Welcome to the weekend my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Are you a person who more enjoys looking back into your past or forward into the future? We know the past with both its highs and lows, good and bad, success and failure. But the future is uncertain, all the choices have yet to be made. So here we stand on this last weekend of February, both looking back and looking forward. Let’s join Peter again as I think he has something special to say to us this weekend.
In the mid first century, the disciple Peter was writing his second letter to Christians living in very difficult times all across the Roman Empire. He himself has been imprisoned and persecuted harshly. I imagine Peter often found himself looking back, so many memories of his months with Jesus, but also looking forward wondering how much time he had left and how best to use that time to encourage suffering Christians.
He’s rolling out his parchment again, ready to write. Yesterday we listened as Peter challenged his readers with specifics in how to grow their faith in God. Then Peter wrote: “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:8) Those words not only grabbed their attention but were a catalyst to growing their spiritual muscles. Now today Peter keeps writing: “But whoever does not have these qualities is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their sins.”
My father and some other older men I know have something called “macular degeneration” which slowly clouds their vision all the way to blindness. It’s a terrible disease to slowly lose your sight. But even worse is a person with perfectly good eyes but who looks at life with such distorted views it is as though they are going through life blind! Do you know anyone like that? That’s what Peter is challenging his readers with here.
As Christians we have been given so much by God and the Holy Spirit is working hard to refine us and purify us and teach us and nurture our spirituality. Yet if we don’t recognize that, or we reject the work of God in us, or we refuse to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, it is like the man with perfectly good eyes but going through life with his eyes closed or wearing a black patch over both eyes! Do you see Peter specifically says these people live “forgetting that they have been cleansed from their sins.” As you and I look back over our lives, do we see the past honestly and with clarity? If you have fully trusted Jesus Christ to be your Savior how fully do you understand that God the Father has forgiven you of your sins (Eph. 1:7) and the Holy Spirit of God has cleansed you of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)? Are you living forgiven or burdened by your memories of past failure that God has forgiven but you can’t release?
Peter is calling us out here. Do we sometimes live life forgetting or minimizing the tremendous work accomplished in us by Almighty God as He transforms us from sin condemned to forgiven and free? From sin slave to adopted royalty. So, Peter continues: “Therefore my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:10,11)
Do you notice Peter now, for a second time, uses this powerful call to action: “Make every effort…” Peter used that very same phrase back in verse 5 of this first chapter, remember? “Make every effort to add to your faith, goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and mutual affection and love.” Those qualities do not come naturally to our human species, they require effort, sustained effort if our character will be changed to be that type of God honoring person! Now here, Peter says it again: “make every effort to confirm your calling and election.“ Peter is saying something very important. Without effort our relationship with God will wane, we will drift away from God, our spiritual passion will be dampened by other pursuits in life. Has that ever occurred in your life journey? Physical health, intellectual brilliance, emotional stability ALL require effort because the dark world in which we live is always trying to deaden any spiritual appetite God is awakening in you!
Do you also see Peter’s promise: “…if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Walking with our eyes fixed on Jesus and making every effort to develop our spiritual qualities, which Peter has outlined, will also prevent us from stumbling into the traps which are set all around by those who desire our demise. Do understand that my friends?
Do you see how Peter challenges us to look back with clarity, accuracy and full understanding of what God has done in our lives and then look forward with clarity and full understanding of what awaits us in heaven! That’s what I would call spiritual 20-20 vision and the Holy Spirit of God has responsibility to help us look at our lives with 20-20 vision. When we look at our lives through the eyes of Jesus, we should see our sins forgiven in the past; our lives currently being lived Holy Spirit led, as ambassadors of Jesus, no matter where we live on earth; and our future heavenly home should be for us an exciting, hopeful inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, (1 Peter 1:4) because Jesus is preparing it for us! Now pause here a moment… does that powerful sentence describe how you see your past, your present and your future? If not, why not?
Peter put down his stylus. I think he did it often as he wrote, perhaps pausing to pray, thanking God for the way the Holy Spirit has led his mind so he would write exactly what God wanted to say to the people. But then also praying for the people who would read these words, asking the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts so they would embrace the powerful truth Peter had just written.
I think we should do the same. If you have your Bible open, read slowly, carefully, out loud, 2 Peter 1:3-11, or listen to it in the dramatic reading at the bottom of your “WWJ”, and then take some time to thank God for the power of those words, and ask the Holy Spirit to penetrate those words deeply down into your soul. Then take a few moments and worship with this great song. Be overwhelmed by the majesty of God and the work He’s doing in your life IF you have fully trusted Jesus Christ to be your Savior!!
Today’s Scripture is 2 Peter 1:8-11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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