A Blog Post by my Husband!

The Church of Jesus Christ has been suffering a character crises for a number of years. Leaders get sidetracked and many even become morally bankrupt. It is a serious concern knowing how easy it is to stumble.

Desiring to avoid such pitfalls, we recall 2 Peter 1:1-11 which specifies the essential character cultivation process. Peter declares salvation has brought the power and promises (vv. 1-4) to build the character traits God considers important to cultivate (vv. 5-7). But what is our motivation to allow character cultivation to continue? Peter concludes, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you” (vv. 10-11 [NASB]).

Cultivating our character enriches our lives today (vv. 8-9), but also enhances our entrance into heaven. To be clear, the moment we trusted Christ as our Savior, our entrance into heaven was guaranteed. However, the manner of our entrance is determined by character cultivation today (2 Tim. 4:7-8; Rev. 3:5). Do you want heaven to roll out the red carpet upon your entrance? Want to make it a grand entrance, bringing more glory to Christ who made salvation and sanctification possible? Then let us allow and enable the character cultivation process to take its rightful place continually.

Character cultivation enriches our lives today and enhances our entrance into our Lord’s eternal kingdom.      

 

Rodney Phillips Representative Biblical Ministries Worldwide

Doctoral Candidate Liberty University

Professor of Intercultural Studies

Student Ministries Coordinator

Instructional Design Manager

Carolina College of Biblical Studies