Sunday, July 29, 2007

2 Peter 2 w/ Lena's Journalin'


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God Bless You Today, Lena B


2 Peter 2
The Danger of False Teachers
1But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach their destructive heresies about God and even turn against their Master who bought them. Theirs will be a swift and terrible end. 2Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of them, Christ and his true way will be slandered. 3In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction is on the way.

4For God did not spare even the angels when they sinned; he threw them into hell, F8 in gloomy caves F9 and darkness until the judgment day. 5And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and his family of seven. Noah warned the world of God's righteous judgment. Then God destroyed the whole world of ungodly people with a vast flood. 6Later, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into heaps of ashes and swept them off the face of the earth. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. 7But at the same time, God rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a good man who was sick of all the immorality and wickedness around him. 8Yes, he was a righteous man who was distressed by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.
9So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while punishing the wicked right up until the day of judgment. 10He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful desires and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at the glorious ones F10 without so much as trembling. 11But the angels, even though they are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against F11 the glorious ones.
12These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, who are born to be caught and killed. They laugh at the terrifying powers they know so little about, and they will be destroyed along with them. 13Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They revel in deceitfulness while they feast with you. 14They commit adultery with their eyes, and their lust is never satisfied. They make a game of luring unstable people into sin. They train themselves to be greedy; they are doomed and cursed. 15They have wandered off the right road and followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, F12 who loved to earn money by doing wrong. 16But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.
17These people are as useless as dried-up springs of water or as clouds blown away by the wind—promising much and delivering nothing. They are doomed to blackest darkness. 18They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With lustful desire as their bait, they lure back into sin those who have just escaped from such wicked living. 19They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 20And when people escape from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up with sin and become its slave again, they are worse off than before. 21It would be better if they had never known the right way to live than to know it and then reject the holy commandments that were given to them. 22They make these proverbs come true: "A dog returns to its vomit," F13 and "A washed pig returns to the mud."
FOOTNOTES:
F8: Greek Tartaros.
F9: Some manuscripts read chains of gloom.
F10: The glorious ones are probably evil angels; also in 2:11.
F11: Greek never bring blasphemous judgment from the Lord against.
F12: Other manuscripts read Bosor.
F13: Prov 26:11.



Lena’s Journalin’ to 2 Peter 2 Today

Turn against their Master who bought them…
Did that say bought?
Yes it did.
Do we as Christians think we are “slaves” with a Master, or even servants bought, “hired”? Not usually. That puts a whole new light on the idea of being a “follower” of Christ.
That sounds like there’s ownership. Like someone belongs to someone else. No one likes that kind of idea, or do they?
Belonging.
I’ve heard a lot of people, lonely people say, they wish they just belonged…but how far does one go with that idea of desiring to “belong”?
In our nation and culture, we want a lot for free, yet freedom is never free, just as belonging is never really had without giving all. When we come to God, He expects we are done with living for ourselves our way. He believes we are ready to surrender all. He believes we are ready to be as His servants (in the beginning until we grow up in our relationship of faith becoming sons, family members), we are ready to give our all to Him and let Him handle our matters for us.
He did buy us, whether we ever give ourselves to Him or not. In the end there will be a reconciliation of all of our accounts, the ones we gave freely and the ones we held back from Him.
An example of another gospel and of heresy is when “Christians” (one who says by their statement of life they are becoming like Christ, daily) do not yield themselves willingly to the Mastership of Christ Jesus who paid a huge price to rule in the earth through humans. The heresy is that we think we are “saved” yet we live like we want to.
That is so subtle most of us don’t think of it much, but it is another gospel and is not in line with God’s word and its standard of ruler ship.
God will bring the whole world and whoever is in it under His ultimate control, the deal is those who allow His control now, will be least shocked by the outcome of this violent act. How far the earth is off from His Lordship will be how tragic the turning will be. The more people come under that kind of living now, the less of an adjustment will need to be made.
Ever hear of a city being wiped out, instantaneously?
Are we distressed by the wickedness we see and hear in our day, enough to live righteously as examples, extreme examples, who willingly make it so clear that no one questions it, are we teaching righteousness by example to our children? Are we willing to have this type of lifeline dropped in the midst of our lives, one that measures us according to His righteous standard of living and loving? The key word here is how willing are we?
It is ALL about the will.
In recovery programs for addicts. They tell those in for recovery, you don’t HAVE to do this!!!
Yet that seems contrary to what they are in for, but it is so key to their help, the true help comes through a freewill choice. All else is temporary help.
Everyone healthy around them says to them, Oh, You DON”T have to!
And really they don’t, because they have a freewill choice, they do not HAVE TO, no one needs to MAKE them, they don’t really need to.
Do you understand what is being said here? It is a matter of the will.
How are the godly rescued? Please listen to this answer…..
They change their want to’s!
They willingly put their own lives under authority, they submit their own lives to another’s will. They practice it with mere human people! They embrace responsibility, even when it is hard, especially when it is hard!
They want to.
Our nation tells us to be under authority is a challenge to our freedom and independence.
To independence yes, because independence defined as we do, is more like rebellion.
To freedom, no, for there is more freedom in submissiveness. It is very sad to watch people train by example their children in our culture to disrespect and hate authority. What is the worst is seeing the place that attitude puts the individuals in life and they don’t even know it. It is sad the place that puts us before God in the church when we do not honor and respect authority, but rather criticize or complain against them and spread that bad news. Bottom line - leaders and authorities are human, and make mistakes, it is the position they hold that God expects us to use to practice honor and respect in, and by respecting the position we’ll pray for and serve those who hold it for the timeframe they get to while on earth.
The criticism of authorities is a trap one must learn to escape form quickly, even if it means the separation of so called “friends”. Being a part of it will set one up to be caught in a whirlwind of mishaps, one may not be able to return or recover from.