20/20 Vision Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: 20/20 Vision ----------------------- Date: 9/26/1999 Keyword: "corruption" "lust" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 2 Peter 1:8-9* 8. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Questions 1. The apostle Peter has just listed eight character qualities that the Christian should be adding to his or her life — faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. What will be the result if these qualities are increasingly a part of our lives?   2. If these qualities are not increasingly a part of our lives, what does this say about us?   Practical help Growth in character doesn't make anyone more saved. It doesn't make God more willing to forgive sins. It doesn't make our future in Heaven more secure. But, growth in character does count for something. If the qualities mentioned in the verses above (see #1) are increasingly yours, then you will be increasingly useful and fruitful in serving Jesus. If you are not growing in these character qualities, it doesn't mean that you are less saved, not saved, or not forgiven. It means that you have forgotten that you are forgiven! Peter gives us a key for getting back on the right track and becoming the kind of man or woman God saved us to be. We are to remember our forgiveness. Power to change comes when we remember the greatness of the forgiveness Jesus purchased for us by His death and resurrection. Put on your spiritual glasses and see with 20/20 vision all that God has done for you. See His grace clearly. Seeing grace will even help you resist the temptation to stray to places on the Internet you ought not to go. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 1999 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."