Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

I pray you had a glorious Resurrection reflection day yesterday. The Holy Spirit in His wisdom has set this week’s focus on growing from knowing that Jesus is alive.

Today’s scripture, 2 Peter 3:15‭-‬18 (ERV) is an encouragement about our spiritual growth…
Remember that we are saved because our Lord is patient. Our dear brother Paul told you that same thing when he wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. That’s what he says in all his letters when he writes about these things. There are parts of his letters that are hard to understand, and some people give a wrong meaning to them. These people are ignorant and weak in faith. They also give wrong meanings to the other Scriptures. But they are destroying themselves by doing that. Dear friends, you already know about this. So be careful. Don’t let these evil people lead you away by the wrong they do. Be careful that you do not fall from your strong faith. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory be to him, now and forever! Amen.

Consider…
Yesterday I heard a simple and succinct message from Pastor Jason Earls, which he titled ‘Jesus.’. His main point was that our salvation from and power over sin is solely because of what Jesus did, period.

The Apostle Paul wrote what could have been the outline to Pastor Earls sermon in 2 Timothy 1:9 (ERV), when he
emphasized…
God saved us and chose us to be his holy people, but not because of anything we ourselves did. God saved us and made us his people because that was what he wanted and because of his grace. That grace was given to us through Christ Jesus before time began.

God has allowed myriads of preaching and teaching styles to draw and develop believers in Jesus Christ. However, although there are many types of preachers and teachers that are inspired and used by God, that doesn’t mean they’re always right in their understanding and interpretation of what He has said. God wants us to always confirm a word from anyone, including ourselves, with His Word. The Holy Spirit pointed out to me that not one individual, other than Jesus, always exclusively speaks for God.

It’s important for us to remember that preachers and teachers are fallable humans, like you and I, who are doing their best to interpret and explain scripture in a way that draws and develops our relationship and walk with Christ. But they are just collaborators in our development.

The Holy Spirit is also showed me that the Bible itself is a collaboration of about 40 collaborators that He inspired to write over approximately 1500 years (2 Timothy 3:16).

Here’s a chart of the Bible’s collaborating authors.

Just like God didn’t use just one person to develop us with His written word, He doesn’t expect us to rely on one preacher or teacher to develop us with their interpretations of it. He expects us to be actively engaged in our personal growth and development, rather than solely rely on others exclusively to help us grow in our knowledge of Him.

We must always remember that God is Sovereign and He can speak through whoever, whenever, wherever and however He wants too. He didn’t/doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called when He used /uses them.

God wants us to not miss the Message because of our focus on the messenger, because He alone is the source of our growth and development (1 Corinthian 3:1-9). He is also telling us that we must not solely rely on other’s interpretations, but do our own homework and study to please God. (2 Timothy 2:15)

Which brings us to today’s scripture. Peter reminds us that we’re saved by grace and not our works, so don’t let anyone tell you or trick you into believing differently. It’s important to know that both Peter and Paul also said that in addition the assurance of God’s grace that accepts our faith, we must grow to know and show more of Christ in our lives. Peter said it with these words…
Be careful that you do not fall from your strong faith. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And Paul explains that God gave us various people to help us in our growth…
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

• Ephesians 4:11‭-‬15 NLT

But here’s the key, our spiritual growth is a collaboration of the Holy Spirit, those He inspired to assist us and….US. He wants us to know that if we know God’s word, we will know His nature and be able to DISCERN for ourselves what aligns and what doesn’t.

Because there are weeds (non believers) among the wheat (believers), the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle John to admonish us to test everything we hear about God by what is said about Jesus…
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.

• 1 John 4:1‭-‬3 NLT

For example, one beautiful point that Pastor Earls made about our Muslim brothers is they can’t truly believe Jesus is a prophet, who by definition can’t lie, and disagree with his proclamations…

• “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. – John 14:6 NLT
• “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” – John 8:58 NLT
• “The Father and I are one.” – John 10:30 NLT

Please don’t misunderstand this, the example is not meant to denigrate our Muslim brothers and sisters faith, but rather to exhort us to be able to give a defense for ours. You see, Jesus’ statements support our hope and belief about His Divine power and authority to save us. 1 Peter 3:15 instructs us to be able explain our faith to anyone that asks.

This brings me to final tie in to yesterday’s resurrection reflection and why it’s critically important for us to grow and know it’s importance. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 explains our faith is meaningless if Christ wasn’t resurrected. Moreover, Romans 10:9 says that we have to believe Jesus Christ was raised from the dead to be saved.

The Holy Spirit is emphasizing that when we take the time to search the scriptures and know what God says and confirms throughout them, He will give us the grace to grow through, and be transformed by them. And ultimately become more like Him!

So today, commit to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Today’s song is…
Know Him

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)