Equipped for Life

I want to share with you a wonderful passage from 2 Peter.  I’m doing it from the perspective of the Bible as God’s revealed truth.
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2 Peter1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

How cool is it that we can grow our experience of God’s grace and peace in this life by simply increasing our knowledge of Him and the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is by God’s divine power that we have everything needed for life and godly living starting with everlasting life and the Holy Spirit who is our guarantee of entrance into Heaven (Ephesians 1:13-14).  The key for making the most of our everlasting life now is found in the full knowledge of God.  Where do we find that full knowledge of God? 

Peter points us to the exceedingly great and precious promises contained in the Bible.  The Bible is God’s recorded revelation which He has personally persevered by His power.  Peter explained this way in 2 Peter 1:20 & 21 “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”  The Holy Spirit has supervised the writing of Scripture and its preservation down through the centuries.  So, we can trust it to be reliable in the matters of life and godliness. 

I am a strong proponent of reading the Bible itself rather than relying on books about the Bible.  Topical books and commentaries have their place, but nothing can really take the place of reading and studying it for yourself.  I recommend the folks at Trego Community Church do 2 things.  First, read at least 4 chapters a day, every day.  Reading as you would any other non-fiction book so you’re familiar with its content. By daily readings you’ll also get to know more about God, His nature and how He interactions with people. 

Then supplement your reading with planned studies of individual books in the Bible.   Read a paragraph and then write down the main ideas being expressed, those things that jump off the page at you and look for the main idea the author is trying to get across to you. Write down any questions you still have about what you’ve read for later investigation.  That is when commentaries come in to play.  You don’t need to buy them as there are several on-line resources that are free. 

Here are some recommendations of sites I use:
Constables Notes @ https://soniclight.com/; 
https://bible.org/; 
https://www.biblegateway.com/.