I’ve always been a fan of the old story about the child walking along the beach tossing starfish back into the ocean.

The starfish, left behind when the tide receded, were making their way toward the water, now too far away to reach before the sun’s rays baked the life from their slow-moving forms.  The child walked along the beach picking up the starfish and tossing them back into the water, one by one.

An adult stopped the child to point out the futility of his task.  “Look at how many there are,” the adult said, pointing at the line of creeping starfish up and down the coast, tracing their desperately slow trails as far as the eye could see.  “Most of them will die.  You can’t get to them in time.  Even if you did, they’ll just be back on the shore tomorrow.  You’ll never make a difference.”

After listening in silence, the child bent down, picked up another starfish, and tossed it back into the water.  With a knowing smile, he looked at the grown-up and replied, “Made a difference to that one.”

Earlier in the semester, I posted a blog entry that started off fuming about the general apathy (to put it mildly) that characterized the students in the college course I’m teaching this semester.  More than half didn’t even bother to study for the exam – or so their scores suggested.  (Arguably, anyone who studies even a little should be able to score more than 35 points out of 100.  I had ten below that mark.) Deciding to focus on the ones for whom I could make a difference, I pressed on, refusing to allow myself discouragement in light of the ones who did not only well, but brilliantly – and thereby proved I was not actually wasting my time.

Flash forward another six weeks, and on Monday my students took the final exam.  Last night I started grading.  As expected, a number have done poorly.  How poorly, only time and completion of the grading will tell.  (I grade all the exams one page at a time – page 1 of all exams, then page 2 of all exams, etc to ensure uniformity.  It also helps me not to pay attention to whose exam I’m grading at any given moment.) But last night, as I started grading, a few exams began to stand out.  Some, as expected, because their producers failed to study, with the expected results.  Some because their owners did remarkably well.

And then there was one that stood out because I didn’t expect it.  An exam that contained some mistakes, but also showed a remarkable level of understanding on more than an average number of topics.  I noticed this one in particular because it made some mistakes that seemed out of place in an otherwise solid showing.  Since the school doesn’t use blind grading, I flipped to the front cover and took a look at the name.

The exam belongs to one of the students who performed the worst on the midterm.  Someone who showed less than no inclination to spend any time or effort paying attention.  Someone who I could tell was disappointed in the midterm grade, and who showed initial signs of real concern thereafter, but made no visual attempt to change.  The student still sat with the same group of students as before, and engaged in the same behaviors that made it appear this student (gender withheld to protect the guilty) would go from failure to failure without really caring much – and probably reviling me as a martinet (or, more likely, a lower-scoring verbal analogue).

Instead, this one changed.  Instead of winding up beached in the scorching sun of a final exam that could negatively impact the student’s educational career, this one decided to study. This one actually learned something from the midterm, and learned a number of other things in time to reveal that knowledge on the final.

This one is going to pass.

I’m always pleased to teach the students who want to learn.  The ones who study hard, perform well and generally make teaching an enjoyable experience for the person at the front of the room.  The ones who actually care about knowledge gained as much as the letter on the report card.

But every once in a while, a student surprises you.  A surprise you never expected, and one you never forget.  I don’t know if this student’s new-found dedication will last beyond the boundaries of this course, or whether the encouraging note I intend to write on the final exam will have a lasting impact.  But for one brief – and in my case, lasting – moment, I can say with great joy:

I made a difference to that one.  (And that one made a difference to me.)

In this case, literally.

The Bible recounts the life of a young man named Joseph, who had an impressive pair of dreams at the age of 15 or 16.  In the dreams, sheaves of grain and stars representing his older brothers (as well as the sun and moon, representing his parents) bowed before him, signaling that in the future he would rise to more importance than the rest of his family.

As usually happens, this news didn’t go over well with the rest of Joseph’s family.  His brothers first thought to kill him, but settled for selling him into slavery.  (After all, why commit a mortal sin when you can commit a lesser sin and turn a profit in the process!) Joseph spent the next 15 years of his life (give or take) as a slave and a prisoner – all of it under circumstances which made it less than likely, by worldly standards, that his dreams were anything but the fantasies of a youthful mind.

Until, in prison, Pharaoh’s servants had dreams, which God enabled Joseph to interpret – and some time later, the dreams came true.  Even then, Joseph remained in prison (though perhaps with a renewed hope that his interpretation of his original dreams might not have been mistaken).  But then, the year Joseph turned 30, Pharaoh himself had a pair of dreams that nobody could understand.  Nobody but Joseph, who was called from prison to tell Pharaoh what he knew.  Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, but as a result of the interpretation God allowed Joseph to give, and Pharaoh’s gratitude for the enlightenment, Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt – then the most powerful nation in the world.

Joseph’s dreams came true.  (Literally, if you read the rest of the story…but I’ll refer you to Genesis 40 et seq and let you read it for yourself.) And he had to wait a very, very long time for it to happen.

I have often wondered how Joseph managed through the dark days (and months, and years) when it seemed almost impossible for God’s promises to come to pass.  I imagine him standing in a prison cell, staring at the stars, praying and reminding himself that nothing – nothing – is impossible with God, no matter what the world says or thinks about it.  I consider how the people around him must have laughed at his faith, or dismissed it with shaking heads.  Joseph, you fool.  You’re a prisoner and a slave.  The only things bowing down to you are the sheaves of wheat your scythe cuts down.

But Joseph knew what God had told him, and he never lost faith that God was true.

Recently, I prayed a very serious prayer about some things I know to be true, as clearly as Joseph knew the interpretation of his dreams (and not much less impossible, if looked at by the world).  Like Joseph, I am waiting and trying to remain obedient and faithful until they come to pass.  Like Joseph, the years are passing, and like Joseph, I have reached the point where faith and patience are a matter of choice.  My faith is not weakened by the passage of time, but at some point we must decide whether or not we still believe our understanding is correct.  I have made that choice.  I still believe.

But last week I began to pray about these things I know to be true, and asked – if it wasn’t inappropriate, or too much trouble, or outside the rest of the Master Plan – if I could have some reassurance, some indication that I had in fact understood these things correctly, and that God had heard my prayers.  If it wasn’t too much trouble.  Some kind of little sign.

Every night for a week, I prayed this prayer.  I prayed it in confidence, knowing that I would continue to believe even if I didn’t receive a sign, but also knowing that the Bible tells us to place everything before God in prayer, because he cares for us.

This morning, the sign came, in an unexpected and dramatic form.  I received news that another prayer – one I now confess I prayed more from diligence than from belief that my words would make a difference (though I truly wanted them to make a difference, and hoped they would, I just considered the matter very, very difficult to achieve) – was granted, in a fashion that was nothing short of miraculous.

When I heard the news, I almost fell out of my chair.

I can’t tell you the exact nature of the proof at this time – that story isn’t mine to tell.  I can’t tell you – yet – the deeper things that prompted the prayers in the first place, though in time I may not have to.  Like Joseph’s dreams, they will be evident to all who know me when they actually come to pass.

But I would shirk my duty if I didn’t post to confess the truth I learned again this morning, in a form much more dramatic than I ever expected to see.

God is there.  He is listening, and when you speak, He hears you.  I will not hate you if you don’t believe that as I do, but if you don’t I offer you this challenge:  Try.  Sit down tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day, and say an honest prayer to the God who answered the prayers of the Yak – the Creator God of the Universe.  Ask Him to prove to you that He exists, and that he’s heard your prayer.  Don’t ask it as a challenge, or a dare.  Ask it from an honest wish to know if I spoke the truth.

He’s already promised He will answer.  Try it and see.

Today would have been the “first mow on the new lawn day,” with a post to match, but as it happens I woke up at 4am to the sound of rain.  Serious rain.  The kind that takes all of four seconds to tell you there won’t be any mowing today, and not tomorrow either.  (As a side note, that also pretty much puts the capper on today’s other post-work chores, “turning on the solar pool heater for the season” and “returning the recyclables to the outdoor recycling center.”)

As of 10am, the rain still falls, but the coffee is warm and the office is peaceful (and mercifully free from solicitors and other things that go bump in the night) and the rain has me reflecting on the kind of job I’ve been doing lately.

In a word or two, not what I’d like it to be.

One of the striking recurring themes in the Old Testament is the inability of Israel to follow relatively simple instructions.  Time and again, they’re told “walk that way…keep walking until I tell you to stop” (or something equally recognizable and understandable) and time and again…Israel screws it up.  Enough so that it becomes fairly easy for modern readers to shake their heads and say “Wow, were they really that dense and stupid?  If I had such clear direction in my life, I’d never mess it up like that.”  But again and again, they do.  And again and again, we shake our heads and sigh at their lack of intelligence and foresight.

And then we look in the mirror.  Or should.   Because the shaggy face staring back at us from the rounded disc of glass can be just as foolish, just as shortsighted, and just as obstinate as the tribes in the desert ever could.

Case in point…me.

I am blessed to have both direction and instruction in my life.  I have a fantastic work environment, in barely-to-be-believed circumstances that permit me almost a full range of normal-for-me behavior with a minimum of stress or inconvenience.  I get to work with one of my best friends, and I work at a calling instead of a “job.”  In my off hours, I have an understanding-if-equally-random spouse, a teenager who rarely acts like one (trust me, that’s a good thing) and friends who not only tolerate my slightly off-center attitude but somehow seem to relate to it.

All of which I regularly take for granted, and as a result treat with less grace and kindness than they deserve.  Now, I know that’s hardly melting down the candlesticks to make a golden calf, but in its way it’s just as great a failing.  You see, I’ve been told to treat them properly.  Told over and over and over again, and when it comes right down to it, that’s not a difficult thing to do – especially when the people in question actually like you a little.

In Church on Sunday morning, someone made a comment about not knowing (or appreciating) what you have until it’s gone.  He related the comment to losing his father, and the amount of his father’s wisdom he squandered over the years, realizing it only when it was too late to change.

That hit home.  Not just because I miss my own father, and wish I’d had more time to spend in his company, but more because I’ve recently fallen back into some negative behavioral patterns that impact not only my life but also the people with whom my life intersects.  I would hate to think they might have regrets when I am gone, but I would hate it more to think they were glad to see me go.  Wherein lies the point.  It was a mistake to let myself slide into patterns that failed to put those people’s interests before my own.  Grumbling through the day seems easy when things aren’t going as I’d like, but that isn’t fair even to me.  With regard to the people around me it’s as stupid as the golden calf, and like that calf it has no chance to save anything.  It can only bring sorrow and shame.

An elderly man I will probably never know walks my neighborhood in the mornings.  He smiles and waves at every car as though it contained a long-lost friend.  When I see him, it makes my day.  That I have done less for people I know, whose friendship means the world to me, is nothing short of pathetic – and it needs to change.  No one is perfect, but that doesn’t mean we have to settle for it.

Those who clicked in today looking for humor might need to go somewhere else to laugh, but if a rainy-day’s reflections put another smile, another kindness, or a moment’s careful thought into the life of a family outside my own, then my personal resolution to change my attitude toward those around me has borne not only immediate fruit, but spread.  And that, as the saying goes, is a good thing.

April 2, 2010: Good Friday.

I have nothing to be grateful for, with the exception of everything.

Not everyone shares my opinions or my faith, but whether you do or not, I wish you a Happy and Blessed Good Friday, a Blessed Easter, and the sincere hope (and prayer) that the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.  May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.  (Numbers 6.22-26)

Happy Easter.

“Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16.32-33, NASB)

What troubled you today?

Did you wake up late?  Trip over the cat on the way to the bathroom, knock your head on the counter and spill the coffee down your pants? 

When you reached the office, did you miss an important phone call? Did someone else take the last of the half and half, leaving you only skim milk?  Perhaps you lost a major client, or didn’t get that raise you needed wanted so badly.

On the personal front, you probably had a tiff with your spouse or lost your “significant other.”  The electric bill is late, and the dog took this opportunity to come down with some heinous tropical disease requiring $350 in X-rays and a $2,100 surgery.  The car won’t start.  Your mother-in-law announced a surprise Easter visit and your kid just informed you he won’t be passing algebra again this year.

In other words, that tropical island looks better by the minute.

I’ve got a better idea.  Smile.  Sit down, look out the window, and don’t answer the phone.  Watch the wind blowing the trees, and follow the puffy white cloud through the sky.  Yeah, that one.  The one that looks a little like Godzilla eating a candy cane.

Today is a good day.

You woke up this morning.  A lot of people didn’t.  You got out of bed, when a lot of people can’t.  You have a cat that loves you (when it’s not trying to break your neck) and you can afford a cup of coffee.

You have a job.

You have a car, even if it doesn’t always behave the way you’d like it to, and you have a family that loves you (even when you act a bit like a self-centered jerk).

Most importantly of all, you have access to God Himself.  He will listen to you beg and whine and gripe, and when you’re finished He’ll still love you just as much as He did before.  He went to the cross to promise you that death is not the end.  When you check out the coffee stain on your new pants, consider the stains he left on the cross at Calvary, and be humbled.  They left Him no pants to stain.  Your stubbed toe and bruised ego can’t compare with the physical, worldly pain he endured for your benefit – and mine – and all the rest of the enemies He had yet to save.  And yet, for all our faults and failings, He laid down his life on our behalf.

“For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5.6-8)

I lived many years in the world before accepting Christ’s everlasting gift.  I stubbed my toes, spilled my coffee and burned my midnight oil making my own light and seeking the unstable security that comes from things the world can provide.  An enemy of the cross by ignorance, not by intention (though intent isn’t a necessary element of that crime).

On the day that became Good Friday, Christ went to the cross, not for a good man, or even for the righteous, but for the enemies and sinners of a thousand generations yet unborn.  He died for you.  He died for me.

Consider, and be humbled.  You don’t need that tropical island, that raise or that Porsche.  Coffee washes out.  Bruised knees and egos heal.  In this world we will have tribulation, but we also have the greatest blessing any man, woman or child could possibly receive: a Creator God who loves us enough to die not only for the good, but for the human as well.

Today is the rarest of Thursday Thirteens. Not only is it Thursday, but it is the thirteenth day of December and it is exactly thirteen days (counting today) until Christmas Day.

For this triple witching, uh, watching thirteenth, the Yaks bring you the thirteen days of Christmas gifts that we have already received this year. (No partridges in pear trees were disrespected or misappropriated in the making of this list.)

1. Every day that we experienced God’s love, forgiveness and grace. That is, every day that we accepted this most-precious gift.

2. Every day that we shared love, forgiveness and/or grace with anyone else.

3. The day we had the automobile accident, but no one was hurt.

4. The day Myak forgot all to pack a dress shirt for an out-of-town event, but an alternative clothing choice was providentially available.

5. The day we had popcorn at the office.

6. The day I did not vent my emotions as venomously as I felt them. (Unfortunately, this gift was much rarer this year than in other times.)

7. The day that God provided a way out well before I knew that I needed it. That is, I am thankful for this special instance that I recognized, knowing that God is doing this constantly without my conscious notice.)

8. All the days before the fuse on all of the outdoor Christmas lights blew out, again.

9. Online Christmas shopping.

10. Finishing Christmas shopping with thirteen days to go. (This is for RYak. For Myak, this goes on the Christmas wish list.)

11. The days that all of the family were together again.

12. Every day that the United States did not experience a terrorist attack.

13. Every day an American soldier is not injured or killed defending our country.

If you drive by and see the brightly lit trees and banners promoting shopping in the Sunrise Marketplace commercial area and at the Sunrise Mall in the city of Citrus Heights, California (as I did recently), you can’t miss the city’s decorations strategically placed on the center median of Sunrise Boulevard, decorations emblazoned with expressions of “Peace,” “Hope” and “Joy” and even, around a corner, banners expressing “Holiday Greetings” — but no “Christmas.” 

What is the reason for Hope?  Jesus, whose coming brought the only true reason for hope the world will ever know.  But it’s not worth a mention by Citrus Heights. 

How do we find Joy? presents? family? vacation?  All good, but alone, not enough for true joy.  Joy comes from Someone greater than friends or family and a gift beyond price and freely given to all.  Joy comes from God our Creator, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, at Christmas.  But that does not merit a banner in Citrus Heights. 

Peace is the desire of every heart.  The world pronounces “Peace, peace” when there is no peace, but Jesus gives the “peace that exceeds all understanding.”  The city of Citrus Height saw no reason to note the reason we can have peace, or joy or hope at Christmastime. 

Whoever heard of a birthday party that carefully, cautiously and oh-so correctly suppressed references to the child whose birthday is celebrated around the world on December 25? 

Its a sad, sad Christmas in Citrus Heights.  Yes, I did go there to shop (as the city’s decorations hoped to entice me to do) and, no, I will not boycott merchants and the Sunrise Mall for the shortsightedness of the city planners.  I will still shop at stores that acknowledge “Christmas.”

Oh, yeah, tonight the city of Citrus Heights will light its “Christmas Tree.”  Couldn’t think of another name apparently.  Remember, Citrus Heights is the city that brings the world its annual summer parade the week before July 4 and calls it not an Independence Day parade but the bland (and inoffensive to everyone, but me) ”Red, White and Blue Parade.” 

Citrus Heights, Public Relations Department.  Memo to all City officials: ”Remember during the holiday season, there are two topics in multicultural America today that we all must be most careful to downplay: God and Country.” 

Citrus Heights is concluding its own year-long self-congratulatory 10-year city birthday celebration, and on the whole I admit that I have been relatively pleased with its development, except for the above-mentioned and glaring patriotic omissions and Christmas-demeaning snubs. 

How would you like it, Citrus Heights, if Sacramento County gave you a birthday party but refused to mention you by name?  That’s what you’ve done to Christmas.

Linked to the Christmas Alliance homepage.

October 16: National Boss’ Day.  A day-long observance in which we honor and appreciate our bosses.

In honor of the occasion, I’d like to say a few words about my boss. (more…)

Reaching major life goals sometimes feels a lot like playing a game of “last man standing” on the beach as the tide comes in.

Anyone who’s been six and gone to the beach knows what I’m talking about.  End of the day.  The sun sinks into the horizon, warm on your back.  You stand facing the dry sand, knee deep in water, and let the waves try to suck you backward.  You can’t see them coming, so you don’t know when to brace yourself against the sudden rush of water against the back of your knees.  If you manage to stay upright the waves retreat, pulling you backward, and you struggle to maintain your balance against the sucking of the sea.

One by one the kids around you fall, laughing, into the waves.  They surrender to the pressure of forces stronger than a child’s strength to stand.  Last man standing wins.  As a rule, all he (or sometimes she) takes away are bragging rights and perhaps the satisfaction of knowing (s)he stood against the waves a little longer than the last time – though hopefully a little less than the next time.

As we grow, we sometimes forget the need to stand, laughing, in the water while the waves tug at our knees.  We often forget that the world consists of forces much greater than our personal ability to withstand – though the fortunate among us also know we need not stand alone.  We also forget that while fortitude alone won’t make you the last man standing, the last man standing always had the fortitude to refuse to fall.

Remember that when everyone around you goes crashing into the waves.  Laughing or not, the fact that they reached the end of their fortitude doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve reached the end of yours. 

Sometimes, the only difference between knowing you are meant to stand and actually achieving it comes down to simply having the fortitude to refuse to fall.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, third world county, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.  

An openly practicing homosexual who was refused a post as a youth officer by the Bishop of Hereford has won his case for employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation beforethe Employment Tribunal (UK).

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A Judgment Day has already come and gone, for many, but the final Judgment Day is yet to come, for us all. In Second Peter 2 and the book of Jude, seven historical examples of God’s Judgment are noted as warnings of God’s future judgment and as reassurance that in judgment God will remember mercy for those who have asked for mercy by accepting the salvation offered only in Jesus Christ.

The first example of God’s judgment, chronologically, is the pre-historic judgment on Satan and the fallen angels.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment … [9] then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. …” 2Peter 2.4, 9.

“Angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, God has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. …” Jude 6.

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Today’s Object Lesson: some things, you’re better off not knowing. Unless, of course, that’s not the case.

While running through the results of a google search for “ea” (to confirm that this is, in fact,an all-vowel word meaning “a stream or riverbed”) I came across the following website:

Emotions Anonymous.

Yes, this appears to be a real organization dedicated to the proposition that twelve-step recovery programs aren’t just for alcoholics and overeaters. Now I don’t personally qualify, because the websitereserves membership for those possessed of a (strange and inexplicable) “desire to become well emotionally.”

Joking aside, I looked into the Twelve Step recovery program advocated by EA, withthe full intent of subjecting the organization to a complete and thorough verbal drubbing.Certain I would discoveryet another humanistic, relativistic program dedicated to the proposition that “I’m OK, You’re OK, and Nothing is Forbidden,” I looked forward to decorating, hanging andsystematically destroyingyet another Personal Pinata of Fisk.

But it was not to be. (more…)

“Contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” Jude 3.

1. Recognize and Defend the Truth of the Word of God and Prophecy.

1.1 The “prophecy of scripture” represents the words of “men moved by the Holy Spirit” who “spoke from God.” 2Peter 1.19-21. Miracles provide proof of the truth of future prophecies, especially the miracle of past prophecies fulfilled, such as the Messianic prophecies Peter references, 1.19.1.2 “Prophecy” biblically refers to any expression of the word of God, whether regarding the present or the future. 2Peter 1.19-21; 1Peter 4.11.

“Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. [8] A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”Amos 3.7-8.

Prophecy, a gift of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 12.7-11; 2Peter 1.20-21), does not replace love, a fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5.22; 2Peter 1.7; 1Corinthians 13-14 (13.2-3; 14.1-5, 29-32, 37-39). We need both truth and love; each define the other. Love must not be permitted to compromise truth, nor truth permitted to compromise love. “Speak the truth in love.”

1.3 False prophets. (a) Two kinds of false prophets exist: People who prophesy about the future but whose prophecies are not fulfilled, Deuteronomy 18.20-22; and people who prophesy against the truth and reality of the living God, whether or not their future prophesies come true, Deuteronomy 13; 2Peter 2.1; Jude 4.

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Wisdom and Warnings: 2 Peter, Jude and Ecclesiastes

2 Peter 1.12-21, Proof of Divine Inspiration of the Bible

1. Review: Faith in Supernatural Reality and the Dynamics of Spiritual Growth. 2Peter 1.12-15. Faith and spiritual reality, 1.1-4; progress of faith, 1.5-11.

1.1 The importance of spiritual reminders, 1.12-13. Examples: (a) Rainbows, Genesis 9.1-17. (b) Abraham’s altars, Genesis 12.7, 8; 13.4, 14-18; a tamarisk tree, 21.33 (22-34). (c) Isaac’s altar, Genesis 26.23-25. (d) Jacob’s pillar, Genesis 28.18, 22 (10-22). (e) The tabernacle, the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the ark of the covenant, Exodus 24.12 (31.18; 32.15-19; 34.1, 4, 27-28); 25.8-10, 16, 22; 26.30; (f) Sabbath rest, Exodus 31.12-17; 34.21. (g) The memorial stones in the Jordan River upon entrance into the Promised Land, Joshua 3-4; 4.1-9, 20-24. (h) Personal testimonies, e.g., Psalm 145. The Bible itself is a spiritual reminder. Compare the Declaration of Independence, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial.

1.2 Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s betrayal, restoration and death, 1.14-15. Jesus told Peter (prophesied) that (a) he would be tested by Satan, Luke 22.31-32; (b) he would betray Jesus, Luke 22.33-34, Matthew 26.31-35, Mark 14.27-31, John 13.36-38 (prophecy fulfilled, Matthew 26.36-41, 69-75; Mark 14. 34-37, 66-72; Luke 22.39-46, 54-62; John 18.15-18, 25-27); and (c) he would be restored, serve God and die at the hands of his enemies, as a martyr, Luke 22.32, John 21.15-22.

1.3 Through this ego-crushing experience, Peter learned humility and the true meaning of agape, godly love. Note the use of agape and phileo (brotherly kindness, friendship, love), in John 21.15-17, and in the final progression of faith, 2Peter 1.7.

1.4 Peter recalls these facts in 2Peter 1.14-15 for two reasons: first, to emphasize his exhortation to live in the reality and power of the spiritual world, by faith, because this is his last opportunity to remind them; and, second, to illustrate his own knowledge and reliance on spiritual forces, as confirmed by his personal experience.

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Sorry, I simply forgot to post last Sunday’s Bible study on 2 Peter 1.5-11, the Progression of Spiritual Development. I wrote it and taught it but forgot to post it. Someday I will post it, but not today. I apologize.

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