Sunday, March 14, 2010

2 Peter 2

2 comments:

Jude said...

Interesting description of deceivers and a warning for us all.
v18-20 ....They entice people who are just escaping those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a SLAVE TO WHATEVER MASTERED HIM. If they have escaped the corruuption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

Somedays it is hard for me to be "mastered" but in my heart I know that everyday, I only want to be mastered by the Lord.

The darkness is such a horrible place to be. It reminds me of some patients I have known and friends I grew up with. It is so hard to break out of that depth of darkness. Pray, pray, pray.

Unknown said...

Notes from my journal from yesterday;

"He sent them to hell and put them in caves of darkness, where they are being held for judgment." v4

that's enough to chill a soul.

"Lot was a good man, but because he lived with evil people every day, his good heart was hurt by the evil things he saw and heard." v8 this verse really gripped me. How the conditioning of our evil society (we don't like to call materialism and hedonism and self promotion sin, do we? A little too close to home?) hurts our hearts and hinders them from beating true and strong with passion for our master. I am on a mission to purge my life even more of the "apple pie".

"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.
It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for
heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not
the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we
drink in every night."
— John Piper (A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer)

"they have taught their hearts to be greedy." v14

the verse that you outlined Judith, I had thoughts about that too... this danger of the new convert being led astray by false belief and the importance that places on discipleship. On teaching new (and old) believers the importance of EATING their daily bread, of learning to live a life of a balanced diet of the spiritual disciplines so that they will digest truth, disseminate it and learn to live it. ESSENTIAL. and almost completely left to the discretion of the individual these days with almost no practical discipleship taking place from a church leadership level down.

This is one of the biggest callings Prairie Guy and I feel on our lives, the passion to see people truly discipled, the sorrow at knowing that believers are not tapping into the diet of grace and strength that is laid on the banqueting table for them and that they are bid to "come." It is our daily prayer that somehow, some way, we can channel this passion in a positive, loving and beautiful way and ignite a fire in others lives for the same.

"People are slaves of anything that controls them." v19 Sometimes I become a slave to coffee. Or to a television show. Or to the internet. I need to monitor myself SO carefully to make sure that I am in a balanced place where I can "enjoy" these things without being mastered by them. And just like the dog that returns to its vomit, I will cyclically wrestle with the things that have a tendency to master me. And I will continue to fight.