Wednesday, November 04, 2009

this encouraged me today

2 Peter 1: 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. --ESV
whammo!!! killer ammo against feelings of uselessness!!!

usefulness - effectiveness and fruitfulness - are in Him, not in me. His very nature in me is the source of it.
1 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may....
..."be effective and fruitful"...?

NO!
...[that you may] become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. --ESV
partaking of the divine nature - Him in us and us in Him - is what produces the qualities in us that keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful.

the focus is not being effective and fruitful.
the focus is not trying to be effective and fruitful.
the focus is not trying to not be ineffective and unfruitful.

the focus is partaking of the divine nature!! all else flows from that.

ie, don't focus on the fruit, focus on the tree that grows the fruit.

the fruit without the tree that grows it is.... nothing. dead. non-existent. imaginary. 'mustered up' from nothing. impossible.

escape from corruption comes not from effort, but from partaking of the divine nature.

look to the Source.


food for much further thought...

Clover

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Outcast, Adopted.

THIS BLOG IS IN NEED OF AN OVERHAUL. there are posts from years back i would not be able to post in good conscience now. i plan to overhaul the blog, and either delete or add a disclaimer to those posts. but that is gonna take time....

The Radical Summons: "
Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:13.

"The Spirit never loosens where the Word binds; the Spirit never justifies where the Word condemns; the Spirit never approves where the Word disapproves; the Spirit never blesses where the Word curses." —Thomas Brooks

‎"God receives none but those who are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to none but the dead. He does not give saintliness to any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short: He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace. Therefore no arrogant saint, or just or wise man can be material for God, neither can he do the work of God, but he remains confined within his own work and makes of himself a fictitious, ostensible, false, and deceitful saint, that is, a hypocrite." --Martin Luther (W.A. 1.183ff)

i will not let You go: "Jacob's sense of his total debility and utter defeat is now the secret of his power with his friendly Vanquisher. God can overthrow all the prowess of the self-reliant, but He cannot resist the earnest entreaty of the helpless." --Albert Barnes

i will not let You go: "Jacob's determination did not flow from his strength, it flowed from his weakness." --Charles Leiter