Posted: February 8, 2024
The last two traits on Peter’s great list that God “has granted to us all”1 are brotherly affection and love. Although they might sound like the same thing, they are not at all. Brotherly affection is kindness. Kindness is always that thing that is never required, always unexpected, and rarely experienced. If mercy is unmerited
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Category: Blog
Posted: February 1, 2024
One of the things Peter says we have been granted is steadfastness. Other translations use the words endurance, patience, and perseverance. If self-control is the hardest trait to master on Peter’s list, steadfastness is a close second. Why? Because we love to quit. We abandon, grow weary of, lose interest in, and walk away from
Continue Reading “Steadfastness and Godliness”
Category: Blog
Posted: January 25, 2024
Self-control. Peter tells us to supplement our faith with—among other things—self-control, which can be defined as temperance or discipline or abstinence. Although it is an admirable trait, few really want to obtain this one. It indicates giving up things and restraining ourselves from giving in to things. I don’t believe I have ever heard a
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Category: Blog
Posted: January 18, 2024
Here is the list of qualities we should pursue in order that we can be “partakers of the divine nature”1 of Jesus. It includes virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. I am not certain if these qualities are in a particular order, but it seems that they might be. 🤓 After trusting
Continue Reading “Goodness and Knowledge”
Category: Blog
Posted: January 11, 2024
There is no secular part of our lives. There are no separate compartments in which we should categorize what is religious and what is not. And yet we do. We label some music as “Christian” and everything else as “secular.” So, are we saying that “secular” music cannot have a “Christian” message? 🤔 Of course,
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Category: Blog
Posted: January 4, 2024
It’s a new year. And since it is a new year, many of us are inclined to start some new “thing.” It is a good thing—to reach a firm decision about, to change, to declare, to decide, to resolve—to start something good. So, let’s do it! Here we go! 🏃♀️ Let’s all vow together to
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Category: Blog
Posted: December 28, 2023
Paul exclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”1 Wait a minute, then. 🤔 If God’s judgments are “unsearchable,” why bother to search for them? If his ways are “inscrutable” are not our scrutable efforts a waste of time? 😟
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Category: Blog
Posted: December 21, 2023
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen Traditional God rest ye merry, gentlemen As I was researching this song, I found a website that I have copied and pasted above, written in green. So, my question for you is this: What’s wrong with this picture? 🤔 It’s the commas. Which way is correct? Does the comma go
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Category: Blog
Posted: December 14, 2023
If you want to learn how to be happy, read the first Psalm. Two kinds of people are described: the blessed (happy) righteous people and the wicked people. A blessed (happy) person is one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord.”1 Blessed (happy) people are ones who obey God and whose heart’s desire
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Category: Blog
Posted: December 7, 2023
It’s not a straight line, this journey of faith. I wish it were. 😟 I wish that I would always be moving forward and upward and growing stronger and more steadfast. That’s what I wish. But that is not my experience, and I daresay it is probably not yours either. Instead, our successes are often
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Category: Blog
