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Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the
knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord...
2 PETER 1:2
GRACE AND PEACE
Have you ever noticed how God puts things in sequence
in the Bible? For example, the Bible says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you." It never says, "peace and grace" at least not that I've seen.
No, it always says "grace and peace!" Do you ever wonder "Why?" It's because we can not know peace until we know God's grace!
BELIEF AND BAPTISM
How many people do you know who were baptized before they gave their hearts and lives to Jesus and truly believed? If you have seen this, then they haven't been "baptized" at all!
True baptism follows our true belief in the one whose NAME we are being baptized in. "A believer's baptism signifies that we are BURIED in the likeness of Christ's death and RAISED into the newness of Christ's life."
If we're baptized before we truly come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that is like having your funeral before you actually die. God's order is "believe and be baptized."
REPENTANCE AND FAITH
This is just another order God has placed in His Word. Repentance and Faith, it's always in that order: repentance first, then faith! If you are having difficulty with FAITH in Jesus Christ, you might need to first try REPENTANCE.
There is nothing more crippling, nothing more suffocating to your faith, than a sin that you have been suppressing or concealing in your heart. The Bible speaks of a sin "that so easily besets (or plagues) us."
BESETTING SINS
We all have our "besetting or encompassing sin." Do you know what yours is? Have you confessed it to the Lord and repented from it?
God's Word says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
PSALM 139:23-24
If we're going to run the race of faith, we have to do some personal searching of our hearts. If we don't believe there is any sin that we're unknowingly concealing, we can ask The Holy Spirit if there is anything we need to confess. He will surely reveal to us anything that might be holding us back from the pathway of everlasting life!
BELOW: Search Me O God (LIVE) - The Cathedrals