Are there times you wished for a mulligan..... a re-do?
Many years ago, I was the golf coach at BCS. We were having a match against our rival high school at the old Eagle Point Golf Course and I was walking from hole to hole to watch the action.
On one par 3, a student from the other school was about 6 inches off the green and I grimmaced when he pulled his pitching wedge out of the bag and began taking practice chip shots.
This isn't going to be good.
And he did exactly what I feared he would do.... hit the ball thin and it shot across the green into a shrub!
So I broke all the rules of golf purity... I gave him a do over!
"Hold on," I interrupted, and I jogged over and retrieved his ball out of the middle of the shrub.
"I'm the course official and I am giving you a re-do."
The kids on the green just started at me.
"I'm serious," and I placed his ball back to its previous position.
And then the kid pulled out the same club and started over!
"No, no, no" I was fully disrupting everything.
"I am not giving you a do over to do the same thing! You need to think about a better way to play this shot."
At that point, the kid finally took out his putter and nearly holed the shot, leaving him with a 2" tap in for par.
My team's golfer walked over to me.
"What if he ends up beating me?"
I looked him right in the eye and said, with great confidence, "Not a chance".
(Please do not write me about my violation of golf sacredness.)
I am starting 2 Peter with a 'do-over'. We are going to go to the end and then come back to the beginning.
The END of 2nd Peter to give you a chance to think about this scenario.....
[17] You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:17–18 ESV)
The next several days, we are going to explore what Peter means when he says we should know "this beforehand" and how that SHOULD direct us to playing better shots and make better decisions.
If we continue in disobedience after expressing a faith in Christ, then there is a problem. At best we are living with fragile instability... at worst, maybe we are not a follower of Christ at all!
Peter is pretty clear at the end..... he is calling us to GROW.
Grow in grace..... fully grasp that we are saved by what Jesus has done for us and we receive it as a gift.
Grow in knowledge.... get to know Jesus more fully and understand His desire for our life.
And all of this brings GREAT GLORY now and even more so at the Day of His Coming!
So let's talk about the Day of His Coming briefly.....
Peter asks a great question in this letter:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
[11] Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, (2 Peter 3:10–11 ESV)
and this last statement we have been reading answers the rhetorical question:
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:17–18 ESV)
And this concerns me... because I am so prone to wander
Jesus asked another haunting question: "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8 ESV)
Over the next few days, we are going to pour over these three chapters of this 2nd letter of Peter. He writes with a clear understanding that his days are but few.....
The final words of a man lie this deserve some attention.... and his basic encouragement is to KEEP GROWING....
Let's pray and encourage one another to do so!
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