Reflection God -Embrace Holy Living - WordAction - The Nazarene Publishing [The Publishing House] in Kansas City, Missouri, United States - The Global Church of the Nazarene for Saturday, 12 August 2017 "A Strand at a Time" by Fred Prince - 2 Peter 2:10b-22

Reflection God -Embrace Holy Living - WordAction - The Nazarene Publishing [The Publishing House] in Kansas City, Missouri, United States - The Global Church of the Nazarene for Saturday, 12 August 2017 "A Strand at a Time" by Fred Prince - 2 Peter 2:10b-22
2 Peter 2:10 especially those who follow their old natures in lust for filth and who despise authority.
Presumptuous and self-willed, these false teachers do not tremble at insulting angelic beings; 11 whereas angels, though stronger and more powerful, do not bring before the Lord an insulting charge against them. 12 But these people, acting without thinking, like animals without reason, born to be captured and destroyed, insult things about which they have no knowledge. When they are destroyed, their destruction will be total — 13 they will be paid back harm as wages for the harm they are doing.
Their idea of pleasure is carousing in broad daylight; they are spots and defects reveling in their deceptions as they share meals with you — 14 for they have eyes always on the lookout for a woman who will commit adultery, eyes that never stop sinning; and they have a heart that has exercised itself in greed; so that they seduce unstable people. What a cursed brood!
15 These people have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Bil‘am Ben-B‘or, who loved the wages of doing harm 16 but was rebuked for his sin — a dumb beast of burden spoke out with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity! 17 Waterless springs they are, mists driven by a gust of wind; for them has been reserved the blackest darkness. 18 Mouthing grandiosities of nothingness, they play on the desires of the old nature, in order to seduce with debaucheries people who have just begun to escape from those whose way of life is wrong.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for a person is slave to whatever has defeated him. 20 Indeed, if they have once escaped the pollutions of the world through knowing our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah, and then have again become entangled and defeated by them, their latter condition has become worse than their former. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the Way of righteousness than, fully knowing, to turn from the holy command delivered to them. 22 What has happened to them accords with the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit.”[2 Peter 2:22 Proverbs 26:11] Yes, “The pig washed itself, only to wallow in the mud!”
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If someone took a spool of thread and wrapped it around you one time, you could easily break it. Twice, three, maybe even 10 times, you could break free. However, if that thread was wrapped around you multiple times, before long that which could be easily broken would so entangle you that it would become impossible for you to break.
To become entangled again in sin is deadly. The words of 2 Peter 2:20 teach us practical and doable ways to avoid entanglement. It begins with words we listen to. If they are selfish, following the corrupt desires of the sinful nature, if they appeal to the sensual; if they're motivated by greed-they must be avoided, no matter how winsome they might be.
Refuse to be drawn in by false premises and false promises. Everything needs to be checked with the Word of God. Are the premises they are teaching lining up with the Word? Does the promise of freedom match what the Word says will bring freedom?
The warning is stark and real; if you're entangled again in sin you're worse than you were at the beginning, so it best not to even let the first strand be wrapped around you.
Hymn for Today:
"Glorious Freedom" by Haldor Lillenas
1. Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters,
Chained like a slave I struggled in vain;
But I received a glorious freedom,
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom,
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator,
  Now and forever He shall be mine.
2. Freedom from all the carnal affections,
Freedom from envy, hatred and strife;
Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions.
Freedom from all that saddened my life.
Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom,
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator,
  Now and forever He shall be mine.
3. Freedom from pride and all sinful follies,
Freedom from love and glitter of gold;
Freedom from evil temper and anger,
Glorious freedom, rapture untold.
Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom,
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator,
  Now and forever He shall be mine.
4. Freedom from fear with all of its torments,
Freedom from care with all of its pain;
Freedom in Christ my blessed Redeemer,

He who has rent my fetters in twain.
Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom,
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator,
  Now and forever He shall be mine.
Thought for Today:
Shomron will bear her guilt,
for she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their little ones will be dashed to pieces
and their pregnant women ripped open.
Return, Isra’el, to Adonai your God,
for your guilt has made you stumble.
Take words with you, and return to Adonai;
say to him, “Forgive all guilt,
and accept what is good;
we will pay instead of bulls
[the offerings of] our lips.[Hosea 14:1-2].
Please pray:
For the development of Christian leaders in Tanzania.
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