Read II Peter 3:1-18

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way,
what kind of people ought you to be?”
(II Peter 3:11)

Thoughts… There are a lot of us believers who live like Planet Earth is our forever home. We set our priorities, plan our activities, and spend our money like this is all there is. We’re investing pretty much all we’ve got in this world.

As I write this blog, it is the first day of my tenth trip to the poverty stricken Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia. The church is thriving here in this region where a mere three years ago there was no church to speak of. Now, 50,000+ believers gather each week for worship in over 1350 churches that my organization has helped to establish.

And the individual believers in this region are thriving as well! By watching their lives, you quickly come to realize that they who have so little have so much more joy that we who have so much, yet have so little joy. By comparison, they are the far richer people

Why? Because they have put their hope in the Lord. They are looking forward to a city whose architect and builder is God. They have very little by the world’s standards, and what they have, they hold loosely. They have invested everything—sometimes they even have given their lives as an investment—in the eternal kingdom of our God. They have made good investments that will produce ever-increasing returns throughout all eternity.

We need to take stock in the kinds of investments we are making. Ask somebody who knows you well what they have observed your priorities to be. What does the way you spend money or plan your calendar or live your life in general tell them about you?

If your life is like mine, you would probably have to conclude that we are making far to big of an investment in a world that is soon going to come to a fiery end. And truthfully, that’s a very bad investment.

Peter asks the question that, given the fact that all this will melt away, what kind of people then should we be? How then should we live? Then he gives the answer:

• We should make every effort to live holy and blameless lives (verses 11b & 14).

• We ought to be anticipating God’s promises rather than promoting the things of this earth (verse 13)

• We ought to be focusing on Christ’s return more than the remainder of our days on earth (verses 12 & 13)

• We ought to be at peace with God and keep pure in our faith (verses 14-17).

• We ought to be giving every effort to our spiritual growth (verse 18)

To live any other way shows that we are still investing in the ephemeral stuff of earth rather than the invaluable stuff of heaven.

Take a look around. Whatever you see is going to vanish soon. Only what is done by faith will carry over to and count toward the next life.

Today is a great day to begin a new trend of much better investments.

Prayer… Lord, my hope is in you and not in the things of this earth. I will hold them loosely, but cling tightly to you. Enable me to live the kind of live today that will show on that final day that I have been rich toward the things of God.

One More Thing… “The one and only characteristic of the Holy Spirit in a person is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ and freedom from everything that is unlike Him.” —Oswald Chambers

Read II Peter 2:1-22

“But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as
there will be false teachers among you.”
(II Peter 2:1)

Thoughts… Oswald Chambers said, “The Bible treats us as human life does—roughly.” In the entire second chapter of Peter’s second letter, the Apostle really goes after some people—and he treats them roughly. He is going after false teachers—religious figures who pervert the Gospel for personal gain and manipulate God’s people for their own pleasure.

Peter is telling us to be on the lookout for such people. His message is clear: We are not to be duped by these phony spiritual leaders. And by the way, in case you didn’t know it, there are plenty of them even in our day. Just surf through the religious program on your TV set and you will see one before you know it. But they’re not just on TV; they are in denominational headquarters, they teach in seminary classes, they fill pulpits and lead small groups all around the world.

So how do you spot them? It’s not all that hard really, because no matter what era you are in or what position of authority they are in, these phonies fall into predictable patterns. You can spot them because they are always grubbing for money or they are always trolling for sex or they are always maneuvering for power—or all three.

If you spot a religious figure who seems to be preoccupied with money—watch out! I’ve seen plenty of pastors and TV preachers who were pretty good at that. They are slick, so don’t be fooled! Peter says “in their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.” (verse 3)

Likewise, if you run into a spiritual authority who seems to be a little too loose with the girls (or the guys)—have nothing to do with them. They are bad news, and when they fall, they will take people down with them. Peter says that God will be “especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire and who despise authority.” (verse 10) If a spiritual leader is unwilling to be accountable for his sexuality, that is the kind of person Peter is talking about.

And finally, whenever you find a religious figure who is egotistical, prideful, and self-serving—you have found the makings of a false teacher. When you get on the inside of their world and you don’t see humility, sacrifice and grace, you’ve got a leader who is driven by power, among other things. Peter warns of them in the last part of verse 10, “These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.” Verse 13 says, “they scoff at things they don’t understand.” Verse 18 tells us that “They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.”

Peter is really quite rough on these people: “These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness.” (verse 17) He calls them “a disgrace and a stain among you.” And he says, “they live under God’s curse.” (verses 13-14)

Tough chapter, I know. But as I mentioned at the beginning, the Bible sometimes treats us roughly in order to protect us from evil influences and preserve our salvation. And as it relates to so-called spiritual leaders, it is time we do the same.

A little rough treatment might clear some of them out of the body of Christ and off the airways.

Prayer… Lord, cleanse your church. Make us a holy Bride, without any spot, or wrinkle, or blemish. Give us greater discernment and courage to root out the false teachers among us so that we can be the kind of church you are pleased with and the world cannot find fault in.

One More Thing… “Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so; honesty desires to be good rather than seem so.” —Arthur Warwick

Read II Peter 1:1-21

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture
came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For
prophecy never had its origin in the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
(II Peter 1:20-21)

Thoughts… What makes the Bible any different from all the other religious books that exist throughout the world? And why should you be so singularly devoted to it, when there is so much other positive and uplifting literature available to help you to be a better version of you?

The answer is easy: No other book but the Bible is authored by God himself. The Bible is the only book that is fundamentally and completely divine in its origin and content. It is God’s book. So why would you want to go to any other source for instruction and inspiration when you can go right to the Author of all authors and find out what he has to say?

What Peter is showing us is that these letters, accounts, poems and prophecies that make up the Bible all originated in the mind of God, who chose holy men and breathed his Spirit into them as they recorded his thoughts, desires and plans for mankind. Now keep in mind that these writers were not simply God’s dictation machines. They had their own minds and personalities and styles that God used—that’s why each book is so different. But the source and the inspiration for each book came from the Holy Spirit himself—which is why there is an undeniable and remarkable unity in this diverse collection.

And by the way, if you go back a few verses in II Peter 1, you will find that Peter says the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures was authenticated by the miraculous life of Jesus Christ—which Peter, himself, witnessed first-hand. That’s why Peter has such confidence in the authority of the Scripture, and that’s why you can have the same confidence he had.

Now does that mean other literature can’t help? No. There are plenty of sources for encouragement and insight. But keep in mind that all other books, even ones authored by the most godly, brilliant and esteemed people imaginable, still represents their own interpretation of things.

Not so with the Bible. It represents God’s interpretation of things. And he always has the right interpretation. So you would do well to be singularly devoted to it.

As A.W. Tozer said, “The Holy Scriptures tell us what we could never learn any other way: they tell us what we are, who we are, how we got here, why we are here and what we are required to do while we remain here.”

I hope you enjoy God’s Word today!

Prayer… Lord, your Word is light, truth and life. I will hide it in my heart that I might not sin against you. I will feast on it daily that I might be nourished by it spiritually. I will dedicate myself to it completely that by it I might grow in my knowledge of you. Thank you for your Word—I will cherish it forever.

One More Thing… “The Bible is meant to be bread for our daily use, not just cake for special occasions.”

Read I Peter 4:7-5:14

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
(I Peter 5:7)

Thoughts… The only person whose problems are truly all behind him is a school bus driver. Everybody “gots” problems—lots of them! Worries, anxieties and challenges are a plenty in this day and age, from global warming to a shaky stock market to rising oil prices to terrorism to free radicals (no, that’s not a group from Berkeley), and on and on, ad infinitum.

Problems are everywhere, but that doesn’t mean you have to live your life paralyzed by them. As Martin Luther said, just because the birds fly over your head doesn’t mean you have to let them build a nest in your hair. Nor do you have allow your problems to shackle you with fear and anxiety. God didn’t create you to live that way.

Someone has said that “worry is a think stream of fear which, if encouraged, becomes a wide channel into which all other thoughts flow.” English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote, “Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage but also a weakness we must ask Him to pardon—for He’s told us to take no care for the morrow.”

So rather than holding onto those worries allowing them to become a river of fear, cast them onto God. That’s what Peter says. Cast your worries, fears and anxieties on him. All of them! Big ones, for sure, and even the little ones, too. He will take them all, because he cares that much for you!

That means you will need to practice the art of constant casting. You will not simply be able to cast your cares onto God once and be done with them. You’ll need to do it continually because you will never be far from problems. And those problems will be continually feeding that tributary of worry, and that tributary will be continually flowing into that river of fear that threatens to sweep you under. That’s just the reality of your life and mine.

So the next time you find yourself worrying—which will probably be within minutes after reading this post—just cast it back to God and say, “Lord, this one is too big for me. Here, you handle it.”

Sounds simple, I know, but just try it. Try it for a week. Take every single one of your anxieties, worries and fear in the next seven days—all of them—and consciously cast them onto God, and just see what happens.

If you will, God’s promise, not mine, but God’s, is that you will find yourself in his care (I Peter 5:7) and experiencing his peace (Philippians 3:6-7).

Give it a shot! You may find that this constant casting thing is a pretty good deal.

Prayer… Lord, here they are—all of my problems. They are too big for me. I refuse to stay up late worrying over them one more night. Since you’re up anyway, why don’t you worry about them. So I give them to you, and in exchange, by faith, I will rest in your care and receive your peace.

One More Thing… “We often think of great faith as something that happens spontaneously so that we can be used for a miracle or healing. However, the greatest faith of all, and the most effective, is to live day by day trusting Him. It is trusting Him so much that we look at every problem as an opportunity to see His work in our life. It is not worrying, but rather trusting and abiding in the peace of God that will crush anything that Satan tries to do to us. If the Lord created the world out of chaos, He can easily deal with any problem that we have.” —Rick Joyner

Read I Peter 3:7-4:6

“Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when
people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a
blessing. That is what God has called you
to do, and he will bless you for it.”
(I Peter 3:9)

Thoughts… In his autobiography, Number 1, the late baseball great Billy Martin told about hunting in Texas with the legendary Mickey Mantle. Mickey had a friend who would let them hunt on his ranch. When they reached the ranch, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he checked in with his friend.

Mantle’s friend quickly gave them permission to hunt, but he asked Mickey a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind, and he didn’t have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shoot the mule for him. When Mickey came back to the car, he pretended to be angry. He scowled and slammed the door. Billy asked him what was wrong, and Mickey said his friend wouldn’t let them hunt. “I’m so mad at that guy I’m going out to his barn and shoot one of his mules!”

Mantle drove like a maniac to the barn while Martin protested, “We can’t do that!” Mickey was adamant, “Just watch me.” When they got to the barn, Mantle jumped out of the car with his rifle, ran inside, and shot the mule. Then Mantle heard two shots outside, so he ran back out of the barn to the car.

Martin had taken out his rifle, too. “What are you doing, Martin?” he yelled. Martin yelled back, face red with anger, “We’ll show that son of a gun! I just killed two of his cows!”

We live in an age where we are taught to stand up for our rights, defend ourselves, respond tit-for-tat, and never let anyone intimidate us. It is a sure sign of weakness to let someone get away with any kind of personal offense.

But is it really a weakness or is it wisdom to overlook an insult? King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived outside of Jesus Christ, wrote says, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” (Proverbs 29:11)

If you tend toward anger and are quick to retaliate when you have been offended, you might as well hang a sign around your neck that reads, “I’m a fool.”

But if you have developed the ability to control your emotions when irritated, Solomon would call you prudent. A prudent person is one who shows discretion, who has tremendous foresight, and uses careful judgment. It is a person who responds with patience rather than anger.

Proverbs 16:32 describes that person this way: “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” Proverbs 20:3 states, “It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.”

You will most likely have opportunity for either foolishness or prudence this week because someone has insulted or irritated you. When that happens, just remember: You were not called to retaliation, nor to foolishness, but to blessing.

So be a source of blessing even to the people who don’t deserve it, and God will bless you for it.

Prayer… Lord, increase my patience this week with those who would irritate or insult me. Remind me that I have been called to exchange blessing for cursing. Enable me through your indwelling Spirit to love difficult people just as you love me even when I have been difficult for you.

One More Thing… “He best keeps from anger who remembers that God is always looking upon him. ~ Plato