For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. -- 2 Peter 1:5-7 (ESV)

How would you describe the gospel? What adjective best displays it’s nature? Some of my favorites are - amazing, scandalous, grand, and gracious. To take sinful, rebellious creatures and redeem them through sacrificial love can only be described as super-natural. But that is exactly what God did through Christ. And that act is applied to us through the Holy Spirit granting us life, relationship, and family. When we understand this movement of God, we are driven to respond. That’s what we find in 2 Peter 1:5-7 , our natural response to the gracious movement of God.

The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”  -- Acts 23:11 (ESV)

And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him. -- Acts 28:15-16 (ESV)

I’ve heard people say that they were looking for God’s will. When they say it, I think of Indiana Jones. If they look hard enough, decipher the clues, and avoid the booby traps then, just maybe, they will find it. Just make sure you use the right amount of sand to offset the weight of that idol. This kind of quest comes with the assumption that if we could discover God's specific and exact hidden plan, then life would be easy peasy. But I have a feeling that if God laid it all out in vivid detail to us, our response would not be joyful embrace, but screaming and running in terror.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence -- 2 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

The machine of marketing is constantly running in our culture. Do you need more or something that’s bigger, faster, cooler, better, or cleaner? Then get, get, get. What we need and what we want becomes conflated. And after a while an expectation is built into us that drives us. Contentment is almost impossible to find. This kind of marketing is not exclusive to things. Go to a Christian

Most of the time we are silent and imprisoned in a maze of self-consciousness. But when we do muster up the courage to speak about our faith, often we are unsure about what to say. We are afraid of an argument or idea that we have never heard of. We think we need every answer. And we fear that they may really look at us. One peek behind the curtain of our life will reveal the mess. Is that you?

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For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.” -- Acts 24:5-8 (ESV)

Revolutionary! Cult Leader! Blasphemer! These were charges leveled at Paul by the Jewish establishment lawyers. These weren’t new allegations. The crowd at Thessalonica had called Paul and his companions, ‘men who had turned the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6 ). Riots and revolution did seem to follow them everywhere.