Six years ago, as we were going through 2 Peter in our Thursday night Bible study, Luke Harriman preached a series of messages on the seven qualities of 2Peter 1:5–11. Since the Spirit of God has returned us to this chapter once again, we will be reposting these ten messages over the next few weeks for anyone interested in reviewing them. This is the introductory message in the series, originally delivered at Pine Street Chapel on a Lord’s Day morning in 2015.
In times of grief and trial—as with the recent home-call of our young sister Kimberly Gordon—the truths found in chapter 8 of Romans can be a source of comfort and encouragement. There we are reminded of the glory, groaning, goodness, and gracious gift promised to the children of God. Let us continue to bear the Howie Gordon family up in our prayers as they have had to say goodbye to their two young daughters within only a few months of one another. We are grateful to know the God who is near to those who are brokenhearted.
Luke Harriman shared these thoughts on the eternal destination for every believer: to be conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keeping this end goal in mind can help us course correct when we veer off the path.
Brother Ken shared this Lord’s Day meditation on the seven witnesses to the Lord Jesus in John 5. As Peter puts it in his second epistle, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
During our Thursday night open ministry, Brother Orrin Ledgister shared a word of encouragement for the New Year, that we would keep our eyes fixed on the Lord and His coming for us, as He promised in John 14.
During our Thursday night open ministry, Brother Glen Smalling shared a word from 2 Kings 4 on the sufficiency of Christ, symbolized by the meal (flour) thrown into the poisoned pot to make it clean. Truly, what we need in the midst of our trying circumstances is Jesus and Jesus alone.
At Jesus’s baptism, the voice from heaven came, saying, “This is my Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Jesus received this commendation before entering the wilderness of His temptation. Now that we are in Christ, we can receive the same reminders that we are God’s child, that we are loved, and that we are acceptable to Him as we prepare to enter 2021.
Brother Collin Beckford offered these thoughts on Psalm 103 during our Lord’s Day meeting, encouraging us to live lives of praise to the Lord.
Brother Glen Smalling shared these thoughts on the love of the Father toward the Son. In every area, where man responded to the Lord in John 19 with rejection, the Father responds by glorifying and validating Him.
Brother Norris Clarke shares a word of encouragement from 2 Corinthians on the challenge from Paul to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”
Ken Huebner and Luke Harriman reflect on the prophetic calling of Isaiah in chapter 6. Hidden within the ministry of Isaiah is the promise of One who will truly say, “Here I am, send Me.”
At the core of our faith is an impossible birth—the birth of the Lord Jesus to the virgin Mary. Clearly, as Gabriel told her when he announced the glorious news that she would bear the Son of God, nothing is impossible for God. This theme echoes the announcement to Sarah in Genesis 18, and it reemerges in Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 about the new birth. Truly, we can trust this God of the impossible to complete the good work in us and bring us safely into His presence in glory.
Although we continually confess the peerless nature of the Lord Jesus, there are times that we can be distracted from our undistracted focus on Him. In this Lord’s Day message, Luke Harriman looks at three people in the gospels who were distracted in the presence of Jesus. May we be encouraged to fix our eyes on Him!
After Brother Laurel Smalling shared a few thoughts on the blessings we receive from God—our justification and future glorification—Brother Glen Smalling spoke on the amazing truth of our identity as the Church. As we read in John 17 and elsewhere, the Church is a gift from God the Father to the Lord Jesus. What a thought to know we are His treasure!
Brother Laurel Smalling shared some thoughts this Lord’s Day on the Church as the Bride of Christ. Truly, this blessed identity can encourage us as we continue on in our walk with the Lord.
Brother Glen Smalling from Jamaica visited today and brought an encouraging message, asking us to search our hearts for the answer to this question: Why are you following the Lord? May we be like the women we see at the cross, who had followed the Lord from Galilee to Jerusalem in order to minister to Him.
The Lord Jesus is a refuge for all in a time of storm. One of our hymns we sang this morning says,
Then that closing scene of anguish;
All God’s waves and billows roll
Over Him, there left to languish
On the cross to save our souls.
Matchless love! How vast, how free,
Jesus gave Himself for me.
Like the ark Noah built to save his family from the flood, Jesus is our shelter from the terrible consequences of sin. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Brother Collin Beckford shared some thoughts during our Lord’s Day meeting on the connections between Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53; like a lamb that was led to the slaughter, so our Lord opened not His mouth. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
The final book of the Old Testament, Malachi, gives us a touching picture of a small group of God’s people who gathered together and spoke to one another about the Lord. As we reflect on the final verses of Chapter 3, we can see that this activity, of speaking about the Lord together in the midst of widespread trouble and decline, can have many beneficial effects on us.
The story of the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib gives a powerful picture of the intimate relationship between Christ and His bride: the Church. May we be encouraged to live in light of this blessed position we have as members of His own body.