“Too many men had lost their lives because they weren’t paying attention to where they were going.” –Bobby Cavazos (The Cowboy From the Wild Horse Desert)
“Pay close attention to yourself [concentrate on your personal development] and to your teaching; persevere in these things [hold to them], for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” –1 Timothy 4:16 (AMP)
How has your piety been this week? Are you practicing adding and building and developing the virtues that Peter has given to us? There is one more; add to piety–love or brotherly affection. Love ties all of this together. The literal meaning of this word is “love of the brethren.” That means we need to be involved with the family of God.
Jesus was continually interrupted. There is something wrong when the claims of personal relationships are a nuisance. We should not be annoyed by relational interruptions. We are to continue to practice and develop these virtues. Moffat writes, “We learn Him as we live with Him and for Him.” Look at these verses one more time from the Phillips translation.
“For this very reason you must do your utmost from your side, and see that your faith carries with it real goodness of life. Your goodness must be accompanied by knowledge, your knowledge by self-control, your self-control by the ability to endure. Your endurance too must always be accompanied by devotion to God; that in turn must have in it the quality of brotherliness, and your brotherliness must lead on to Christian love.”
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“Heaven is not reached at a single bound,
But we build the ladder by which we rise,
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies;
And we mount to its summit, round by round.
Only in dreams is a ladder thrown
From the weary earth to the sapphire walls;
But the dreams depart and the vision falls,
And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone.”
–Dr. J.G. Holland
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Have you been reading? Pick up one of those classics and do it this summer. Sometimes we want the professors to read us the knowledge, but more important it is to delve in to it ourselves.
“After all that professors may do for us, the real University is a collection of good books.”
–Thomas Carlyle
Pick up one a book by one of the following and read it devotionally: Fenelon, Tozer, or Lewis.
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And I wouldn’t leave out the farmer:
“Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.”
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”
“Most times, it just gets down to common sense.”