Bible League: Living His Word Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.— 2 Peter 3:1 NIV There is wholesome thinking and unwholesome thinking. What's the difference? According to the Apostle Peter, wholesome thinking is based on the words of the holy prophets and the apostles (2 Peter 3:2). In other words, it is based on the words of the inspired Bible writers. Unwholesome thinking is based on human wisdom which causes people to scoff at Christianity and biblical thinking. Wholesome thinking will always be superior to unwholesome thinking. Thinking based on the words of sinful people can never supersede thinking based on the inspired Bible. Despite the superiority of wholesome thinking, unwholesome thinking is more popular in the world around us. Despite its inferiority, it thinking tries to challenge wholesome thinking at every turn. Why? The reason, of course, is sin. Sin causes people to buy in to unwholesome thinking, even to the point of denying the way things really are, which is an affront to God. They spread their unwholesome views in order to undermine wholesome, biblical thinking. That's why Peter wrote two letters. He wrote his first letter to teach the church members that they were strangers in the world and would, therefore, not fit in with the unwholesome ways of the world. The first letter, however, was not enough from his point of view, so he wrote the second one. He wanted to remind them. Unwholesome thinking needs to be beaten back again and again—as many times as necessary. It needs to be destroyed. The Apostle Paul put it this way: "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God..." (2 Corinthians 10:5). Don't be offended, then, if someone reminds you about wholesome thinking. You need to be reminded as many times as necessary. You need any unwholesome thoughts you may have absorbed from the world around you to be pushed out by the wholesome. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingGenesis 6, 7, 8 Genesis 6 -- God's Mercy on Noah in the midst of Man's Wickedness NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Genesis 7 -- The Great Flood NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Genesis 8 -- The Flood Subsides and the Ark Rests on Mount Ararat NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 3 Matthew 3 -- John Preaches Repentance and Baptizes Jesus in the Jordan NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”Insight To “reign over” something is to have absolute authority and control over it. God has ultimate rule over the earth, and he exercises his authority with loving care. When God delegated some of his authority to the human race, he expected us to take responsibility for the environment and the other creatures that share our planet. Challenge We must not be careless and wasteful as we fulfill his charge. God was careful in how he made this earth. We must not be careless in how we take care of it. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Luke 3:4 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.The voice crying in the wilderness demanded a way for the Lord, a way prepared, and a way prepared in the wilderness. I would be attentive to the Master's proclamation, and give him a road into my heart, cast up by gracious operations, through the desert of my nature. The four directions in the text must have my serious attention. Every valley must be exalted. Low and grovelling thoughts of God must be given up; doubting and despairing must be removed; and self-seeking and carnal delights must be forsaken. Across these deep valleys a glorious causeway of grace must be raised. Every mountain and hill shall be laid low. Proud creature-sufficiency, and boastful self-righteousness, must be levelled, to make a highway for the King of kings. Divine fellowship is never vouchsafed to haughty, highminded sinners. The Lord hath respect unto the lowly, and visits the contrite in heart, but the lofty are an abomination unto him. My soul, beseech the Holy Spirit to set thee right in this respect. The crooked shall be made straight. The wavering heart must have a straight path of decision for God and holiness marked out for it. Double-minded men are strangers to the God of truth. My soul, take heed that thou be in all things honest and true, as in the sight of the heart-searching God. The rough places shall be made smooth. Stumbling-blocks of sin must be removed, and thorns and briers of rebellion must be uprooted. So great a visitor must not find miry ways and stony places when he comes to honor his favored ones with his company. Oh that this evening the Lord may find in my heart a highway made ready by his grace, that he may make a triumphal progress through the utmost bounds of my soul, from the beginning of this year even to the end of it. Daily Light on the Daily Path Luke 18:41 "What do you want Me to do for you?" And he said, "Lord, I want to regain my sight!"Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. Luke 24:45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:17-19 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. • I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, • and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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