Some promises sound too good to be true, like the life-changing nature of a new brand of toothpaste. The Bible makes the promise that those who follow Jesus can participate in the divine nature.

Which sounds too good to be true. But Peter lays out a step-by-step process for engaging in a life with the Lord. I like the way The Message version of the Bible translates the text:

So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others.

Peter continues with why we must continue to invest in our initial faith:

With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.

Engagement with our Master Jesus requires an active disposition. To join in with the Lord means paying attention to character, growing in our knowledge of the ways of the God, showing kindness and loving our neighbors as ourselves. These mark the path to maturity.

We participate in the divine nature by actually participating. Active, never static. We don’t wait for a lightning strike, or a voice from heaven, but we go out the door having already made a decision to live our faith in this world. It’s a here we go Lord, mentality.

Perhaps you’d like to pray with me: Lord, as I go through my day, help me build upon my faith and join in your ways. Guide me to maturity, and help me encourage others to participate in your divine nature.

2 Peter 1 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Josh Appel

The tension mounted. Sweat beaded on lips. Legs shimmied in anticipation. A dozen boys sat clutching thick black books, totally alert, waiting for a signal. Finally hearing the clue, the race began, only finishing with the proper reading shouted in response.

As a kid I attended a Sunday School class, and every week we begged for one specific activity—a sword drill.

If you’ve never participated in a sword drill, you’ve missed a highlight of middle-school religious fervor. The leader shouts out a reference, players chase through their Bibles (the sword of the Lord), and the winner reads the verse out loud first. With no electronic devices available, kids dove in, tearing pages and shouting out answers. Victors crowing and losers dreaming of what might have been. Glorious biblical chaos.

At some point in our drills the teacher always requested Obadiah chapter one, verse one. He did this one every time, to the point that many of us had the verse memorized, and the best drillers kept a finger on the text. We yelled the words even before the page emerged in our King James Bibles:

The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

Years later I thought, I got a handle on the first verse, but I wonder what the rest of Obadiah says? Turns out, the prophet Obadiah wrote a message of condemnation from the Lord against Edom, a people who took pleasure at the downfall of Jerusalem. Their time was coming—as you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. The Lord eventually sets things right and best be prepared.

Obadiah’s book consists of two pages in my Bible. So obscure, it requires a search from middle-schoolers and even adults who study the Bible regularly. But the message should not remain obscure. Oppose the people of the Lord, fight against the God’s ways, and eventually you’ll reap what you’ve sown.

A solid lesson for sword drillers of any age.

Obadiah in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Humble Lamb

Is there a weirder verse in the Bible than the one closing Psalm 137?

Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Shocking to see such hate expressed anywhere, let along in the pages of scripture. What frustration led to such a horrible pronouncement?

The first lines of the psalm opens our eyes: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept…our captors asked for songs of joy…how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?

Exiles from Jerusalem penned these words, brutally enslaved and carted off to Babylon. Famine, followed by murder, rape, robbery and carnage marked the last few years of their lives. These were resentful people forced to sing happy songs. A burning for vengeance hid behind their music.

One truth about the Bible emerges again and again—honest, strong emotions fill the pages. Nothing held back.

As terrible as this psalm reads, it reminds me that I can bring my own frustrations and bitterness to the Lord. Why sugarcoat even my most egregious thoughts? Blurt them out. God can handle them (he already knows them).

Taking my honesty, the Lord initiates a process of healing, which eventually allows me to experience his goodness once again.

Psalm 137 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Sasha Freemind

Lamentations is no shallow read. Written in response to the fall of Jerusalem and the exploitation of her people, the author (thought to be Jeremiah) expressed frustration and pain. The book starts with a deserted city and ends in rejection and anger.

It’s best to read the book in one setting, to gain a full appreciation of the arc of Jeremiah’s laments. He grieves as he pours out to the Lord, my groans are many and my heart is faint. When only silence echos back he accuses, you have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.

Lamentations delves deeply into the ways of the Lord, his hatred of sin, and the punishment of his people who turn their backs on him. The writing disturbs—why the lash from a loving God? The arguments clarify the holiness of our Lord and the danger of flaunting his patience.

But in the middle of the mess Jeremiah discovers hope. Because of his great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Confidence swells. Jeremiah looks to the heavens and writes, The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Amen and amen. Even in the depths of our despair we can trust in the goodness of the Lord, as we wait, and wait, and still wait, for his compassion and salvation.

Lamentations 3 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Samuel Ferrara