one thing leads t another

2 Peter 1

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

(dan note: power statement – that's pretty unequivocal – “God has given us everything we need for living a godly life”. )

We have received all of this by coming to know him,

the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.

These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature

and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

(dan note: this next section is the “one thing leads to another” section.)

  5 In view of all this, make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises in your life.

Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence.

A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better.

Knowing God better leads to self control.

Self control leads to patient endurance,

and patient endurance leads to godliness.

Godliness leads to love for other Christians,

and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone.

  8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind,

forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

(dan note: Peter doesn't mess around – if we don't pursue this godly life, things become problematic for us.)

  10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.

Do these things, and you will never stumble or fall away.

11 And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the etermal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

One thing is for sure – we are called to a holy life.

Believing in Jesus isn't all there is.

We must allow God to make us into a new person, a person who is life Jesus, & that means recreating our thinking & behavior – iow, a holy life.

There seems to be a paucity of this kind of thinking.

While there certainly is an importance in believing who Jesus is & what His life & death mean for us, there seems to be a lack of understanding that not only are we “save by grace” but our behavior & attitudes have to change.

We don't just “believe in Jesus” - we also have to let God change us.

And most of those changes are not easy or comfortable.

As followers of Jesus, God isn't interested in making us “better persons”.

He's interested in making us like Him – people who think like Him, live like Him, connect with other people like He does, & love people as He does.

Iow, He wants to “make all things new”.

(I hope that all made some sense – at this hour of the morning, it's hard for me to tell sometimes! ;-) LOL)