From Paula:
This week, as we continue in our series called "What Kind of Church?," the title of the sermon will be "Are you growing spiritually?" We will be looking at 2nd Peter 1:2-11 which reads:
"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For 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. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
How much responsibility do you think we have for our personal spiritual growth? According to this passage, it seems to me that there is a lot of effort expected from us in order to live the kind of life God desires for us to live.
Are there any particular spiritual disciplines that have been helpful to you on your journey of spiritual growth so far? How do you exercise your spirit? Or, what are some spiritual disciplines you haven't tried before, but would like to? Something that you have done before but need to re-introduce into your daily life?
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2 comments:
These verses seem to say that through our knowledge of Him we are given everything we need for life and godliness. It seems that knowing Him is the key and that the better we know him the more power we have to live a Godly life.
Now the question becomes how do we come to know him better. I think that, at least in part, the answer is to spend time with him. For me that looks like time reading scripture, especially the gospels,spending time just trying to be quiet and listen, and time telling Him about me, my hopes, dreams,failures and triumphs. I know He knows it all before I tell Him, but something in the telling increases the intimacy and the intimacy increases the power to live a Godly life. I wish I could say I was consistent in these disciplines but I have a long way to go.
Just the DESIRE to know our Lord better must be worth a lot. That desire will lead us beyond our life experiences to the scriptures because we can only know SO MUCH about God through exploring THIS WORLD. AND... no matter HOW much effort we put into learning who God is and what He is like, we would NEVER be able to discover His heart were it not for HIS communication with us, first throught the written word and the prophets ... and then through His Son!
P.S. Though we ALL have a long way to go, He is not far from us!
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