Peter was recognized as the founder of the church Jesus established. He became a very different man than the person he was when he first met Jesus. He was so captured by Jesus in all he did and said, but when Jesus came close to Peter, he saw himself clearly how wicked he really was. Peter asked Jesus to do nothing with him, but instead, Jesus grabs Peter's hand and said "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men". What an incredible journey he went on where he and a few motley crew of people, normally not seen together, being discipled by our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Peter understood the paramount importance to be the right leader for the church. He became more and more like Jesus. He still made mistakes. I'm sure he was embarrassed and even angry at Paul for correcting him, but as time went on, even Peter saw the noble character Paul had. Peter giving high praise to his fellow servant leader, Paul, meant a lot on how people would view Paul and his writings. It's very possible that because of this affirmation, when the Christian leaders put together the bible, they saw the importance of Paul's writings.
One day, everything in this world will be destroyed by fire. It will be the end of this corrupt world to make room for a new world, where it states in verse 13 "everyone is right with God". What a great time that will be. We will all be praising God, singing His praise, and living for Him with no fear or embarrassment. Everyone will be filled with the Holy Spirit to freely live fully for God and working together with no hindrance. It is all because of Jesus that all that will be possible. It's not about what we have done or who we are, but what Jesus has done and who He is. As we go back to our currents time, we have this Corona virus that is shutting down everything. It is causing us to stay away from people worldwide. I hope this awakens us to look to God and see there is life after death. Instead of fearing to die and taking drastic measure to stay safe, we should fear God and know our time on earth is temporary. Everything around us will be no more. I'm praying for a great awakening so we will have many more people from around the world join us in that new earth. Until then, let's keep sharing and shining the light of Jesus.
I could imagine a school bus driver getting frustrated by certain students because they are slowly but surely moving toward the bus, dragging themselves to school. Even though the bus driver wants to leave these kids, he has to wait because his job is to drive all the students to and from the school. God is very different than this bus driver. He is patiently but lovingly waiting for more people throughout the world to be saved. He will bring judgement that will end everything but until then, He is drawing more and more to the bus of salvation. His patience is much more than any human can endure. Even if we are the most patient, we will eventually die of old age. God never dies and beyond time. For God, it says in verse 8, one day is like a 1,000 years and a 1,000 years like one day. We will never understand God's patience, but we should give thanks to Him because of it. If He didn't, I could see judgement day would have come a long time ago, which means my wife and I would not have had he opportunity to live for God in our life on earth.
God is all powerful and can destroy this wicked word at any time. He sees all the evil around the world, yet He is patient to allow more people to find Him. It's interesting that most people, I have observed, have a weekly cycle. Some of them end the week with a debachery of drinking and pleasure. It doesn't seem like people care what God thinks. That will all change at the last days when God will destroy everything with all consuming fire. I hope there will be a great world wide revival to awaken everyone with a warning of the judgement to come. I sense this will happen. Satan and his army will have no choice but to release these poor souls in bondage to freedom in Christ. God is moving even though we can't see it and He will be victorious. We Christians are to be ready at any notice to go and do what God wants. It will be a great harvest. I'm looking forward to it.
There are a lot of people that has false hope, joy, love, or freedom. They believe they have these, but the reality is they don't. They are slaves to sin and corruption. They are living in misery yet they show themselves as being the happiest most free person in the world. They take pleasure in bringing a weak believer back into the bondage of sin. They will have a reward of destruction for all the evil they have done and caused. Verse 14 is very revealing of such people, "They commit adultery with their eyes, and their lust is never satisfied. They make a game of lurking unstable people into sin. They train themselves to be greedy; they are doom and cursed." We Christians have to be strong. We need to recognize such people and not be with them. We need to not be greedy and not love money. God always provides just enough, often times more than enough. We need to trust in God and follow His path. There will be many who will temp us, but we must resist.
Godly people are those who have chosen to follow God in this corrupt world. They live as warnings to this world of God's righteous judgement to come. They are sick of all the immorality and wickedness around them. These people, God will rescue before the judgement day of God. That's very comforting since that day will be punishment for the ungodly. The ungodly are those who are wicked and have rejected God or anything to do with Him. These people hates authority and only cares about their own desires of evil and lust. They have become disgustingly arrogant and fight to destroy anything that is righteous and from God. It's clear we have two sides at war all the time. Sadly, it seems the godly ones don't know that this war is being fought now. We are sleeping while the ungodly keeps destroying. God will ultimately bring judgement and we will win. Yes, that is true, but we need to bring a firm warning so some will change and follow God. With Christ all things are possible.
False prophets and false teachers have the same evil word - False. These people are pretenders or actors and many are very good actors. They play this role of being this devoted teacher for God, that sometimes they forget they're acting. their mask comes off when they are alone or with other just like them. Their teachings are not like what Jesus taught because it is not profitable for them. They teach what people want to hear, but add a clever way to benefit financially. Their teachings are destructive and focus the attention to man instead of God. The more they shine the more people will give attention to them. Some people give almost everything, some give all they have to these false teachers. Cult leaders usually demand this from their followers. The sad reality is once someone gets involved in these cults, it's almost impossible to get out. These false leaders can be spotted by their greed. It's hard for us to tell, but if we look and listen carefully, we will know. God will also show us and warn us of such people, because there are many. God knows everyone of them and they will be destroyed by Him.
God's words are a lamp to my feet and a light shining in the dark places. God's words are bright lights shining on top of a hill for all to see. God has given us His words through the bible and that was written by prophets, kings, and leaders inspired by God. Everything could be gone but God's words will remain. That's the power of the Word of God. These prophets didn't speak God's word by their own inspiration, but only when the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Even if it meant death, they spoke God's words. God's words were more important and valuable than their own life. Today, we can read, listen, and see these powerful words, but they don't seem to carry the same intensity the prophets had. We are called as Christians to be carriers of God's precious words, but we must also hold these treasures more valuable than our own lives. That way God's words will shine on the entire world.
There are some famous people that I would love to meet and one of them is Benjamin Franklin. He had several businesses, had many inventions, and even started several non profits. It would have been great to personally meet him and get to know him, but the one I should really meet is God, who made this great man. God is the alpha and the omega. He is our creator. He is the most powerful, most interesting, and the most mysterious One that I would love to get to know more. The good news is according to verse 5, we are able to do just that. The answer is by getting to know Jesus better, found in verse 3. Peter saw that the more he knew Jesus, the more godly his life became. He began to live a life with the power of Jesus and was rich from the promises of Jesus. His life became more victorious over temptations and evil desires. This led to a life of moral excellence and that led to knowing God better. The great thing is, those gifts continues to self control, patient endurance, godliness, love for other Christians, and genuine love for everyone. These are great treasures that will make any Christian rich and it all starts from knowing Jesus better. Got Jesus?