OnFire Encouragement Letter
OnFire #136 Expensive Kindling
Hi Folks:
Some exciting news this week. Jan’s sister Becky delivered twins. They are six weeks early, but doing well. Joshua Drew weighed in at 4lbs 5oz. Megan Pearl weighed 3lbs 9oz.
This week Mark appears on TV in
That’s our news. Have a good week.
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When the boys were young I built them a play fort. I drew my ideas, made my plans, and slapped the credit card on the counter as I ordered the materials. Later that day they arrived.
Jan looked at lumber sitting in the driveway and asked me if I was sure I knew what I was doing. All we’d have left would be $500 worth of kindling if I couldn’t do it. I reassured her and in a few days we had a great play structure for the boys, if I do say so myself. That was about 7 years ago and it is still standing strong, although I must say that the boys don’t use it much anymore.
I built the fort using the experience I gained from various jobs and from helping friends with their renovations. I had the knowledge and it was a matter of putting it to use.
A few years ago, however, I wanted to build a writing desk. There is a big difference between nailing a few boards together and building a piece of furniture. I was out of my element, so I needed help. My friend Dan guided me through the process because I didn’t know enough.
Knowledge is the second character trait we want to look at in 1 Peter 1:5. Peter tells us that we will never reach our full potential as followers of Jesus unless we add knowledge to our faith.
Peter doesn’t mean knowledge in the way we think of knowledge. We think of sitting in a class, adding facts, some of which may be helpful and some, well, who knows? Peter sees knowledge in a different way. Knowledge is truth which leads to action. To know something is not simply to observe it, but rather do it. It is learning for the sake of doing.
When Dan shows me something in the wood shop, he doesn’t do it for my information only. He expects me to be able to take it on. In this way I’ve learned to do a lot of things for myself. I still need help with some of the more complicated things, but I’m learning. This is knowledge in the way Peter means it.
So, when Peter says we need to add knowledge to our faith, he means getting inside the mind of Jesus so that we can imitate him and make our lives more like his. Not necessarily facts and figures - although that may be part of it - but study for the purpose of expanding and increasing the practice of our faith.
To finish, I’ll add this quote I came across one time. It also spells out why we need to add knowledge to our faith: “We don’t know what we don’t know because we don’t know what we don’t know.”
I hope this help. Be OnFire.
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