What do we think of when we think of refreshing ourselves? A splash of cold water from the faucet at the sink? A tall glass of ice cold water to quench our thirst? Perhaps a quick shower and a change into clean clothes? Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?
If we break the word down into its two parts, we have re + fresh. Now most of us know that "re" means "again." So obviously the word means "to make fresh again." And that splash of water, the cool drink, the shower and clothes can certainly make our physical bodies feel fresh again. We are revitalized and ready to resume our daily tasks.
The apostle Peter was familiar with being refreshed, though the kind he was talking about was not the refreshing of our physical bodies. If you have a King James Version handy, take a look at 2 Peter 1:13. He writes: "I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body." What he means is he finds it fitting to remind Christians of something.
Now let's see what we are being reminded of. Go back to the beginning of the chapter. (I'm switching over to the NKJV now for comprehension's sake.)
1. We have obtained a precious faith through the righteousness of God and Jesus Christ.
2. Through His divine power he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
3. Because of this we can be partakers of the divine nature.
[Sounds good, right? Let's continue.]
4. We escaped the corruption that is in the world.
[Whoa! It all sounded so good and then, bam! I don't know if I like being reminded that I was once a sinner. (But I was. All who are now living godly once were sinners.) Well, let's read some more. Maybe it will get better.]
5. We must be diligent.
6. We must add to our faith virtue.
7. We must add to our virtue knowledge.
8. Then self-control.
9. Then perseverance.
10. Then godliness
11. And brotherly kindness.
12. And love.
[Oh, that sounds like an awful lot of work. That knowledge part sounds like a lot of studying and you know, I have my job and my family and then my friends and all of that takes a lot of time. And you know, Lord, I have to have time to myself. It's football season, basketball season, and all my shows on television are new because the T.V. season just started in September. And there's my hobbies, my house, my dog. I'll try to fit in reading a few verses every day, but I'm not sure about that studying part.
(But remember, way back in verse 3 we are told we are partakers of the divine nature through knowledge!)
Wait! There's more.]
13. If these things are ours...
[What things? Well, faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, of course.
Oh, okay. I guess I can manage that daily Bible reading.
Oh, but we haven't read the rest of the verse yet.]
If these things are ours and abound...
[Did we catch that? We aren't supposed to have just a little faith, just a little virtue, just a little knowledge, just a little self-control, just a little perseverance, just a little godliness, just a little brotherly kindness, just a little love, these things are supposed to ABOUND. As in being bountiful, overflowing, plentiful.
Did it just get harder? Honestly, yes, it did. But let's keep going.]
Continuing #13 in the things we are being reminded of: If these things are ours and abound, we will not be unfruitful or barren in the knowledge of our Lord.
[If we're not unfruitful or barren in knowledge, then we are partakers of the divine nature.]
14. If we don't have these things, then we are shortsighted--and more than that, we are blind.
15. If we don't have these things, then we have forgotten that we were cleansed from our old sins.
[That corruption, that filth has come upon us again. Why did we bother with the cool drink, the splash of water, the shower (or bath) for our spiritual bodies? We are no longer revived; we are dead, covered again by filth.]
16. But if we do these things...
[What things? Well, add to our faith virtue, to our virtue knowledge, to our knowledge self-control, to our self-control perseverance, to our perseverance godliness, to our godliness brotherly kindness, to our brotherly kindness love.]
If we do these things, we will never stumble.
[Have we ever stumbled before? Got a scrape from it? A sprain? Jarred our brain a little? Not pleasant was it?]
17. If we do these things, an entrance will be provided--
[Read closely now because this is the good part.]
ABUNDANTLY, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
[All that reading and studying is starting to sound worth it, isn't it?]
But wait. Now these Christians that Peter wrote must have been pretty weak, right? You know, he tells us. Look at verse 12. "For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth." They KNEW the truth. (We've been talking about knowledge, right?) They were ESTABLISHED in the truth. Tell me, would you set foot inside a building that you knew was not firmly established? I sure wouldn't. These Christians were established, and yet Peter say he's going to be ALWAYS reminding them. Not only that, but look at verse 15: "Moreover i will be careful to ensure that you ALWAYS have a reminder of these things after my decease. (And they do. We do.)
If these established and knowledgeable Christians ALWAYS needed reminding, then what about the rest of us?
Nice "sermon." :-) Growing in virtues is SO exciting! I recently had a realization of how experiencing a trial resulted in growth. Thoughts like these help us to rejoice amidst difficulties.
I'm sorry -- I haven't read your blog yet! But in answer to your questions -- I did vote, on Saturday. And I have nothing against children's books! They're often a little bit more innocent than some of the older ones. I've actually thought about reading Lord of the Rings next. Which are children's books, right? I've thought about reading some John Grisham too, though. Or maybe some classics that I never finished in some of my classes. I've thought about going throught he Newberry Award-winning books. I figured with children around the corner (very figuratively speaking) it would be a good start to developing their curriculum. :-)
Hi there. Since my dad only has dial-up service, I'm not taking time to read your good study, but did want to answer your question - yes, we are able to access our same email address while we are in the States. See you there!
Though not without struggles, it was a good holiday; my family really missed this brother, who because he had to work Black Friday, went to Atlanta with his fiancee's family rather than come all the way up to Ohio. So my family a little bit of the experience, for the first time, of having one of us away...I can hardly imagine what it would be like to have several children gone. I am glad it was a good Thanksgiving nonetheless for you. I would love to come visit again sometime. :-)
wow! I love that chapter! We have been studying 1 Peter in Bible class and it is really encouraging. This post has inspired me to go back and study that chapter in 2 Peter.
So here my daughter has tagged me and wants me to tell you 8 things about me. So now that you are warned, and I have spent some time getting to know myself better so I can actually think of 8 things, here they are!
1. I have more shoes than I have purses. Not that I have more feet than I have money, but then I don't necessarily have more money than I do feet. That's just the way it is.
2. I have 7 daughters. I often have more daughters than I have money. But daughters don't fit in purses.
3. When I was 7 I won first place in my division in a city-wide art contest. (The city population was probably about 1,000.) I painted a storefront window with a gnarly tree, a fence, a black cat, a jack-o-lantern, a witch on a broom and a full moon. I won $3 and thought I was rich.
4. When I was 17, I won honorable mention in the Scholastic National Writing contest. I won $15 and thought I was rich then, too.
5. My husband got us hooked on "America's Got Talent." We didn't miss an episode since we recorded it because it was on Wednesday. The last night we didn't make it to the church building--one lane on the Interstate and you go 1/2 mile in 30 minutes. We ended up home in time to watch the show and vote 100 times for Eli Mattson. And he didn't win! So I guess we won't be buying his CD.
6. When I was 16, my girlfriend and I wrote Lifesavers to ask them to make a roll with just pineapple-flavored lifesavers. They told us that no one else would buy them, but thanked us for buying the rolls of assorted and tropical flavors in order to get the two pineapple flavored lifesavers in each roll.
7. When I was 21, my roommate and I wrote the Keebler elves to commend them on their Butter 100's. They wrote us back! (We thought we might get a coupon for a free bag seeing's we were starving college students, but no such luck.)
8. Lysol Kitchen Spray kills flies! No, that's not a fact about me, but I did discover it and when my husband called them and told them about it, they did send me a coupon for a free bottle or refill.
Oh, that's 8 things! Whew! That is probably the hardest thing I have ever done. Well, maybe not quite...
I am getting the impression that you have always been a writer at heart- like Rebekah. I wrote Celestial Seasonings about the change they made in their "new and improved" tea- I liked the old way better. They sent me several old boxes that hadn't been improved, yet.
and jared thought i was strange because i wrote Wonka to ask them to take the nasty pineapple and mango flavored ones out of the original mix....they sent me a coupon. :-D
1 corner of rainbow-colored pad of paper on which Mom writes her homeschool "to buy" list
several Math-U-See manipulative cubes
the edge of a box in which the new chest of drawers is packed
1 red plastic spoon
several napkins and sheets of facial tissue
a sock
some toes
It's only Wednesday and these are all the things that Chloe the puppy has either chewed up, chewed on, or eaten so far this week. And they are only appetizers. She also eats a dozen or so puppy treats since everyone gives her treats and no one knows what anyone else gives her. And since she always looks so cute sniffing the air when someone is preparing a snack or meal, bits and pieces of lunchmmeat and Cheerios mysteriously appear on the floor around the kitchen island. And she also eats at least two bowlfuls of her dog food. But since the vet says she's not overweight and she's healthy, this diet is good for her!
Just felt like writing about something a little different today!
That is so cute! :) I miss Chloe sooo much. Jethro is wonderful, but Chloe is OURS. Funny how that makes something extra special. Not to mention, that that Chloe's tongue is warm, and Jethro can't even kiss because his big cold nose is in the way, lol! :-D But like I said... He's a pretty nifty dog and I like to go over there and play with him when I am feeling stressed out. Still, I suddenly miss y'all and want to spend time with you. Maybe I will call you...
If I make it through this, I ought to have a good bit of patience. :-) I miss you all too. Pleo/e-mail/cell phones are quite a blessing though. :-) I'm always happy to hear from my "family." :-)
It took me a long while to fully appreciate what James 1 meant there (assuming I understand now), but over this past summer I finally came appreciate that it's saying we can rejoice at the expectation of growth as a consequence of our trials; that understanding is important step, but I'm still not as good as I should be at actually living the rejoicing part. Thanks for reminding of it, though. IT's not easy to always the appropriate in one's head.
:) Em misses Chloe dearly. I wonder how long it will take her to grow out of the chewing/biting phase! We thought Jethro never would, but now he is quite the gentleman.
As soon as I heard that Ike was headed our way here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I asked someone who has lived here a while, "So how bad does it get around here when a hurricane, well, tropical storm/depression passes through?" And she said, "You know, I don't recall that ever happening."
Hmm...
My beloved and I went to Target to buy some flashlights and batteries and I heard these two women going over their final plans for a party tonight.
Again: Hmm....
And when we went by Taco Bueno to pick up our daughter at work, my husband asked one of the guys there (perhaps an assistant manager), "So what contingency plans do you have for tomorrow?" (Because our daughter is supposed to work tomorrow.) He said, "Well, I guess we'll go into the walk-in." Meaning the refrigerator.
And as I walked to our table (because everybody has to eat a little Taco Bueno once in a while), he said, "Just have her call before she comes in to see if we need her since we might not be very busy tomorrow."
What???
Sustained winds in our area are forecast to be up to 45 mph with gusts of 55 mph. Rainfall between 2 and 4 inches. Do you think you'd be going to Taco Bueno in that?
When Ivan came through our area in Alabama the sustained winds were not as high as what we are expected to get here. I feared the tree in our Alabama yard that was taller than our house was going to be uprooted. All the limbs and branches were leaning over toward the west as if the tree had been cut in half from the top down. Unsecured trash cans and other light objects were flying out of the neighbor's yards and into ours and on down the street. We were fortunate. No damage to our property--the tree looked "mushed-up" on the east side, but it remained standing. We lost power for about 1 1/2 hours, but others in the county lost power for the weekend.
It's supposed to be worse here. I hope that the weather forecasters are wrong. I'm worried that people here don't know what they're in for.
I guess we'll know by Sunday morning. Prayers are welcome!
I hope you get through it well! We had a storm blow through here (Eastern Nebraska) that had winds equaling that of a catagory 2 hurricane, I believe it was. It didn't last long though, luckily.
It looks like Dallas/Fort Worth is now out of the forecast cone. A tropical storm warning between about 6:00 a.m. Saturday and 1:00 a.m. Sunday is still in effect so those winds could possibly still be doozies. Rain forecast is also down to between 1-3 inches, but that's not a whole lot of difference. Thank you all for the prayers. I feel very exposed out here in the much flatter land of Texas!
Or Galveston. The concern I had for us was the wind gusts. At one time it was predicted that there could be gusts of hurricane force in our area. If you watch the Weather Channel, you also learn that winds are higher the higher up in a building that you go which is why you're told not to find refuge on the second floor of your house. (Of course, if the first floor is flooded, then you have to.) So, I got to looking at the first floor of our house. We are sadly lacking in interior rooms. Except for a small powder room, and the storage area under the stairs which is on an outside wall and doesn't go all the way under the stairs, we have no other interior rooms on the first floor. Something that wasn't on our minds in November when house-hunting. And really, wherever anyone is in a storm like this, if children are involved, it just raises the level of concern. Good opportunity for teaching trust in God, but it's scary to them anyway.
Also, the mindset of the most of the people I was talking to was that "it has never happened here, so it won't happen now." That was scary as well. Being "phobic" about these things is not good, but a few precautions are not being phobic. And as far as I could see, no one was taking precautions. No, I take that back, one of our neighbor's lights were on in their family room at 4:00 this morning. These neighbors are never up late and they aren't up early. I think they might have been watching the weather as well.
Give me a total picture -- I'm feeling really lonely over here with nothing heard about my guys in the Houston area. And by the way, I have a solution. Lets just trade mirrors.
In case the mushy flower doesn't check her blog, I posted an explanatory comment there that I hope will elucidate a certain matter about which I was egregiously confused. :-)
...can the teacher announce, "I don't know what we're doing because I haven't made a single lesson plan for today, but we're doing school anyway!"
...can a student suggest, "Let's start with Latin!" and the teacher agree that it sounds like a good idea.
...can you hear the high schooler on the other side of the room who is not taking Latin say, "I sure did learn a lot of Latin today!" (Because the teacher and other students were doing drills out loud.)
...can a teacher who has never taken Latin be allowed to teach it to a classroom.
...will you hear the following conversation among students (at least in my public school experience)
Student One: (closing her workbook) Well, I'm finished.
Student Two: (as she turns the page of her workbook) No, do some more!
Student One: Why? (with an incredulous look on her face)
Student Two: Because I want to get ahead!
And then both proceed to do the next day's work.
...will you hear the teacher saying as the students begin to leave the school room for a lunch break, "You'd better be quiet. Your Dad is asleep on the other side of that door!"
...will the lunch break consist of the students preparing their lunch in the kitchen and watching "Gilligan's Island" while they eat.
...will you hear the teacher and the two students of Latin say as they leave the classroom, "It's okay; we'll be back. We're just going to listen to our Latin pronunciation CD."
...will you hear the above said to the family dog.
...will the students get told to figure out what lessons they are supposed to do on their own.
...will the students look at what their next day's lessons are, and then get up extra early, just so they can get done with school before they are normally supposed to start.
I miss homeschooling sometimes. Which is hilarious, since I've got a BA now. Wow, conratulations, Mom. I never really thought about that before--you have homeschooled two people who now have BAs!
I would love to see you guys, too! I have to remind myself everytime I pass Oxford that y'all don't live there anymore and I can't just drop in :-( But I know you are blooming where you are transplanted.
We were stranded a week ago Sat. in the DFW airport. I thought about you. If I had known we were going to have a 6 hours layover I would have rented a car and come to visit you!
