Woodmen Valley Chapel

As Peter looks unswervingly at the end of his life, he encourages his readers to live out eight qualities that will keep them from being ineffective in this life. You don’t know if you're remaining time is fifty years or a handful of years. Peter tells us how to make a difference in the time we have.

When you say you know God, are you saying you know of him or you know him intimately? When we have faith in Jesus, God bestows righteousness on us and we are holy in his sight, however, we are challenged to pursue holiness and righteousness in the sight of the world thereafter. For salvation sake, we are holy immediately upon faith. However, for the mission sake we must constantly and progressively allow God to refine us and make us more like him, more holy and more righteous. Lack of understanding of either righteousness (before God and before man) will lead to poor spending of the resources God has given us. Are you constantly striving to know God more intimately, to grow in holiness and righteousness all out of an understanding of your holiness before God because of your relationship with Jesus?

The apostle Peter was outspoken, brash and over-confident. But after he had failed our Lord Jesus Christ and received his forgiveness, he was transformed and never to be the same. Peter wrote his second letter shortly before his martyrdom to people who were facing opposition for their faith to encourage them that we in Christ are truly changed and, through his Spirit, able to live the life to which he has called us

David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). It is rather fitting then, that David’s final Psalm is not one of lament or concern, but a victorious song of praise. As followers of Christ, we recognize that storms will come but confidently assert that we are built upon the rock (Mt. 7:24), and consequently choose to worship him and thank him for his deliverance.

David was alone. His life was in great danger and his spirit weak. When we feel isolated and disconnected there is a great temptation to turn inward or to those things which only bring further pain. David chooses to trust in God in the moment: “With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD” (Ps 142:1). Though we may feel abandoned by all others, we know he will never leave us or forsake us.