Peter

[betchevy]

I Peter 2:1, 2, 3 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings... As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be.. ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious..9 but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood, and holy nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness in His marvellous light.II Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the devine naturehaving escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness , charity For it these things be in you and abound the make you neither barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord jesus Christ.Lets look at what Peter is telling us...there is a devine nature we should desire to have and in order to obtain in we must do things in order and he gives that order...1> escape corruption... how? by accpting Christ as your salvation it has te be the start, faith. then whatdo we do?2>add virtue, what is virtue and how will we know it? the law is a mirror to see , am I commiting sin...the top 10 is a good place to start...Exodus 20:1-17... the law was given as a guide to what is good and wat is evil, we now we cannot save ourselves by keeping the law, that is whay Christs blood was poured out for a permanent sacrifice for all time , but we use the law to see where we are going wrong we should try to be virtuous...3>add then Knowledge, this isn't talking about a degree in even divinity form some university, but true knowledge is from God Proverbs 2:6 here God is telling s to know the Law in order to have wisdom from God..Jesus said the whole law is summed up in two..love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself... but he knew the whole law, and was able to truly love himself and his fellow man..4>next temperance.. not overdoing not continually focusing on one thing one point, not voer eating over drinking over anything even over focusing on one point of the Word, we must know the whole book not one verse or one book, or one point , but must know it from beginning to end and know that when even the word is hurting you ro someone around you, God is not please with beating someone up even if you use the Word to do it... for what is the next step in being Christ like...5> patience... It think someone here has shown us patience wonderfully Swampfox, he is patient with all of us to a point, when the whole has begun to suffer or someone mocks God, he steps in, but he it patient.... the word says.. I will admit I especially fall short here... I am not by nature patient, but God can give you a nature, unnatural to you but bestowed as a gift...lets look to Christ... he knew why he was on the cross and he taught from Psalms 22 because He knew Gods plan he could have forgiveness and patience with the world whether they were trying to do good or trying to do bad, likewise if we understand God is in control and no matter what those around us do... Gods will be done in ALLthings ...we can have patience and peace...6>Godliness, the only way to obtain godliness is to try, you have to build on these steps you cannot take one out and focus on that one thing, but daily building, slowly... to know the word, having patience even with yourself to know you will come to godliness and when we do we can have this next two steps;7>Kindness, in every situation, not seeing everyone faults but looking for good, we might see faults, but must we point to them and THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE, not finding any good in even our "enemies"... no, we must be kind even when we do not feel like it, even when we are no one sees you as kind or even recognizes it...because when we do we are doing the last having8> Charity, love... being kind to those who do not deserve it or even want it, those who reject you , your thoughts, you beliefs, everything fif you can love them and have kindness toward them the you are becoming made in the image of God....Do I fall short, definately..... am I trying... most definately.......does it make me more beloved here in your eyes, absolutely not, but does it please my Father to desire to be like him and to TRYto emulate Him... yes and thats who I want to please, who I want to be happy with me... I love you guys and try to love you in order to please our Father...I will do more research and add verses to this thread as I reasarch today... but please know, I am trying to please my Father, if I can please you at the same time.... great if not... I am sorry... but know I am trying...

 

[Christina]

That is all any of us can do is "TRY" Betchevy I admire anyone who can look at their heart see what things we need to improve upon. It is the same in life as in the word when we see something in scripture we may have wrong we need to look deeper to find the answers and never be afraid to search for the truth of his word reguardless of what some man or church told us.As it is with us when see a weakness in ourself's we need to look for answers in Gods word to help us change it. Only one will ever be found without fault in the flesh,Jesus Christ the rest of us continue the struggle.