2 Peter 1

2 Peter 1:1-10

¹ Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

² Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴ Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸ 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. ⁹ But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

¹⁰ Therefore, my brothers and sisters,^[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, ¹¹ and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Once we know the presence of God in our lives, we suddenly do not feel so restless trying to live life it our ways. Knowing the grace and goodness of God brings peace to me as I now know that I do not need to strive to live it according to my ways but according to His ways. He gives me everything in abundance and made everything just perfect for me.

He has also given to me His great and precious promises. All these can be known by reading His words. The bible tells me everything I need to know. It does not necessary tell me everything I want to know but it definitely tells me what God thinks I need to know. I might not understand all the times and I might still ask for the things of my heart, but God knows best. His ways and thoughts are higher than mine. So who I am to argue with Him, right? It is important to read the word as it reveals to us God’s mighty plans in our lives. It brings you through bad days knowing that God is still with us no matter what happens and deliver us from temptations as Jesus Himself was tempted when He was here in the form of man. God will never tempt us but He knows that we can go through every temptation we face.

With the goodness of God, we cannot complain about anything. We ought to read His words daily and be refresh daily so that we will never be blind again forgetting that He has cleansed us from our past sins.

Unlocked

Dear Heavenly Father,

Father God, you know my situation right now oh God. Jeslyn and I had been stranded here in this computer pool for about 5 hours now oh God. I pray God, that you will lead us through out of this cage God. I've forgotten my key and that is definitely my bad God, but I just pray God that you will just help us find a way to get a key or to open the door to the apartment numbered 301. God, may it be Virginia or the receptionist God, I pray that you will show us a way God. I trust in You God. I shall leave everything onto Your mighty hands and let You do the work God.

I pray all this unto Jesus' name. AMEN!

Miracle

The first miracle Jesus performed on Earth was turning water into wine as said in John 3. It was at a wedding ceremony of one of the resident in Cana of Galilee. Jesus can perform so many miracles and there are so many that is going to fill our life. One very simple example is the 60-80 beats of heartbeat we have every minute right now. There is nothing we can do to make it beat by itself but it did not stop even for one second. You know why? The answer is God. Isnt He Amazing? Well, atleast I think He is!

Love Life!

God is Good

I just want to remind myself of today on how God has shown me His unfailing love, mercy and goodness. Had my counselling test today and the case I got was Headache. Simple. Straighforward. A case that I can finish counselling within 5 minutes. God never fails me. NEVER. But I do realize something, I fail him all the time. Times where I was supposed to pick up the cup. Times where I was supposed to step out. Times where I was supposed to confess. Times where I was supposed to declare. Times where I was supposed to read His word. I am Sorry God. But I thank God He NEVER give up on Me. He gives me chance all the time.

THANK YOU GOD!

Trust

Proverbs 16:20- Whoever gives heed to instrustion prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.

It pays to take life seriously; things work out when you trust in God.

The world is place where trust is highly valued and sought after; everyday we are bombarded by advertising, selling you 'products you can trust'or products with 'guaranteed results'. These companies understand that there is incredible power in trusting their product.

As one who has chosen to follow after Jesus, our lives are defined by the one in whom we trust. The circumstances of life can push us in a direction that seem opposite to where we feel we need to go, and through those times, all we can do is trust God. Our trust is continually being tested and although we walk through pain and hurt daily, we can look back on those days, months and years, and see that God is truly trustworthy.


In a world with so many 'guarantees'and advertising gimmicks, this scripture is a promise we can rest our lives on; things work out when you trust in God. We need to know every single day, that as we give ourselves completely to God, we can rely on Him to love us, lead us, and bring us to a place of great significance and blessing; this is a guarantee that you can depend on.

This song is really nice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skXEwaYsI_A

Sinful Nature vs Holy Spirit

Today's sermon was great thus I thought of writing down here. Ps. Jonathan thought us how to bear Fruit of the Spirit.

We are all human and the sinful nature is always there. It is always there to catch us and bring us down whereas the holy spirit would be there to bring us up again after the fall. The most important thing of the fall is what happens after that and not before that. We just have to make sure everytime we fall, we know how to get back up. That doesn't rely on our strength but on Jesus's strength through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is really crucial to be able to feed the Spirit instead of other things.

The one and only way to feed our Spirit is by having daily time with God or in other words Devotion. Psalm 1 tells us that.

Plasm 1: 2 - But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.(NIV)

There are 7 ways of doing this :-
a) Pattern- Look at God's pattern through Jesus. The whole Bible is the pattern of God shown in the characteristic of Jesus Christ in the New Testament
b) Prioritize - Let our time with Jesus be our priority. Its like keeping the appointment so to do things together with God
c) Prepare - God speak to us and so be prepared for that. Write a journal to help us remind ourselves that God constantly answer us (1 Timothy 4:8)
d) Place - Choose a quiet place to come beefore God. Dont let anything rob that or distract you (Matthew 6:6)
e) Pray - Be intentional and proactive knowing that God does answer our prayers.
f) Persist - In doing God's will eventhough it sometimes might be difficult.
g) Person - We ourself should hold accountable or even as partners.

Devotions should be a lifestyle.

Forgive

'Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with eaach other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.' Colossians 3:12-14 (NIV).

I guess it is part of human nature to hang onto something so tightly that sometimes we don't realise that we would be so much more relieved and at peace once we let go. Often we would say it is difficult to forgive him/her . Even if we do, we might not treat her the same way ever again. The relationship that we once share is shattered. I don't know if you have went through that phase but I can honestly tell you I do. We are so conformed into the earthly matter to say or even think of that. How can we say that when we are continuously forgiven by God? How can we say that when everytime we ask for forgiveness, we think we are even again and is pure again in God's eyes? How can we say that when we ask favors from God after a repentance prayer?

The answer is we cannot. Everytime we ask for forgiveness, the Lord forgives us. Everytime we pray, God listens to us no matter how many time we have fallen short of His glory. Everytime we repent, God bless us.

So why can't we do the same as what the Lord God has done for us? We are all His people and we ought to treat everyone the same. When they ask for forgiveness, shouldn't we just forgive them and take them back again? When we love God, the love will also outflow from within us and that would help us to forgive the other party no matter what he/she has done. Atleast for one thing for sure, what they have done will not be as bad as what we have done to cost Jesus's life on the cross. If we are forgiven for that, nothing in this world that we should/can say we cannot forgive.

It is our ego that we are not willing to forgive. It is not about the severity of their wrong doings.