Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek
24 December 2024
Reading From II Peter 1-3
“We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
–II Peter 1:19-21
For many living in today’s modern age, cultural wars and conflicts between faith and science have led many to abandon their trust in Jesus Christ and deconstruct their religion. The sinking sands of doubt are nothing to build one’s life upon. Faith and trust in the bedrock of Christ Jesus and His Word form the only sure foundation, upon which the Church itself is built. He is the foundation the apostles and prophets built upon.
At the beginning of his second letter, Peter speaks of being an eyewitness to the earthly ministry of Jesus. At the end of this letter, he references the letters of the Apostle Paul. II Peter 3:15-16, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Peter himself calls the epistles of Paul Scripture, and Paul quotes Luke 10:7 in I Timothy 5:17-18. This means that Luke, letters of Paul and this letter from Peter were written within the lifetime of Peter himself. We can trust the Word of God and we must trust Him if we are to be spiritually successful and prove our calling and election sure.
Scholars have varying theories about the authorship of II Peter, but Clement of Rome, who was bishop of the church in that city during the 1st century, linked James 1:8, II Peter 3:4 and Mark 4:26 in I Clement 23:1-3. Tertullian held that Clement was himself ordained by Peter. Peter was a fisherman from Bethsaida and yet he was empowered by the Spirit to deliver a sermon that led to thousands of people joining the church on the Day of Pentecost. He also might have had a scribe or scribes assisting him with writing with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Discoveries of ancient Scriptural texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls between 1946 and 1956 in the Qumran Caves of the Judean Desert provide us with verification of huge swaths of the Old Testament; we have portions therein of every book in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, except Esther. The over 15,000 scrolls were written between the 3rd Century BC and the 1st century AD. Contained within these records is the Isaiah Scroll, which scholars have dated to sometime between 100-356 years before the birth of Jesus.
The Isaiah Scroll gives us the entire book from beginning to end. The writings attributed to that prophet deliver many very specific prophecies foretelling the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His fulfillment of over three hundred Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament proves the Word of God to be true. And if His life is recorded in Luke, the Apostle Paul quotes from that Gospel, and the Apostle Peter calls Paul’s writings Scripture, we have all the more reason to trust the Bible as Scripture to build our lives upon. There are over 24,000 ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, making the Bible, our Bible, the most accurately transmitted ancient text in the world. His Word is living and active and faithfully communicates the Good News from God to us.
“Lord, I know that there are many detractors and critics of Your Word, but I declare that I believe and trust in You and Your Promises. Every Word of Yours is true and trustworthy and to all these things I say ‘yes’ and ‘amen!’ Thank You for preserving this marvelous written record of Truth down through the ages and for guiding translators in making Your revelations accessible to people all over the world today. You are truly a wonderful and magnificent God. We love You, Lord. Amen.”
“Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
–Proverbs 30:5-9
Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God 
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