By kanakukchancey

I hope you had a great holiday season and have lots of stories you could tell that celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Because of who He is, I am who I am today.  I am so thankful for the life Christ has given me to live.

As you know, Karen and I celebrated 25 years of marriage on Dec. 13 in New York.  We went to several Broadway plays and had an incredible time, just the two of us, celebrating our life together.  We had our family Christmas on Dec. 17 because Cameron, who plays football for the University of Missouri had a bowl game and had to go back to school for practice.  Dec. 27 the Tigers beat North Carolina, and Cameron, being a red shirt freshman, had a blast being a part of the team.  He looks forward to the future, hoping to be a player who has the opportunity to impact the games.  We are praying that God would develop his gifts to be able to do this, but we know that first and foremost, he is there to make a spiritual impact on his team.

On Christmas Day, Karen, Callie & I traveled to Cabo San Lucas where we had the most incredible vacation ever.  I was “poolboy” and delivered fruits & yogurt to the beach to my daughter and wife who were reading and basking in the sun each day.  I loved the job because it made them smile!  Dec. 28, after the bowl game, Cameron arrived and he and I worked out and played golf together every day.  This year I watched Cameron bungee jump twice, over 300 feet and out of a gondola!  My better judgment told me not to do it this year.  I’ve been there and done that!  Callie had to leave early to run a half marathon in Orlando at the Disney Marathon.  Congratulations on running all the way through 13.1 miles!

One of my favorite stories of the holidays was being in a time share presentation where they high-pressure sell you to buy their condos.  As they tried to share with me, I shared with them the joy of Jesus Christ.  Not once, not twice, but three times, they sent me to different people who each said, “You really believe in your Jesus!”  It was kind of fun, listening to them try to sell me their product and at the same time offering them the greatest product ever, our Savior, Jesus.  I found it a fun challenge to see if my passion could match their passion.  They were offering a condo that could make me temporarily happy, but I was offering them a mansion that would make them eternally happy!

Another one of the great opportunities I had was to study God’s Word intently every day.  One of the joys I found was this passage in 2 Peter 1.  I want to encourage you to read it and to recognize what has been given to you IF you do certain things.  I think you’ll find this to be a great opportunity for your own study.

2 Peter 1:1-10:  To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

A couple highlights from this passage are that His divine power has granted to us as believers EVERYTHING that pertains to life and Godliness.  And then He walks us through things that we need to be mindful of as we live, and how we need to escape the corruption of the world.  So He tells us that we need to apply faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, Godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.  And He says, “If we practice these things, we will never stumble.”  This is a great encouragement to me, because I want to maintain a solid walk for the Lord.  With the lusts of the world, I can be distracted if I don’t keep my eyes focused on what it is that I need to do.  I have found this to be a great joy to me, to be reminded of all I have in Christ’s power and all I can do to keep myself from stumbling.  I pray you are encouraged today as well!