Second Peter Chapter 3 (Andrew Fletcher)
This chapter has a message for each of us, a promise from God to His children, a great and precious promise. If we hold onto it and trust in God, we can inherit the greatest promise of all, the great Kingdom which is to come.
Peter was writing about the Second Coming of Christ. Why? Because false teachers were denying the fact of Jesus' return. In v1–9, Peter confronts this denial of the second coming head on and responds to the skepticism of the false teachers. He goes on to talk about the Day of the Lord and how we each should look for His promise despite the scoffers around us in the world.
Peter’s picture of the end is simple: fire will destroy the sky, the earth and everything on it (v10), and new heavens and a new earth will stand in their place (v13). The only things that are going to survive the fires of judgment on this earth are expressions of holiness and godliness. A life lived for the world will be punished, but a life lived for Christ will be laden with eternal riches.
Verse 14 draws the conclusion for daily life from this hope: “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him." We must walk in the light. Peter showed each one of us that there are two motivations that God has given us:
1.That the earth and all the vain accomplishments of man are going to be burned by fire, and only the fruits of holiness will remain; and
2.That the promise of a new heaven and a new earth will shine so bright with God's righteousness and glory.
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We are Blessed! (Kelman Baum)
The word happy is a mono word meaning happiness within the self but the word blessed has a dual meaning- both happiness within the self and the recognition that this comes from God. The world believes that happiness comes from your material wealth but this is not a lasting happiness.
As Jesus tells us in the beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12), no matter how we are feeling and how life treats us we must remember that we are always blessed. Blessings come from God, and they in turn offer us hope of eternal life in God’s kingdom.
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Prayer (Sam Crispin)
Prayer is a very important part of our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We speak to God knowing that He listens and answers our prayers. There are two main actions/thoughts we can have whilst praying; to give and to ask.
To give is to give God thankfulness and praise. We are told to always give thanks to God through Jesus (Eph 5:19-20) and we have so much to be thankful for. As well as general appreciation but we should always try to focus our prayers to include specific thanks for what we have experienced that day.
Much of our praying involves asking or making requests. Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given you." When we ask in faith (Mt 21:21-22) we can be confident that God hears and answers our prayers according to His will (1Jn 5:13).Through prayer we can leave our problems to God as shown by the faith of Hannah. God answered Hannah's prayer for a child, providing her with Samuel, which means 'heard of God'. Let us continue to build our relationship with God through faithful prayer in the name of His son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
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God's Word (David Morgan)
Paul in 1 Thess 4:1-2 tells us to live more and more by the principles of God. Of course, to do this we have to be aware of them. Ezra, when he returned from the captivity, is an excellent example. He determined that he was going to read, to understand, to meditate upon, to teach and to do the word of God. We must do the same. God’s word must be in our hearts and minds so that it can guide us in all we do. We must make every effort to read the Bible - every day.
Of course, reading alone isn't sufficient - we have to understand it, to have read with clarity and wisdom. Having understood what God tells us, we should think on it - as Deut 6 tells us in speaking of our training methods for children, we should speak of it through every activity we undertake, working, walking, at home, out at work, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. Being now in a position to say that we begin to know and understand his word, let's make sure we teach it to everyone we meet.
And above all, of course, our responsibility is to DO what he tells us to. We are to be doers of the word, not hearers only. In everything. Only in this way can we fulfill the requirements for true religion - to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world (James 1:27).
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