Meditation                                                                         

Scripture.  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  2 Peter 1:4 KJV

Peter wrote this shortly before his death.  He wants us to know of the precious promises that are ours through faith in Jesus. 

He encourages us to get to know the Lord better in this short letter.  He explains that we are able to overcome because of Christ's Divine Nature - as we take more of it on daily through communing with our Lord, asking for His guidance, reading His Word to receive that guidance and walking in God confidence.

The world is full of "the lust of life" and through Christ we can escape the corruption of sin.  This is a great and precious promise of God to us.

Prayer

Lord, thank You, that You have made a Way for me to escape the corruption of this world. I accept it. Help me to be a partaker of your Divine Nature.  In Jesus's Name.  Amen.  

Friend, we make a mistake when we judge goodness by our own idea of goodness.

Each one of us has within us, a "brand" of goodness we think is righteous. We may all agree on ten things as our idea of goodness but then we will find there are many other ideas on which we cannot come to an agreement of goodness according to our own personally held beliefs.

It's rare for two people to agree fully on every idea, subject, action to take, beliefs within faiths, decisions, and outlook on life and the hereafter.

Jesus the Word through the Holy Spirit's indwelling of holy men who were inspired and wrote, gave us the Scriptures for our edification.

He set out God's Goodness in those pages.  He wrote us an encouraging letter over many generations so that we could see that His Word applies throughout the ages until He comes again to put the devil in the bottomless pit and seal it up for 1000 years.

We must eventually give up our ideas of goodness and look to the Word of God to find the correct measure of Goodness.

Many of us will find that some of our ideas of goodness are correct and this is a good foundation on which to build into our thinking, the Goodness of God.

Some may have to abandon all the old and bring in the fresh new Words of Goodness that will change our lives dramatically.

But, we must open our hearts to accessing the Word of God to read what He says so we can move forward on our journey of renewal of soul and spirit that affect our mind and body.

Friend, here are some verses to ponder...

Romans 12:1-3

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the Mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good , and acceptable, and perfect, Will of God.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought, but to think more soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Verses 9-15

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring another over self, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

Rejoicing in Hope, patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessities of the  saints who work for the Lord, given to hospitality.

Bless them which persecute you; bless, and curse not.

Rejoice with them who rejoice and weep with them that weep.

Recommended reading, Romans Chapter 12-16 on this subject. The Apostle Paul gives a good account of what God has taught Him and he passes on the words of wisdom to the church in Rome. They were believers both infants in the faith and others, strong born - again believers. The message is for all, given through Holy Spirit inspiration to Paul who laboured for Christ after his conversion from Judaism to Christianity on the road to Damascus where Christ appeared to Paul and changed his life forever from one "goodness" to the real Goodness of God.

The reason for Jesus wanting to change Paul was because Jesus had already come and carried out the Sacrifice and what Paul a very holy Jew was doing was persecuting the believers, and waiting for the Messiah when in fact He had come!

Jesus proved to Paul that He was who He said He was, and after that, Paul went on to spread the Good News with great authority because he was a learned scholar of the Holy Scriptures which told of the coming of the Christ and he knew of all the prophecies that had been fulfilled. It was undeniable to him, so Paul became a convert from Judaism to the Christian faith.

It is through Paul's conversion that many Jewish people come to the same conclusion and his teachings have converted many an unbeliever as well.

Friend, when we hear and read about the Lord there comes a day when we actually have the feeling that we understand.

It's a knowing within, that this is Truth.

We come to a "realization."

Much of what we have been meditating upon comes to Light in a beautiful realization of the Majesty and Glory of God.

It's like opening a door in our inner soul and allowing Him to enter and take up residence on the Throne.

From this position He can speak, and we hear. We are a believer, beloved of Holy God!

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. He strives with us from the minute we are born to reveal our Wonderful God to us and all Heaven rejoices when we finally come to the realization of who He is.

For all the readers of this blog, I pray "realization." In Jesus's Holy Name. Amen.

Friend, it's important to remember that believers have been made righteous in the sight of God by the accepting of His Sacrifice  (Jesus) and the Forgiveness of sins through the born-again experience of realizing that we are a sinner and not worthy to spend eternity in a Holy Kingdom of Peace and Love.

Yet, isn't this where most souls want to spend eternity? 

The Bible reveals a few things to us about our death as follows.

Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.

2 Corinthians 5:8-10 We are confident, I say, and willing rather, to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus).

When thinking about life after death, those scriptures come to mind and the Holy Spirit has left these for us to meditate on and come to new realizations.

We find that God has made a Way for us to become righteous in His sight. His Son willingly became the Sacrifice required by a Holy God to pay for the sins of those who believe in God.

God doesn't take lightly the evil we get up to. It is against His Law and we inwardly know it.

If you have admitted to God that you are a sinner and you haven't repented, you need to get up the courage to repent of your ways. This means, acknowledging and turning away from those things which separate you from having a personal relationship with Him.

The Holy Spirit will help you as you walk along the path of life, to remove the multitude of sins from your mind, body and soul. He will enlighten you into the Way of the Lord and give you the knowledge you need to have a firm foundation on which to rebuild.

Learning about Jesus is the Key.  Jesus is called the "firm foundation."  Keeping our eyes and heart and mind fixed on Him is the best thing we can do to overcome sin, to find Love like no other.

When we accept Him as Saviour, He becomes our righteousness and we are found to be righteous - in God the Father's sight.

And, Friend, we don't have to be cleansed in order to accept the Sacrifice of Jesus. When we "get it" about what Jesus did for us, we can accept the Gift of Life He hands us and receive the righteousness we need.

There need not be a great ceremony for us to do this. Any time of day or night in private or in public, we can come to know Jesus as our Righteousness.

Friend, we must always remember that Christ died so that we may be free.

He did not die so we could be in bondage, huge chains wrapped around our ankles, keeping us from being free.

Those chains of addiction to mind altering substances; to ideas that won't let us grow in a spiritual way; to other people who destroy our spirit; to material things that have no spiritual value; to adrenaline urges and needs of the body - all those and more, He died for us to be free and get to know His Love and Plan for us.

Isaiah 56:5 Even unto them (non-Jewish believers) will I give Mine house, and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name; that shall not be cut off.

Isaiah is telling us in the above verse that we have a place in the Kingdom and that God sees us as special and recognizes us and values us.

There is no need to continue to be a captive of satan's who has nothing to offer other than the fleeting "enjoyments" of the flesh during our time on earth.

Be done with all that and ask the Holy Spirit to help you when the demonic forces of darkness come back with their helpers to try to entice you again.

Again Isaiah has a Word for us in our battle against the enemy.

Isaiah 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousnes is of Me, saith the Lord.

We can say to the demons, "No weapon that is formed against me, shall prosper, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Friend, we have to be an active Christian and participate in our faith.  We must know and understand who God is and how His Law works and use the tools that He has given us.

The Word of God is full of beautiful illustrations of how God helps us and gives us the antidote to the poison of satan and his army of demonic forces that plague us in the world.

God calls us to become mature in our faith and gain strength from His Word and eat daily of the Bread of Life so that we have the knowledge to overcome both for ourselves and others.

Isaiah is a great Book to read in the Old Testament. I highly recommend you read it and gain that strength that will help you and those you love.

Friend, it's time to celebrate!

Actually, every day is a day for celebration when you know Jesus!

This season of celebration is a time to remember the Great Gift that God the Father has given us. He asked Heaven, who He could send to earth. With all the meaning that request entailed, all Heaven knew that they could not answer the call.

This was a rhetorical question. God knew only He could be a Sacrifice and the Son said, "Send Me!"

No hesitation, the Word of God, the Son, (God) who spoke and the world was created, loved His creation so purely that He knew He would not abandon us to evil.

He saw our weakness, He saw the future, He saw the evil one overtaking us and knew that we needed a Saviour who would pay the Ultimate Sacrifice to cover all the sins of the world, past, present and future, once and for all.

Christmas celebrates the birth of the One who said, "Send Me, I will go."

And, so it was the Bible tells us, that the Word was spoken and prophecies were made as to the birth and death and resurrection of our Lord that we read about in the Old Testament.

We find in the New Testament that the Son did leave Heaven and all the Glory that was His to come as a lowly human, to grow and walk among us to heal and teach us and be led to the Cross according to all the Scripture prophecies.

As horrible as it was and as inhuman were his sufferings, we now celebrate His Birth because He came for each of us as individuals. He came to free us from the bondage of sin that had us in chains.

His birth is important because of the Great Gift of Sacrifice that He was prepared to make available to us.

Let us celebrate by giving, by honoring Him through worship, by loving one another and creating wonderful memories.

Forgiveness is key. Think Godly. "What would Jesus do?" "How would Jesus react?"

Friend, for you I pray a Blessed and Happy and Merry Christmas!

Friend, we have a choice every day. We can walk in love, as Christ Jesus has, offering Himself, a King of Kings, up as a Sacrifice for the Forgiveness of our sins.

If Christ our Lord has done this, we can attempt at the very least, to use His example as a stone of Remembrance when we interact with people in our own lives.

Today we have so many distractions from well-meaning "authorities" who tell us how to live and be happy.

But, the Bible, God's Holy Word has been given to us to show the Way of living and we should go to it for our inspiration and encouragement in all matters for life, because the Holy Spirit has worded it so beautifully and filled it with great meaning and shown us God's Law and Character within it's pages.

We do not need to listen to unbelievers and the purveyors of evil in the form of godliness (imaginary gods that have demons attached) that will benefit them only through sales of their books with supposed secret knowledge.

Don't listen to the soothsayers and astrologers and tarot readers. The Bible warns against them.  We do not have the Godly knowledge that can discern the real from the bad so the Lord asks us to stay away and depend on His Word only which is Pure and Holy. 

Satan has infected all the good things that God has allowed for us and he seeks only to deceive and hold us in captivity, eventually destroying us in our chains of bondage.

We do not need others to help us, Almighty God Himself who is above all others is there for us every second.

God seeks that we be Free in Him. The Bible says, that; Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.

Also1John 5:12 He that hath the Son, hath Life (eternal); and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not Life.

John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

John is the Disciple to whom God chose to reveal the Book of Revelation.

Walk in love as best you can today and each day, grow in love and extend your boundaries to include more and more loving ways and thoughts, every day.

Let it start with us. Bless you, friend.