on earth was He thinking?

However, with a little more thought. I get it now. What was Peter’s problem? He had promised Jesus that even if he had to die with Him, he would never forsake Jesus. But when push came to shove, that is exactly what he did not do. He promised to die, but instead he protected his hide. He failed. Think about how that would plague him forever. No matter what great things he did, there would be the reminder that this was nothing, when he came to the ultimate test, he failed. Every bad thing he did would simply be a reminder that he probably did this because he was worthless. After all, he failed the ultimate test.

Jesus is telling Peter, “You’ll make it, Peter. You are going to keep your promise. You are going to succeed. You are going to pass the test. Just keep following Me. Keep feeding my sheep. You said you would die for me and one day you will. You will win.” Imagine how this could change Peter’s outlook. When he succeeds, he can see it as a step to passing the ultimate test. When he messed things up again (which he would), he didn’t have to see it as reinforcement that he was just a failure. Instead of giving up, he could remember, “Jesus said I would win. I just need to keep trying. I’m going to make it.”

But Peter isn’t the only one to whom Jesus makes this promise. In Romans 8:28-30 and Philippians 2:12-13, He makes the promise to us. If we love God, we’ll win. If we love God, God is working to make sure we conform to the image of God’s Son. Maybe we messed things up today. Let’s not give up. God said we aren’t working alone. God is working with us. We’ll make it. We will win. Just like Peter.

***Question: What do you do or say to yourself to keep on keeping on after you messed up?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. I also use this as the final point in one of my favorite sermons. Check it out here.

Today’s reading is I Peter 1:1-2:25.

I Peter 1:6-7 used to scare me. “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

What? There’s a test? It’s going to be like walking in a fire? AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH! That really is kind of frightening. Especially since I already know all my failures and sins. How can I be sure to pass the test? 

Sadly, I think that is the approach many have to this verse. They think this is like a school test that we can study for and if we do good enough, we’ll pass. Or maybe it’s like a physical. If we exercise our spiritual muscles enough over long enough time, then when God tests us, we’ll pass. If we pass, we get to go to heaven. If we fail, we’ll go to hell.

That just scares me. 

However, I don’t think that is what Peter is saying. The illustration of the gold is the key for me. Gold isn’t tested by fire to see if it will pass the test. Gold is tested by fire so that the slag can rise to the top and the goldsmith can more easily skim it off. God’s testing is not trying to see how well we’ve studied or how well we’ve practiced or bulked up spiritually. God’s testing is heating us with fire so that the slag will rise to the top so it can be easily removed. 

Regrettably, however, we rarely see it that way. Sadly, we often use the hard times as if their hardness provides permission for us to sin. They give us an excuse. “God, excuse me for that but I am really going through a hard time right now.” That totally misses the point. The point is to take a look at the slag that rises to the surface when we are in the flame. Now we know what to work on.

For example, if I’m in a really tough spot at work, I’m feeling pressure, and I come home and blow up at my wife and kids, I see a problem. The hardship brought the slag to the top. It said, “Oh, look at this. Here’s something you need to hand over to God and let Him work on. You’ve got some anger issues.”

Now, I’m not afraid of the testing. I welcome it. God isn’t testing us to see if we’ll pass. God is testing us and by that means we will pass, if we let the testing refine us.

***Question: How do you work on learning the lessons God’s tests provide for you?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. I know the following video has been making the rounds. In case you haven’t seen it, here is a great enactment of God’s refining us.

Today’s reading is Colossians 3:1-4:18.

What a great study in opposites we get from the closing verses of Colossians. As Paul concludes his letter, he mentions two interesting men–Barnabas’ cousin Mark and Demas.

In this letter, both are mentioned as fellow workers who are greeting the Colossian brethren through Paul’s letter. The study in contrasts is what we see in these men elsewhere.

John Mark has gone down in history as the quitter. In Acts 13:13, John Mark left Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey. Paul was so upset about that and so frustrated with Mark that in Acts 15:36-41 Paul and Barnabas split up over him. Paul had no use for him. However, clearly Mark grew. I’m sure it was through Barnabas’s help and encouragement. Yet, we see a disciple who grew. By Colossians 4:10-11, Mark has become a comfort to Paul. John Mark gives us encouragement to grow. Perhaps we’ve not always stood up to the tests we’ve faced. Maybe sometimes we’ve quit. We don’t have to give up. Let’s just find someone who can encourage us and be a Barnabas to us. We’ll grow. We’ll become useful.

However, there is also a warning. Demas sent greetings to the Colossians along with all of Paul’s other fellow workers. There is no indication of trouble. We don’t see any chink in his armor. However, in II Timothy 4:10, Demas is the one who left Paul. Not only did he leave, but Paul says it was because he loved the present world. I don’t care how you cut that, Paul wasn’t paying Demas a compliment. Where John Mark had grown, Demas lost ground. While John Mark serves as encouragement to us, Demas stands as a warning. We must not rest on our past work, but keep growing in Christ.

As someone once told me, as Christians, we are like trees. We’re either growing or we’re dead. Today, let’s emulate John Mark and follow his encouraging example.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Acts 13:1-14:28.

I’ve read Acts 14:22 dozens of times. In the past, I always thought Paul simply meant that on the road to entering the kingdom, we will happen to encounter many tribulations. However, after a recent study of Romans 5:3-5, I think Paul may have been making a different point. 

Instead of simply saying tribulations litter the path to the kingdom. I think he is pointing out that tribulation is the path. Look at Romans 5:3-5.

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been give to us.”

Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope. Our hope doesn’t put us to shame because it is not just wishful thinking but an earnest expectation and we know God will do what He has promised. But what happens if we remove suffering from this path? Where is the endurance? If there is no endurance, where is the character? If there is no character, where is the hope? Do you see the point? Without suffering we have no hope.

Tribulations are not merely something we happen along as we walk God’s path to the kingdom, they are the path to the kingdom. I’m not saying we have to be beaten to go to heaven. I’m not saying we have to go to prison to enter the kingdom. There are definitely degrees of tribulation and suffering. Further, I don’t think the suffering has to necessarily be strictly persecution for being a Christian. Maybe the suffering is an illness or a layoff. 

In any event, it is the sufferings and tribulations we go through that discipline us to have the character of Christ which offers us hope of eternity with Christ. Do not wish to be set free from tribulations. If that request is granted, then you will be set from from the kingdom of heaven. Rather, pray for the strength to endure the tribulation that you may have proven character and hope. This hope will not put you to shame.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. If you would like to read/hear the lesson I presented on Romans 5:3-5 that prompted this understanding, go to the following link: A Three Step Plan to Rejoice While Suffering

P.P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?