From: ngninja@baptist.email   
      
   Bible Reading for December 23   
      
   2 Peter Chapter 1   
      
   1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that   
   have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of   
   God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:   
      
   2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God,   
   and of Jesus our Lord,   
      
   3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that   
   pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath   
   called us to glory and virtue:   
      
   4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that   
   by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the   
   corruption that is in the world through lust.   
      
   5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and   
   to virtue knowledge;   
      
   6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to   
   patience godliness;   
      
   7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.   
      
   8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall   
   neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.   
      
   9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,   
   and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.   
      
   10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling   
   and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:   
      
   11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the   
   everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.   
      
   12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of   
   these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.   
      
   13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you   
   up by putting you in remembrance;   
      
   14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our   
   Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.   
      
   15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to   
   have these things always in remembrance.   
      
   16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known   
   unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were   
   eyewitnesses of his majesty.   
      
   17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came   
   such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in   
   whom I am well pleased.   
      
   18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him   
   in the holy mount.   
      
   19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that   
   ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the   
   day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:   
      
   20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any   
   private interpretation.   
      
   21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy   
   men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.   
      
   2 Peter Chapter 2   
      
   1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there   
   shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable   
   heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon   
   themselves swift destruction.   
      
   2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way   
   of truth shall be evil spoken of.   
      
   3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make   
   merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and   
   their damnation slumbereth not.   
      
   4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to   
   hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto   
   judgment;   
      
   5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a   
   preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the   
   ungodly;   
      
   6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them   
   with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should   
   live ungodly;   
      
   7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:   
      
   8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing,   
   vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)   
      
   9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to   
   reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:   
      
   10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of   
   uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled,   
   they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.   
      
   11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not   
   railing accusation against them before the Lord.   
      
   12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed,   
   speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly   
   perish in their own corruption;   
      
   13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count   
   it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes,   
   sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;   
      
   14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin;   
   beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous   
   practices; cursed children:   
      
   15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the   
   way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;   
      
   16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's   
   voice forbad the madness of the prophet.   
      
   17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a   
   tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.   
      
   18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure   
   through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were   
   clean escaped from them who live in error.   
      
   19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of   
   corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in   
   bondage.   
      
   20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through   
   the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again   
   entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than   
   the beginning.   
      
   21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of   
   righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy   
   commandment delivered unto them.   
      
   22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog   
   is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her   
   wallowing in the mire.   
      
   2 Peter Chapter 3   
      
   1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I   
   stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:   
      
   2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the   
   holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and   
   Saviour:   
      
   3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,   
   walking after their own lusts,   
      
   4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers   
   fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the   
   creation.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)