THE THINGS WE MUST NEVER FORGET: LIFE LESSONS FROM SECOND PETER - Faith that is personal an growing is a faith that has to be yours and it has to be increasing. It has to be constantly pruning and redirecting more and more of your life away from greed and self interest into the purposes of God. It is a faith that is constantly replacing your natural instincts of pride and self will with the servant's heart of our Heavenly Father.

WHERE WRATH AND MERCY MEET - The idea of atonement has at its core the expressing and diverting of God’s just wrath. Mercy doesn't begin with forgiveness and atonement is never blind. It is forgiveness at great cost. It is forgiveness that reaches our hearts via the fulfilling of justice. A price is paid and forgiveness is won. This is the forgiveness the Israelites received and the atonement we receive when we put our faith in the work of Jesus Christ.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - Pastor Don answers the following questions from the congregation: Matthew 12:40 says Jesus would be in the grave "three days and three nights", but He was only there for 2 nights and 2 days, can you explain? How can you know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you? What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit? How could Jesus have struggled with sin or faith since He is sinless?

WHERE WRATH AND MERCY MEET - If you live in a land where the leader has the power to reveal His might against wrong doing, but refuses to do so, then you no longer have a good leader. One of the conditions of being good is to punish evil. God’s wrath against sin is always a righteous response - probably too righteous for us to fully digest. Israel needed to kill a Passover lamb, she needed to be protected by the shed blood of that lamb. So Israel, like everyone else today, is under God’s judgment unless spared by the shed blood of the slain lamb, Jesus Christ.

THE THINGS WE MUST NEVER FORGET: LIFE LESSONS FROM SECOND PETER - Faith isn’t self-sustaining. It must be fed by knowledge and knowledge must be made useful through self-control. That’s because our own unguarded reflex desires will lead us into error before the knowledge we have in our heads gets enough of a voice to make a difference. The Apostle Peter knew all about the highs and lows of following Jesus and in this passage takes us through a very down-to-earth faith maintenance process. There is always the need for the reminder to “make every effort” to supplement our faith.

WHERE WRATH AND MERCY MEET - In Exodus 12, we see that Israel is delivered from the tyranny of Egypt. The first nine plagues were automatically selective in falling on Egypt and not on Israel. However, with the last plague - the one that finally forces Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave - isn’t delivered selectively at all. It is by the Blood of the Lamb that the Israelites are saved from God's wrath, proving further that no one can escape God's wrath by any personal claim at all.

WHERE WRATH AND MERCY MEET - We want better lives - better health, a stable love life, an increase in wealth - the list goes on and some let whether or not they have improved in these areas determine whether or not living for God is worthwhile. Yet, the Christian life is not defined by the experience it provides. This world is so focused on the material that Christ's atonement on the cross for our sins being an invisible record draws less attention than what to do about our Visa bill next month.

THE THINGS WE MUST NEVER FORGET: LIFE LESSONS FROM SECOND PETER - The promises of God can break the bondage of our own fallen desires as they surface by trusting in his promises over our own reactions to life situations. Whether it be to anger when you've been wronged, desire what your neighbour has just bought, or made an insensitive comment you wish you could take back, God is there with His promises to help you establish self control when those promises are focused upon.

WHERE WRATH AND MERCY MEET - There is no end to the drift from Biblical truth if the atonement and its purpose is forgotten. Once we measure the love content of the truth by the reaction of the hearer we will change not only our presentation of the message, but the content of the message if people don’t like what we say. As John Piper says, the “offended hearer takes on a power that once belonged only to the Bible.” While the world eats, works, checks the markets, gives money to charities, and gets involved in the religions of the world they are under the fierce wrath of a holy God and they need to know their atonement is in Christ alone for their freedom from the grip of sin.

THE THINGS WE MUST NEVER FORGET: LIFE LESSONS FROM SECOND PETER - How many promises of God do you know? And how many of those do you think about at least once a day? And how many of those do you actually believe God will keep for you? If you want grace and peace to be multiplied in your life, start right there - growing in the knowledge of the promises of God.We can't initiate growth, only God can do that, but we can starve it by lack of devotion and attention. We need to know God and our Lord Jesus Christ - as a promise giver and a promise keeper, this will keep our hearts pure and growing and singing through whatever comes in this earthly life.