- Introduction to 2 Peter 1
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- Preview
- Sermon
- Divine strength imparted
- Faith, the first round. Round two: Virtue
- Example of Joseph
- Belief and patience
- Round three: Knowledge—Benefits from associating with Christ
- Round four: Temperance
- Importance of healthful diet
- Round five: Patience
- Peace in the home
- Round six: Godliness Beauty of religion in the home
- Round seven: Brotherly kindness—the example of Enoch Earthly home fits for heaven
- Round eight: Love
- Heaven brought nearer
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- Sermon
- Christian life a constant warfare
- Plan of addition and multiplication
- Add virtue
- A high standard to attain
- To represent the Father
- A knowledge beyond expression
- Conditional promises
- Temperance in appetite
- Self-denial a virtue
- Brain nerve-power to resist temptation
- Disposition of a Christian
- Challenge to parents
- Arbitrary authority to be avoided
- Mothers to keep a cheerful countenance
- Missionary work to begin at home
- Speech to be sanctified
- Negligence to children to be confessed
- Example of the Israelites
- Only election in Scripture
- Timbers in character-building
- Kindness and patience
- Home to be heaven on earth
- Life-insurance policy
- Parable of the talents
- One talent
- The talent of means
- Parable of the fig tree
- Economy to be practiced
- Criticism and fault-finding to cease
- Conversion
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- Preview
- Sermon
- Ladder of Christian progress
- Virtue
- Knowledge a safeguard against temptation
- None need fail to reach perfection
- No possibility of failure for the one who follows this plan
- Privileges of being believers
- Prophecy a safe guide in times of peril
- World conditions prior to Christ's second coming
- Peter's imprisonment in Rome
- The death of Peter
Chapter 7—“A Godly Example in the Home”
Preview
In this selection Ellen White underlines the theology of parenting, which may seem to be an odd phrase. We are used to such expressions as the theology of righteousness by faith and the theology of the Sabbath; But to use the word theology in connection with the task of rearing or teaching children is not often done.PCP 50.1
Yet parenting has large spiritual implications. “There are few parents who realize how important it is to give to their children the influence of a godly example. Yet this is far more potent than precept. No other means is so effective in training them to right lines.” Again, Ellen White says, “When parents awaken to a true understanding of their neglected duties, they will marvel at the spiritual blindness that has characterized their past experience.”PCP 50.2
Children require daily spiritual attention. For one thing, their lives are changing too rapidly for mere once-a-week guidance. Each day foundation elements of character are being formed.PCP 50.3
But there's a second reason for daily spiritual help. A church with high ideals for its young necessarily has high standards. Now, if high or rigorous standards are left unexplained, if they aren't imaginatively adapted to a child's daily routine, they quickly become burdensome and oppressive to a young person. And a child may obey for a while. He may attempt to please a parent or a teacher or a pastor, but if he does so without enthusiasm for the church's standards and ideals, he is subtly developing the character of a rebel. In another place Ellen White warns, “A sullen submission to the will of the father will develop the character of a rebel. The service is looked upon by such a one in the light of drudgery. It is not rendered cheerfully and in the love of God. It is a mere mechanical performance.”—That I May Know Him, 120.PCP 50.4
In this reading God's servant notes the role played by Christ's life and sacrifice in teaching children cheerful obedience. Jesus’ sweet and optimistic treatment of individuals disarms those who think of God as a tyrant. “If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father,” the Master Teacher said. In all that He did, Jesus portrayed God and the values of His kingdom in an appealing way. Children who are exposed to Jesus’ life have an opportunity to learn to obey and to grow from the point of view of admiration rather than fear of God.PCP 51.1