He already knows

God knows everything.  Literally everything.  You and I have never met a person like that.  Sure, we have met what we might call a "know it all" who thinks they know everything.  But there's a huge difference between that person and God:  that person doesn't actually know everything.  Sometimes they pretend or can fake it for a while, but there is a huge list of things that they just don't know.  And they never will.

God is not like that.  He knows everything.  I'm a teacher by training and by heart, but my profession would be of absolutely no use to God.  I know a lot of science and can explain in my own way how things work behind the scenes.  But God invented all of that.  He created atoms with their subatomic particles that spin around in certain directions.  He made it to where those atoms could come together in patterns to form objects.  He created living cells that are as intricate and complex as any major city, including plumbing, electrical, transport and energy production.  He created all of those things, so listening to me talk about it would not teach him anything new.  

God knows what happened yesterday in the news.  He knows the people that were involved in that story, their names, their history, and their motivations.  He knows the newscasters who talk about it on the evening news along with their stories and motivations.  He knows the writers who post the information on the internet and their stories.

God knew who our current president was going to be thousands of years before America was even formed as a nation.  God already knows who the next president will be.  He knew the previous 45 presidents of the United States and their personal histories.  He was there when they were born and he was there (or will be there) when they die.

Mankind is still in the process of naming the stars of the sky.  God already did that (Psalm 147:4).

Mankind is still learning about the laws of the universe.  God already knows them and uses them to manage the earth (Job 38:33).

Mankind is trying in futility to figure out why things are the way they are right now.  God already knows why (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)

God was there the day you began to be formed inside of your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-15).  He watched as one cell became two which turned into many.  He gazed as all of the intricacies of your body formed.  He was there when your mother gave birth to you.  He knows how hard that was for your mother because he knew her in the same way that he knows you.

God already knows what will happen every minute of your life.  He can tell you where you will be 20 years from this moment, what you will have eaten that day, and how much sleep you got the night before (Psalm 139:16).  He knows about the best moments of your life and he knows about the worst ones.  Yes, even those really bad moments that you wish you could take back or that you wish would just stop haunting you.  He knows about those too.

God knows you.  He knows what your favorite color and food are.  He knows what you like to do with your time.  He knows what books you have read, where you purchased them, and who you purchased them from (John 1:47-48).  He knows what you were thinking last night at 9:14pm.  He knows what was on your mind on Sunday morning.  He knows not only what you said to every person you spoke to last week, but he knows why you said it.  He saw your body language as you spoke and the way your hands and your head moved as you spoke.  Yep, even those words.  He saw you, and he heard them.

He can tell you what was going on when you had encounters with him in your everyday life and rejected him.  He knows about those times when you turned away and decided to follow your own way.  He knows if you will ever come back to him and when that time is.  He knows about every time when you were bitterly angry with him, how you cried because you didn't understand something he had allowed in your life, and he knows when you just were indifferent to him.  He was there every time you had the opportunity to give praise to him but did not.

It is possible that all of these ideas are overwhelming to you.  In this day and age these ideas may even seem a little bit creepy.  But consider this:  why would God himself take all of this time to know everything about you?  What's the point of all of that?  Is it that he wants to micromanage our lives?  No, we have daily evidence that he doesn't do that.  Remember all of those mistakes and missteps you made?  He allowed them to happen.  No, he is not a micromanager.

Is it possible, just possible, that this God who knows so much about you actually cares for you?  Is it at all possible that he looks at you with a desire that you know him for real?  Is it possible he cares about you...a whole lot?

Think of it this way.  God knows all of your faults and all of your flaws and all of the temptations you fall prey to, and yet he still pays this much attention to you.  You might be thinking "well sure, he's everywhere, so of course he would see everything I do."  Yes, that is true, but to me the fact that he knows this much about you and I shows a God of love.  It's a love that I just can't understand and probably never will.  It's a love that surprises me so often because it is just relentless.  It is a love too big to even imagine.  While I'm sitting there wondering why he would even bother with me, he's there with open arms, wanting me to go further in relationship with him.  It's this way with you, too.

I don't know what you are dealing with in your life but I know you need to hear this message.  Many of you are weary after being in a lockdown from a virus for an entire year.  You might be weary from losing your job and being unable to get another one.  You may be weary from your past and from the tremendous hurt you have carried for many years.  

Whatever those things are, you can know today that God is absolutely, fully aware of it all and is waiting on you right now to just rest in his arms.  He isn't doing that because he needs that from you.  He's doing it because he wants to, because he cares, because he loves.  He loves you.  And he wants you to fall in love with him.

Radical love

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Today we will continue looking at and unpacking the passage from 2 Peter 1, focusing on what it means to show affection and love for everyone.  This passage has gradually built on itself starting with how to become godly through relationship and transitioning into some characteristics of someone who is growing, including moral excellence and knowledge.  

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

I think in our day and age, it is easy to read this and agree that we need to show love for everyone.  The trouble is that we live in an age with so much conflict.  Someone once said that conflict is two people living in the same county.  How true that is!  In society today we have made conflict a full-contact sport, and unfortunately the Church has fallen into that trap as well.  Loving others, all others, is one of the hardest things we are required to do as Christians, but it is what should distinguish us from the rest of the world.  Jesus said this:

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Jesus himself gave us a great summary of what it means to show brotherly affection and love from Matthew 22.  Rather than turning our lives into a set of rules to follow, he said we should do just two things:

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[e] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[f] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

We are to love God and love people.  According to Jesus, these two commandments are EQUAL to each other and, if lived out day to day, meet every single standard in the law.  Following Jesus is simple, but it is not easy.

Let's look at this in a day to day perspective.  If I'm following this command, I'm kind to others at all times.  I'm kind even with those who think different politically than me.  I'm kind with people who don't view life through the same lens as I do.  I'm kind to all of my neighbors, even the ones who constantly blare loud music and do things to annoy me.  I'm kind to people from other religions, and I'm kind to those who have no religion at all.  

In fact, it goes so much further than just being kind.  I should actually work to help these folks that I have named above.  After all, showing love is an action rather than a feeling.  That means if anyone from the examples above needs something that would help them, I provide it.  

As I have written this, the past week Houston had some incredibly cold weather in our area that we ourselves, and especially our homes, are not equipped to handle.  Many people lost power and water, and when things finally did come back on they found that their pipes were frozen solid.  And still later when things warmed up, many discovered that their pipes had broken and their houses got flooded as a result.  It was in those moments as Jesus followers that we should be the first to step up and help another person out.  Love is action.  And we don't leave when things start to get messy either, or when we get tired.  Love doesn't do that because love is action.  

We are not the religious leader who walks by the man who has been beaten up and who is suffering at the side of the road.  We are the man who stops and bandages him up and gives him a place to stay until he is better.  At our own expense.

Showing love extends even into the electronic realm.  On social media I'm kind, because I love others.  I don't find it necessary to post or say cutting or demeaning or dehumanizing words.  I realize that just because my friend sees things a different way than I do doesn't make them an "idiot" or "totally evil," two of the extremely popular labels on social media today.

Showing love means I go to the grocery store or a local restaurant with the intention to show compassion to others and actually speak to them rather than staring at my phone.  I treat my neighborhood as the mission field it is, looking for someone to love and interact with.

Amanda shared a great example of this from the past week.  She went to the grocery store after the huge winter storm and many people were still frantic.  The store shelves were picked clean, the customers were tense, and the grocery store employees were stressed as a result.  She noticed a guy who was bagging groceries that day and his attitude was excellent.  He was a hard worker and did a good job and was encouraging others around him.  So she took a second to make eye contact with him and thank him for his great attitude and work ethic, and to thank him for showing up to work.  She said he really lit up with that encouragement.  Why?  Because he probably doesn't get much of that these days.  It might have been the only encouraging word said to him all day long.

As followers of Jesus we should always be looking for ways to engage others in a truly spiritual conversation.  This particular one didn't turn out that way, but we have had times when they actually do.  And it is through a small gesture like this where you go out on a limb and show yourself to be different that people take notice.  

I think often we wait by the church doors and smile and hope that people will come see us smiling and shaking hands and will think we are different.  That's all wrong.  Many folks won't come to that building, so what are we going to do in daily life?  And smiling at people out in public also isn't enough.  That doesn't distinguish you as a follower of Jesus.  I know many who don't follow him who smile a lot too.  

Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15 these words:

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

These days I think we look too hard for moments that we find to be inspiring.  We love our TED talks and YouTube clips and motivational speakers.  I've always wondered what the motivational speakers I have heard are like the other 6 days of the week.  It's easy to "inspire" in the moment.  It is harder to inspire with just the way we live our lives all week.  That's what Peter, and Jesus, were talking about as they taught about how a true Jesus follower lives.

Peter's words can really come to life for you in just regular, everyday activity. After all, Jesus didn't come to make us inspiring or to make us into nicer people.  He came to make us into new people.

In the time between my calling to Everett and our actual move to there, I distinctly remember some interactions with people at my school.  I was truly joyful at what the Lord was doing in my life, that he would actually call me to go to another place for the sake of his name, and I woke up excited every single day to see what he would do.  In a conversation one morning someone said something to me that I'll never forget.  She looked at me and admitted that she doesn't believe the way I do and doesn't follow Jesus, but she wanted whatever I had.  That opened the door for me to talk about how she could have that "thing" that I did.

Was that me just being happy and in a good mood?  I don't think so.  I know what was going on at that time and can tell you that I felt the Holy Spirit's presence everyday, so much so that I think he just shined through me brightly.  It has been said about Christians that we are imperfect people with many flaws and cracks, and that the Lord can shine brightly through our cracks.  I think this was one of those moments.  In this specific case, Peter's words above came absolutely alive.  And I didn't do anything to make it happen.  The Lord did. 

How can it be this way for you as well?   First, I think you have to be willing to be vulnerable.  Showing love and compassion means you have to take your wall down and reach into the messiness of someone else's life for a moment.   Most of us don't like doing that because we can wind up getting hurt.  To truly show love, we have to be willing to be vulnerable first.  This may mean that the other person isn't receptive to us or perhaps they will get angry with us for bothering to talk to them.  That's okay.  Just step out.

I recommend starting your day with him by reading a little of the Bible and praying over what it says.  Spend time alone, really alone with him to where your phone is put away and nobody can interrupt you.  Read, pray, and pause to listen.  Pray for opportunities for him to use you during the day.  Pray that he has control of your calendar (he already does), and that you would be flexible enough to let him interrupt it.  Thank him for all of the blessings you have, because you have many, and they are from his hand. See what he does with your surrendered day. 

Next, step out your front door and see what happens.  You don't have to go to talking about Jesus right off the bat with someone.  In fact, I would not recommend that at all.  Just speak with them about anything.  Try to be a friend to them and see where the conversation goes.  If it goes nowhere, pray for that person silently and thank the Lord that you got to do that today.  Just see where it all goes.  

The point is that you are that way all the time, all 7 days per week, not just when you get "inspired" by the message on Sunday. Your joy in relationship with the Lord should just overflow out of you onto everyone else.

I encourage you this week to let your love for Jesus just overflow onto the others around you.  That is not something you can force, and you shouldn't try to do that!  Instead, it's more about letting go in the small moments and seeing who he will have you encounter that you can show love and compassion to.  Let your joy in relationship with Jesus just wash over anyone around you, and see where it leads.  That's how you and I can stand out.

You don't do it alone

It seems that these days people often start their walk with Jesus by treating it as though they have crossed the finish line of a race.  Since the race is over and they are now "good" and have earned their way into Heaven, they can just keep living how they live.  Surely they will meet God someday face to face, he will pat them on the head and fuss over them a bit, and they will pass into eternity having met the standard.  Perhaps then they can just live in eternity as they live now.  They'll be with friends and family again and, oh yeah, they'll see God sometimes and that will be great too.  Surely Heaven must be like the best all-inclusive resort that we've ever been to, mostly to bring pleasure to us and sometimes to interact with God.  The trouble with this kind of thinking is that it just isn't true and is not supported by scripture.

When I first decided to walk with Jesus in college, I battled some of these mindsets.  To me the way to grow as a Christian was by doing the things I saw other Christians doing and speaking the things I heard them speaking.  They read their Bible a lot so I did as well, and I learned a lot during that time.  I heard some of them talk of Jesus often while they were walking around the Texas Tech campus, so I tried to copy their speech.  I just didn't know any better, and I look back at those times and shake my head because my thinking on what it means to be a Christian was so superficial.  But I was new to it and I didn't know better!

And yet there were moments during that time where Jesus really did a work in me.  I distinctly remember a time with him in Guadalupe River State Park.  It was dawn and I woke up early, and as the brilliant sunrise started I could do nothing but crouch with my face to the ground and worship him.  It still is one of the most real moments I have had with him.  I knew he was there with me in that moment.

Some of you may be like me, wondering how you can become more godly and how you can know Jesus better.  How, really, do Christians grow?  The truth is we already have everything we need to live a godly life.  In my first and second post about 2 Peter chapter 1, we looked at how you and I can possibly live a godly life and grow in it.  

Today we will continue looking at Peter's words from 2 Peter 1.

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

Peter starts with the phrase "make every effort" to respond to God's promises.  We can easily gloss this over and turn it into nothing but pure effort on our part, but that is not at all what Peter was saying.  The first part of the sentence "in view of all of this" points to what he previously had written, which was that we already have everything we need to be able to live a godly life.  That's because we have God's Spirit in us if we follow Jesus.  

Peter wants us to remember that while putting in effort toward some things that he lists in later sentences.  The actual word used for "make every effort" means "applying or bringing alongside."  It seems we have to keep our mind on the Christ we have with us in order to work toward the things Peter talks about.

After Hurricane Ike we had a tree on our property that fell over.  Since I had nothing else to do, I cut it up into firewood with my chainsaw.  The trouble was that the stump was still in the ground.  It had roots that went everywhere and were pretty deep.  Try as I might I couldn't pull it up, even after digging around it and getting several people to pull on it.  It just would not move.  So instead I went to get my truck and a chain.  I wrapped the chain around the stump and around the frame of my truck, put it in gear, and the stump pulled out really easily.  Incidentally, as a man, we love doing things like this!

The point is that I could not pull the stump on my own.  I needed some serious help.  The truck certainly could pull the stump out, but I needed to work with the truck to make it come out of the ground.  This is in a way like the Lord works in our lives.  He can do anything, literally anything.  But if we are really going to let him rebuild us and do a work in us, we have to let him do that work and focus in the direction he wants us to focus.  Otherwise, nothing in us will change.

According to Peter in verse 5, the starting point for a Christian is faith.  That's the moment we believe in Jesus, that he died for us to pay the penalty for our sins, and that he rose from the grave.  That's our first step with the Lord.  We know who Jesus is and want to follow him because we love him.  And this is the moment when we shake hands, as it were, and introduce ourselves.  We have crossed the starting line, and the marathon has begun.

Peter continues the thought by saying we need to add "moral excellence" and "knowledge" to our faith.  And based upon his previous language, we must work hard and focus on doing those things!  Yet we have to remember that our efforts must be made as we look to Jesus for the strength to do it.  In the Bible, the Pharisees worked very hard at moral excellence on their own, yet they didn't know God at all.  They are an example of what happens when a "religious" person (not a Christian) tries really hard to clean up their life.  They may succeed in some areas but their focus produces a dry, stale, unappealing look to anyone around them.  I think many who regularly attend church these days would fall into this category.  They try to do less of some of the bad things they used to do, but are perplexed that they just are always fighting these impulses.  I think they often give Christians a bad name because they exhibit all of the strictness with none of the love.  And that's not how it is supposed to work when you know Jesus.

That leaves the question about what moral excellence and knowledge really are.  I think Jesus did a great job of outlining those things.  In Matthew 5 Jesus lays out the need for humility, meekness, pursuit of justice, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and enduring persecution.  He teaches about controlling anger, lust, divorce, promises to others, seeking revenge, and loving enemies.  In chapter 6 he talks about giving to the poor, prayer, fasting, use of money, and worry.  He just goes on and on.  If you want to know how to work on living a morally excellent life, just look to what Jesus said and actually go obey them today.

If you are like me, you don't always want to do that.  Sure, its easy to agree with yourself that taking revenge is bad when you read Matthew 5 and for some time you may actually be able to pull that off.  But then someone stabs you in the back at work and you become angry.  Or a family member says an unkind word about you behind your back and you hurt from it.  Or you open your phone and begin reading the hateful and spiteful comments many of the people you know are making on social media.  It is even more difficult after watching your favorite TV or reality TV show or YouTuber, where revenge is promoted and even celebrated.  Refusing to take revenge is easy until your emotions get involved.  We can't do that on our own.

Instead in the moment we must remember what Jesus said about taking revenge.  And I think we need to take it to the Lord right then and there.  I'm not saying to drop to your knees in the middle of your cubicle, although you can do that.  You just need to find a quiet place to go to your master and ask for the strength to not take revenge.  If you sincerely go to him in those moments, you will find the strength to not take revenge.  And stay in that place with the Lord as long as it takes.  That's what Christianity is all about.  It is knowing the right things to do which comes from regularly reading your Bible, and then getting the strength from the Lord to actually do those things.

Following Jesus is not about you being the Lone Ranger.  In fact, it isn't about you at all.  It is about a fully surrendered life to the one who is able to make you morally excellent as he is.  It is a relationship.  The Bible is not a book about a bunch of amazing people.  It is about a God who worked in the lives of ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  Many of them were only morally excellent, and only in moments, because in those moments they relied upon the Lord.  You can do the same thing.  But first you must recognize that you can't be morally excellent all on your own.

I encourage you this week to study, really study Matthew 5.  Then take your learning to the Lord and be bold enough to ask him to put you to the test on these things this week.  He's quite responsive on those kinds of prayers!  It will be challenging, but the benefit you get is that you will get so much closer to Jesus as he gives you the strength to endure those things.  And you'll later look up and realize that he is shining through you more than ever.  At that moment, you are truly different, and that's what our world needs to see.

Great promises that already apply

In my last post I shared what the Lord has laid upon my heart with regard to 2 Peter 1:3-4, and we will look today at the last part of that passage to complete the thought Peter is making.  It will make more sense if you read the first post though.

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Jesus is unlike anyone you or I have ever met.  He just is.  We can start with the fact that he is divine and all-knowing, which I'll explore with you in a later post.  However, he's so much different from any human relationship we have!  He knows everything about you, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the strengths and the weaknesses, the victories and the failures, the good thoughts and the very bad thoughts.  Nothing is hidden from him.  And even though he knows you in this way, he still wants relationship with you.  And nothing you can do in this life will ever make him lose interest or give up on you.  With humans this happens all the time.  With God, it just doesn't happen ever.

Somehow through Jesus's "glory and excellence," we receive the gift of promises he has given.  What does that mean exactly?  Let's look at some wording to understand.

The original text for "has given" is important.  It means that something has been bestowed on us.  We don't use that word often, but it means that there has been a great gift given to someone.  It also means that what was given was given as an honor to someone else.  This is more than me just giving you a pencil.  This would be like a wealthy person giving you a huge house just because they wanted to.  Whatever has been bestowed on you and I is a huge gift.  This same word was used in the book of Mark when Pilate gave Jesus's body to Joseph of Arimathea.

The second important word in verse 4 is "promises."  This is not an ordinary promise.  This is a promise that is made publically, as in it is being shouted over a loudspeaker or public address system.  Such a promise must be a big deal.  For example, I might promise to you that I'll come pick you up at a certain place in 20 minutes.  That isn't worthy of any great pronouncement to the world.  Nobody else but you would care.  This type of promise carries such weight that it is worthy of announcing to the world.

Peter's language communicates that the promises being made from Jesus are very great and precious.  Peter used this same descriptive language when describing Christ's blood (1 Peter 1:19) and a Christian's faith (1 Peter 2:7;  2 Peter 1:1).  The promise being described is important and valuable.

What then are these promises that Peter describes?  Well, two of them were stated in verse 3.  We have the promise of a new birth, the promise of God's protecting power (v 5), and the promise of the Spirit's power in our lives.  What can this mean for me in everyday life?

When we decide to cross the starting line of the marathon of Christianity, an important thing happens.  It is as though we have been born once again.  In practical terms that means that whatever person you were prior to crossing that starting line is dead.  That person is gone.  All of the horrible things that person said and did and thought are all gone.  They are in the past, and the door to the past is shut and locked.  We cannot travel that way again.  And since it is a new birth, you are made into a new person.  That process begins in that moment of first having faith in Jesus and it only grows from that point.  A new birth is exciting because it is a totally new person who has never lived before.  They have different characteristics and values and morals and thoughts and behaviors than the other person because they are entirely new.

Think of it in this silly way.  Most American adults have owned several vehicles.  Back when I went to college I had a 1993 Ford Taurus.  It got me around, it was comfortable, and it got good gas mileage.  I didn't really like the car though.  I wanted a truck, and because of my immaturity at the time I did everything I could do to rid myself of this Taurus and get a truck.  But that never happened.  I stuck with that car until it had 123,000 miles on it and could barely shift gears anymore.  A lot of stuff didn't work on it by that time and I was quite relieved when I went to trade it in for a much newer, nicer car.  I was glad that Taurus died.

The thought never crossed my mind at the time to keep the Taurus and rebuild it.  Could I have done that?  Sure!  I could have refurbished the engine or bought a new one.  I could have replaced the transmission and given it a new paint job.  I could have done all of the things necessary to make it "like new" again.  The reality, though, is that it wouldn't have been new.  It would still have been a 1993 Ford Taurus.  It would still have been in existence since it was built by Ford in 1992.

You see, God knows this about old and new.  That's why he doesn't take the old you and dress you up in better clothes and change a couple of things about you to make you the "new" you.  It wouldn't work.  There would still be old and new parts of you and you would never fully function in the capacity of new, no matter what was done.  That's why you and I, when we decide to cross that starting line of the marathon called Christianity, begin taking steps as an entirely new person.  The old is gone.  The old is in the rear view mirror and the image is getting smaller and smaller with time.  The new is where we are now and is up ahead.  That's the way God works in us.

I'm certain that some of you hold on to your past self, the old, dead you.  There are things in your life that you did or said that have caused deep regret.  There are things you did that you wish now you could take back.  The Apostle Paul would sympathize with you.  He had plenty in his past that he wished he could take back.  But he came to realize that Christ simply wanted him to look ahead to the relationship they had right now versus the relationship they didn't have in his past.  He describes it this way in Philippians 3:

12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[d] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

You see that Paul also refers to the Christian life as a race.

These promises from 2 Peter 1:3-5 tell us something important.  We have access to God everyday.  Since we have access everyday, his very divine nature can work through us everyday if we allow it.  We don't need to do anything different or special because those things have already been bestowed upon us.  They are already there, in the new you!

If you find that living out this kind of Christianity is hard, you are not alone!  It IS hard, and some days are harder than others.  That's why you and I must be in daily relationship with the Lord.  Only through that do we find the necessary surrender so he can work out these great promises in us.  Jesus himself even said that this race is a hard one.

Matthew 7:13-1413 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell[a] is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

If Jesus said it would be hard, then it is going to be hard!  Count on it!  Pray about it!  But above all things, just don't give up.  The reward for running this hard marathon is that you know Jesus more personally and you see him working through your life in larger and larger ways.  And as you see that larger work he is doing, you only want more of it!  That is the life of beauty and significance that most of us really want, but oddly it comes from dying first.

So if you are not a follower of Jesus and you have a past, know that this new birth can be you.  You really can leave it all behind, and Jesus will help you to do that.

If you consider yourself a Christian but feel stuck, there is hope.  You already have everything you need to live a godly life.  And what you have is Jesus himself.  Spend time in prayer and in silence with him.  Put in the time to get to know him and to speak to him.  He will meet you in that moment, right where you are.

May God reveal himself more and more to each of you as you pursue a deeper relationship with him!

How to be godly: relationship first

When I was what I considered to be a new Christian in college, I experienced a pretty dramatic change in my lifestyle.  I went from being a man ruled by anger and bitterness to deeply desiring God in so many moments in life.  I began waking up every day and reading God's word, devouring every bit of it that I possibly could.  It was like I was reading it for the first time and day after day I learned new things about what the life of a Christian is supposed to be like.  

Like many new to the faith, I began thinking that much of this change that was supposed to be occurring in me would be based upon my own work.  If I read the Bible more, surely this would make God happier with me.  If I memorized scripture, I would gain his favor.  I developed this kind of mindset that I could work my way into Christianity.

While there is some work we can do to deepen our faith, a focus on that sort of thing by itself is wrong.  It elevates us in our own minds to being super-powerful.  In its worst form it can become an idol, making us think that we can truly do anything including gaining greater stature with God.  I think that's why so many of us know people who are churchgoers who don't actually behave as a Christian.  Sure, they attend church and may know what some scripture says, but they rely on themselves to apply it in their lives which leads to an eventual failure because they go in their own strength.  They never actually surrender themselves to this God that can take up residence inside of them and change them over time.  It's all about them.

If we are unable for long periods of time to be more godly, how can we actually become more"godly?"  How can our small measure of faith that we have in Jesus Christ turn into anything larger?  Are there actually next steps to faith?

Peter wrote some great words about it that I have copied below.

2 Peter 1:3-4- 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Immediately this passage turns our ideas of godliness on its head.  Peter openly states that we have "everything we need for a godly life."  We already have it.  If we already have it, it must have been given to us somehow and by someone.  The next sentence completes the thought.

We received this gift by coming to know Christ.  Now let's consider what this really means.  I believe American Christians may believe that this indicates that when we "accept Jesus into our hearts," this gift that Peter describes is immediately given.  That does have some element of truth but is far too simple of an explanation.  This is rooted in the misconception that "accepting Jesus" is like crossing the finish line of a race.  Once you have crossed it, you have gotten your way into Heaven and nothing else is required.  The trouble with that sort of thinking is that it is not supported anywhere in scripture.  Jesus himself spoke many things that contradict that idea as did all of the apostles who followed him.

Christianity is instead portrayed in the Bible as more of a marathon that is difficult and challenging and follows a path that few people actually follow.  What if "accepting Jesus" is instead the crossing of the starting line in a marathon?  What if in doing that you've only just begun the race and you still have 26.2 miles to go?  When you realize that, it changes everything about how you view your relationship with God.

When Peter says in the second sentence that we receive this "by coming to know him," he's making an important statement.  He is implying that coming to know Jesus is a process instead of an event.

Think of it this way.  Imagine the person on this earth that you are closest to.  It may be a best friend or your spouse or significant other, a brother or sister.  When you first met that person did you truly know them?  Did you know everything about them at that moment?  Did you know exactly how they think and suddenly have the ability to complete their sentences for them?  Did you know at that moment everything they like or don't like?  Did you know their past and their dreams for the future?  Of course not.  That kind of knowledge takes time to develop, and it is developed by spending time with them and talking to them and listening to them.  Even after 22 years of marriage, I'm still learning new things about Amanda!

If that's true in your everyday life, why would it be any different with Jesus?  You prayed a prayer in church one day and you suddenly know everything about Jesus and how he thinks and how he interacts with people?  No, it just doesn't happen that way.  When you invited Jesus into your heart to stay, you in effect have just said the initial "hello" to him.  It's like shaking hands and introducing yourself to someone for the first time.  That was just the initial encounter and there is so much that remains to be seen in your life.  His purpose for you is so much more grand than you can even imagine!

How, then, do we "come to know him?"  It takes time!  Lots of time.  In my life it began with devouring scripture and thinking on it.  Later it came with studying in greater depth what a passage meant.  Still later it came with promptings Jesus put into my life and my decision in that moment to obey or to not obey.  And it continues to this day as I go through day to day life, the high highs and the deep lows that come from obeying (or not obeying) Jesus everyday.  With each instance, I gain a little more insight into what he wants for me.  I learn a little more about his character as he speaks to me, by looking at the things he speaks to me about through scripture, and also by his moments of silence.

Peter goes further at the end of verse 3.  He says that as we get to know Jesus, his call comes by "means of his marvelous glory and excellence."  We read in scripture that Jesus is God's son, that he is divine, and that he is God in the flesh.  As we read about his life on earth we see a picture of his glory and excellence through his love and caring for the worst of sinners and through his everyday obedience.  He never sinned!  Not once!  

But Peter's statement about us "coming to know him" takes it so much further than that.  As we learn to hear Jesus speaking to us through daily Bible reading, through promptings in our brain, and through others speaking to us, we begin to get a glimpse of how incredible he truly is!  He sees everything, intimately knows us and what we are going through, sees our highs and lows, our obedience and our disobedience, and he still loves us and interacts with us.  This is attractive to me because it is unlike any other relationship I have in my life!

Like you, I have many relationships with many different people.  Some are true friends and know what's happening in my everyday life.  They are the ones who know how to pray for me and my family, and they are few.  Others are people I like but I don't speak to on a regular basis.  Still others are colleagues, and we may talk when one of us needs something but not otherwise.  Even when it comes to my closest friends, though, there are things that I can do to cause severe damage to the relationship due to my own behavior and choices!  Some of those things could even damage the relationship beyond repair!  It just isn't that way with Jesus though.  Even though he has had countless reasons to abandon me, he never has.  And he never will.  Someone like that is unique, and it makes me want to know them more.

What you discover over time is that when you begin to learn more about Jesus, more of his character begins to shine through you in ways that you just don't expect and never intended.  Your desires change from material things to just desiring more time with him.  And as you spend more of that time with him, he continues to poke holes in you and create cracks in your old self to where he shines out of you to a greater degree.  And then it all becomes visible to others.  For me, that's a large reason why I write this blog!  It helps me to consider at a deeper level what Christ is speaking into my life.  Who really cares if anyone reads it!

The point Peter is making is that we won't become more like Jesus on our own.  Trust me, I have tried.  Instead, Peter is saying that the power to do that comes from Jesus himself!  And it is given in greater and greater measure as we spend more and more time with him.  This just comes through everyday experiences with him, through reading scripture, prayer, "chance" encounters in everyday life whether in your community or at a local store or shop or at work.  Jesus is in all of those things!  In those moments we can either see them as they are, God's interaction in our life, or we can just see them as random encounters.  One leads closer to Jesus;  the other does not.

You may find after reading this that you don't know Jesus like I'm describing.  You thought you had crossed the finish line a while back when you "accepted Christ," but you just haven't seen anything since then.  The relationship you thought you might have had seems like stale religion.  You look at others who talk about Jesus with excitement and you wonder why you don't feel that same way, so you begin to feel that's unique to some Christians.  But it isn't unique.  It's available to you too.  

If you find yourself in that spot today, I encourage you to go put away all of your electronic devices and just start reading in the book of Matthew.  Read as much or as little as you would like, but stop periodically to see what it is telling you about Jesus.  Pay attention to the questions it raises in your heart and seek some answers from a good Bible commentary or from a friend who you think can help you.  Above all things, spend some time in prayer!  As I have said before, sometimes just sitting in silence before the Lord is incredibly impactful!  In this manner at times you may see something he will lay on your heart.  It takes time, but he has all of the time in the world.  And if it takes more of your time than you would have chosen, is that really a bad thing if in the end you begin your departure from the starting line and begin really heading down the path?

We will continue unpacking this passage in my next post.