1 John 3

¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.



This chapter is full of short convicting statements of what it means to a child of God, truly loving others.  The one verse I selected is a good one for me, I think sometimes I know the right things to say but my actions aren't always in aligned.  Its not that I necessarily do hateful things, its more my apathy for showing love through actions.  Many times I have thoughts of what I could do to show love for people but more often than not I don't get off my rear and follow through.  I pray for the nudge that gets me to act more often.

knut

























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1 John 2

⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.


11 simple words, but 1 tall challenge.  But really what more compass do you need to get through the day?  I guess the WWJD bands fit right with this verse and it really is a great reminder.

While impossible for an imperfect person to live the perfect life as Jesus did I don't think its so impossible to aspire to that.  Starting with reading the bible every day and putting God's words directly into our minds, then listening to my heart throughout the day and behaving in a way that is consistent with what my heart is telling me.  If I'm honest with myself I think most of the time when I'm acting in a way that Jesus would not live its not that I don't know it, I'm just making a bad choice.  I know and feel it, but for some reason I lack the discipline to stop it.  So I think keeping the WWJD montra in my head is a good way to try to fulfill verse 6.

knut  

1 John 1

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.


No darkness at all.  The closer I can get to Jesus and the more of him I have in me the more it will squeeze out the bad stuff and feelings that are sometimes in my mind and my heart.

knut 

2 Peter 3

¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

This chapter talks about being prepared for his return, not listening to the noise of our environment telling us not to have faith.  There is plenty of that in today's society but reading this tells me that while they didn't have 24hr news and internet spreading doubt its clear they dealt with similar societal issues.  The message of preparation speaks to continuing our daily reading, like you said a couple a days ago gathering knowledge.  Use the knowledge to prepare our hearts and help shield ourselves from the attacks on our faith that come with living in today's society (or that or 2000 yrs ago).

knut

2 Peter 2

⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.


In the verses prior to this he give examples of how God punished the unrighteous and was also able to carve out the righteous and protect them from unjust punishment.  They are real examples of how when judgement day comes for us he knows our hearts...there is no faking it, I am either with Him or against Him and he knows it so I better have my house in order.


knut

2 Peter 1

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.


At work we are constantly in process improvement mode.  We do things pretty well, but we can always finds areas that can be run more efficient or effectively all for the benefit of our customers.  This series of verses seems like a process improvement road-map for me with the benefit of my improvement being to God's glory.  

I like the 7 simple areas called out to work on.  I bet I can think of something about myself to improve in each of these areas without too much effort.

have a good day--knut.

1 Peter 5

 ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Just a good reminder that he is always there for me and cares about me no matter what may be troubling me.  I don't feel anxiety to often anymore but when I do it's usually at work and I need to remember he is there to turn to.  Have a good weekend!   From my iPhone in Portland or.