Grow Up. Seriously!

"The transition from milk to meat should be a natural one for most Christians. We should find ourselves wanting to read the Bible more often, to pray more frequently, to reach out in loving community as Christ teaches us.

And, as the author of Hebrews intimates, we should naturally begin teaching others who are less spiritually mature rather than constantly needing to be fed ourselves."



from this article

Breaking Out in 2009

Dennis and Diane Cramer: "It's Time to Cross the Line in 2009!"

Greetings! Read carefully a powerful prophecy that God gave my wife Diane for 2009. It's a truly awesome word! You will be blessed!

In His service,
Denny Cramer



First of all, it's time to cross the finish line in 2009. It's time to bring to fusion those tasks, projects, goals and purposes that God has ordained thus far for you and your walk with Him. No more waiting, procrastinating and putting off. Now is the time to complete those races that you've been running. Old goals must be "retired," completed, and accomplished for the glory of God. Time to finish those races because God wants to "train" and prepare His people for a new season: a new marathon of might, mercy, and miracles.

God is also preparing His people to cross new lines into enemy territory on an unprecedented scale. It is time to set the captives free in mass and magnitude like today's Church has never known. God will have His people "in training" to deliver those prisoners trapped in the occult and cults, in empty religion, in pornography, in obsessive compulsive behavior, addictions, depression, health issues, fears, and poverty.

A flood of prodigals will return to the Lord, bringing great rejoicing to the loved ones that have diligently prayed for their return.

New age doctrines will greatly increase, but leave their followers empty, weak, and dependent on temporary answers. The Gospel will come alive to them and set them truly free. Doors will open like never before into Islam, Scientology, and Mormonism to bring truth and deliverance to those people.

As evil increases, so will the power and presence of the Church. God will open doors that most individuals have not gone through before. He will prepare the hearts of the lost and deceived to hear and receive the Gospel to literally save their (mortal) lives. The lost will be delivered powerfully as well from the evil spiritual shackles that have bound and paralyzed them, and they will be transformed into the eternal salvation of Jesus Christ. God's people can no longer "do church," but they must "BE THE CHURCH."

Our Weapons of Warfare

God will equip His servants with His weapons of warfare. The sword of the spirit, His Word, will be the primary offensive weapon. The Church will verbally declare the Word of God over situations, and then by the power of the Holy Spirit results will occur in miraculous, immediate, and supernatural ways and beyond the scope of logical expectations. Jesus sent the Word and it was done and so will God's servants.

The disciples of Christ will need to embrace the Scriptures on a passionate level; the hunger and necessity for the knowledge of the Word will increase for the general population of the Church. Through the Word of God, "Whom the Son sets free will be free indeed" (John 8:36). There needs to be an expectation for the impossible. Faith needs to be applied, since "all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23).

The Holy Spirit will sweep across the earth with comfort, power and refreshing as He has always done, but there will be prayer answered, healings realized and the atmosphere changed with immediacy upon the declaration of His Word by His saints.

Secondly, the power of the spiritual weapon of praise and worship will be essential to accomplish the purposes of invading the enemy's territory. It will be the most powerful way: to "resist the devil, and he will flee" (James 4:7); for God to "inhabit the praises of His people" (Psalm 22:3); and "In (His) presence, is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11) and have "The joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).

Worshipping God with all diligence and passion will equip His people with strength and direct the steps of the righteous as their hearts, minds and ears are turned to Him. The high sounding praises of the saints to God will shackle the enemy. This worship will be as the breath of God to invigorate the Body of Christ. Worship will oxygenate the life flow of the Church.

People will be filled to overflowing to powerfully accomplish His will. New levels of His presence will be realized by many who will give God time and opportunity to make these visitations by His Spirit.

New Revelation of Joy

In addition, there will be a new revelation of joy. The Church will not be dependent on the world's standard for happiness, fulfillment, or success. Joy will originate with Jesus, with His peace, and with His purposes being pursued. Life will be abundant for the Church, but God will direct us into simplifying our existence on a daily basis. It will not be a time of want or lack, but a time of balance and back to basics. "The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17).

We will be reminded of the importance of relationships and Body ministry. The Church will meet in homes more than ever, and a new sense of church family will be birthed. The rescued victims from the enemy's territory will be easily adopted into these families. This will be a new beginning for the Church that desires the increased power and presence of the living God.

Lastly, the Church will need the workings of the five fold ministry to successfully cross the line into the enemy's territory. The pastors are overworked and stretched and not equipped to do it all. No longer should it be business as usual. The Church needs an offensive military strategy of cooperation and unity to conquer the enemy's control of his victims.

There needs to be a surge on the areas where rescues need to occur by the joint efforts of the pastor, teacher, evangelist, prophet and apostle. This is the design of the original Church, God's original and perfect plan, and God wants it reestablished in the current Church. The Church needs to be trained in the establishment of this multi-faceted leadership and Church government that will establish a majorly effective Church in these latter days. Sadly we've forgotten or avoided that original design.

Get ready to cross the lines of demarcation in 2009 - some not ever before crossed. The Church will claim and reclaim territory that belongs to the Kingdom of God. It is God's plan for this new year to shake off the old ways, finish the former tasks, and set our sights on new goals, a new race to a new finish line. God wants to be the Church's Personal Trainer, preparing each of His children for a heavenly race of Olympic proportions. This will be for a mighty season of victory over evil that exists in the world, while increasing the Body of Christ as God's people "prepare the way of the Lord."

"The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force"(Matthew 11:12).

"He has shown thee O man what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8).

God prepare and bless us all.


Diane Cramer
Dennis Cramer Ministries
Email: denniscramer1@comcast.net

- - - -

ElijahList Publications
310 2nd Ave SE,
Albany, OR 97321
www.elijahlist.com
email: info@elijahlist.net
Phone 1-541-926-3250

DGen: One Dream at a Time -- Our Date With Akira Kurosawa

The guys who read about the scheduled cell group activity with Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa were intrigued as to what exactly was going to happen on the January 24 meeting. I gave as little information as I could on my Multiply calendar because I wanted to surprise the guys in the cell.

So we gathered together last Saturday at 4pm in the yellow room in our church building, and in attendance with me and the Lord were Charles, Louie, Elisha, Jason and Ronnie Jr., and, of course, the late Akira Kurosawa, who was anything but late [I wish I could say the same about the "other guys" who came to the cell. hehehe].

We had a wonderful time in praise and worship before we viewed Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. As always, burdens were lifted and cares were cast off in the presence of the Lord. We drew closer to God and He drew closer to us. The presence of the Lord was awesome.

Then, we proceeded with the film showing. There was one Famoso Guerrero who was really eager to press "play" on the laptop to get the movie started. I had to pacify his excitement by telling him to be cool and relax [FG was gushing with enthusiasm].

So, I turned off the lights and hit the play button and we started watching "Sunshine Through the Rain", the first episode in the series of eight "dreams", told in the form of short films [read the synopsis of the first dream].

The room was really quiet with a few whispers here and there, coming mostly from our invited guest and fellow DGen'er [FG!] who was eager to find out what was going on in this first dream. Sunshine Through the Rain was more of a fantasy-type, fable-like dream and it generated a question from the audience.

"I thought all Japanese films were supposed to be scary?" said one of the muffled voices in the room, who has obviously seen way too many scary Japanese films starring the likes of Sadako and Toshio.

"Shhh! Try to pay attention to the film guys, so you'll get the message of it," was my reply to this query.

Their eyes were glued to the wedding procession of the foxes who, according to the woman in the film, conduct this activity every time the sun shines through rain -- hence the title of the episode.

Afterward, the film came to it's open-ended conclusion and the lights came back on. It was discussion time.

I was very excited about what each of the five guys in the cell saw or derived from the film, as I myself have gotten so much revelation and insight from this part of "Dreams". My first question to the group was: what did you like about the short film? What element -- whether visual or thematic -- caught your eye?

Two of the guys in the group -- Jason and Elisha -- said they liked the foxes. I assumed they meant the wedding march as well. Cool! They liked the foxes. Who wouldn't? I mean when you choreograph a wedding march like that, what's not to like? [you gotta see it to know what we're talking about ;o)]

"Anything else?"

Ronnie said he found the film to be a very lonely one. I guess he meant the tone or the atmosphere of it. And to some degree I agree. He also noticed the issue of submission to authority as represented by the woman instructing the young boy to stay out of the rain to avoid seeing the fox procession, because they get "very angry" when someone does. Astute! I noted that as well.

Louie, on the other hand, was smoking hot -- nag aso-aso -- with revelation. I wasn't even able to ask my second question [which was supposed to be about the kingdom principles or insight they got from the film] and he was already firing off. I was secretly laughing at seeing his eagerness and enthusiasm. Lingaw ko.

"So much for my notes," I told the group, as Louie practically shared to the guys what I jotted down on my notebook. Hahaha! But it was all good. Nalipay ra ko with how the Lord spoke to him through the film and how it showed his depth of perception.

Meanwhile, Charles pointed out the young boy's hesitation in the film -- whether to obey the woman and stay indoors or to disobey his authority figure and wander off and check out the foxes' wedding ceremony. Charles said the boy's body language [again, you have to see it to know what we mean] conveyed the inner conflict we have each time we are presented with a choice.

It was a very enjoyable conversation and much longer than I could transcribe here but toward the end, I asked the guys what they saw in the final shot of Sunshine Through the Rain [pictured above].

Louie was quick to point out that it was about hope, thus rendering my notes useless... again! Hahaha! I didn't tell him right away that he was right but waited for the others to reply. The other guys associated the presence of the rainbow with the flood -- the great flood and Noah -- [they thought there were flood waters behind the rainbow in the picture]. Ronnie said something about the end being incomplete [bitin] -- we were never shown if the boy found the foxes -- and forgiveness for that matter -- or if he indeed used the knife to take his own life, to which I said, "that's the cool thing about open-ended conclusions: they open up room for discussion and speculation and it stirs up the viewers imagination."

I went back to Louie and told him he was right. The image was about hope. Then I asked him why he came to that conclusion.

"It's in your notes," he said pointing to my notebook.

"Yeah, I know that! But I'm asking you and I want to know what you think," came my reply.

Louie started to explain his answer, which was way too theological and complicated for me [hahaha], and the guys and I were too blown away with the way he pronounced "plateau" and "artistically" that we all had a good laugh. He was describing the picture in detail and what each detail meant, but I told him to simplify his answer because the answer in the image was very simple.

I explained to the guys that image was about hope because of the presence and implication of the "rainbow". It represented the nature of God as a covenant keeper and that no matter what trials, testing and storms in life we go through, even as a result of our disobedience, God's promises are always there for us. More importantly, He keeps every word of those promises.

Then somebody breaks out in song: "All Your promises won't let go of me!"

And I said, "Amen! That's it!"

I really loved what the Lord did for us that afternoon. He showed me and the guys a lot of things. Among the other things that we noted in the film were as follows:

+ Sin starts out small, but once you indulge in it and get caught up in it's web, you will find that it gets bigger and bigger to the point that you get glued to it. [depicted in the film when the boy first sees the wedding march making a smokey entrance and later fully parades in front of him]

+ Sometimes we never get the gravity of our sin until it looks us in the eye and we see how far we have been taken by our disobedience, which then causes us to realize the truth and flee from sin. [depited in the film when the foxes catch the boy ogling at their wedding march, causing the boy to run from them]

+ The wages of sin is death. When the boy goes back to his house, the woman tells him one of the foxes visited and left him a knife. The boy was supposedly to kill himself with it for seeing something "he should not have" [man, haven't we done this too many times in our lives! hahaha!].

+ Never take the delegated authority -- of your parents and leaders -- for granted because it keeps you covered and protected.

+ We Christians are called the bride of Christ. One of the things the Lord revealed to us that afternoon was that as a bride, we can choose to be either married to Christ or married to sin.

We ended the meeting by praying for each other... and that constitutes another blog entry altogether.

For now, I want to give God all the glory for what He is doing in the lives of these young men. He is the true Cell Group Leader, the Trainer, the Teacher. And He's doing a great and mighty thing in this Davidic Generation.




- - - - -

By the way, the name "Akira" means "bright", "intelligent", or "clear".

DGen Lesson: Adding and Increasing [Part 3]

[…continued from this post; part three of this series…]


...and to self-control, perseverance;...
+ Perseverance – related to endurance, patience and long-suffering – comes after one learns (and continuously receives grace) to exercise restraint in several, if not all areas of life. That should be the case because it takes a lot of discipline to endure hardship, continue in the midst of trials, and move forward when everything in life pounces on you and screams at you to quit.

Perseverance entails consistency, constancy and commitment. All other characteristics in Peter’s list will amount to nothing if perseverance is not combined with faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. This ingredient is important in the recipe of making every effort to grow. All will become useless if we lose perseverance and give up pursuing God.

...and to perseverance, godliness;...
+ Josiah pointed out that the addition of godliness in Peter’s list serves as a goal, an end that the character of perseverance aims for. We need to persevere toward godliness. But I added that we also need godliness in order to persevere… toward godliness [yes. It is paradoxical but I believe that’s how it works].

The pursuit of godliness in our lives gives us focus on what is really important – knowing God and being conformed to the image of His Son. Godliness is the vertical component of our life, relating to God, spirit to spirit.

...and to godliness, brotherly kindness;...
+ Of course, loving God should not just be manifested in our personal relationship with Him. Peter puts brotherly kindness in the mix so that the overflow of our love relationship with the Father is evidenced by our love for our fellow man. Brotherly kindness – when we relate to those around us the way the Lord would have us do – is the horizontal component of our life.

In the same way that godliness should not be a stand-alone character in a Christian, brotherly kindness should not be a separate trait in those who profess to follow Christ. Living totally for the Lord without the benefit of receiving and giving love to others would be incomplete if we don’t live for others and love others out of our love for God.

I found it funny, nay amusing, that on one of my one-on-one sessions a particular Famoso Guerrero was caught speechless, rather tight-lipped, when we discussed this part of the passage. In fact, his silence said more than what little he spoke at the time. But I continued to tell him that brotherly love should not be limited to those who are biologically connected to us (our siblings) but also to rest of mankind, who are our brothers and sisters in God's huge family.

Perhaps Guerrero was getting some insights from the Lord at that time about a particular brotherly (or sisterly???) relationship. I'll never know. He wouldn't tell me... even to this day.


… to be continued …

DGen Lesson: Adding and Increasing [Part 2]

[...continued from this post...]


...and to knowledge, [add] self-control;...
+ You know the Spider-Man adage that goes, "with great power, comes great responsibility"? Well, if knowledge is power, then one needs to exercise great responsibility in the form of self-control when handling knowledge.

As with any other form of power, knowledge -- the acquisition and application of it -- can be abused and misused. It can give a person a puffed up ego [1 Corinthians 8:1]. It can be a source of pride and can therefore lead to one's downfall.

The exertion of self-control over our accumulated information, facts and learning is intended to keep us sober in our estimation of ourselves. We are not the source of knowledge after all but merely conduits of it. And it is God who gives us the ability to receive wisdom, understanding and knowledge.

I believe Peter also urges us to practice self-control in other areas of our lives, not just in handling knowledge. There is a serious need to practice self-control in our speech, in our conduct, in our thoughts, in the way we filter what comes into our minds and what goes out of mouths. Without self-control there is no order in one's life.

As Christians -- as followers of Christ -- we can't just do whatever pleases us and still represent Jesus. If we truly want to let our light shine, we have to have control or exercise control of what little darkness there is left within us. God's word helps us stretch our self-control muscles. The Bible shows us how to do that.

We need to read the Bible -- everyday -- to have the knowledge needed to control our wayward human nature.

This is why adding self-control to knowledge keeps us from abusing what we know, and adding knowledge to self-control makes us better at keeping the bad stuff at bay.


...to be continued...

Warning and Encouraging the Peacemaker

[A warning and encouragement for the Son of Peace and Abundance]

1 Timothy 6:17-21 says "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith."

and Luke 12:13-22 has this to say:

The Parable of the Rich Fool

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

Victory is in His Righteous Right Hand

Francis Frangipane: "His Righteous Right Hand"

The Game of Life

Dream, 12/21/08:

I was in an airport waiting for a delayed flight when a group of men invited me to join their card game. Although in real life I would be uncomfortable playing cards for money, in the dream I not only joined them, but I was soon winning most of the hands. In fact, I had hundreds of dollars accumulated in just a few minutes. In response, the other players began to scheme against me. Yet in spite of this, I repeatedly came out on top. Even when I lost a few hands, I would then win big the next round so that I covered my occasional losses.

A fellow who knew I was a man of God saw me and chided me for gambling. I understood his concern, but the game had a prophetic dimension to it, and it seemed right that I should be playing. The fact was, no matter what cards I was dealt or how the other players conspired against me, I consistently won. Of course, I couldn't play presumptuously; I had to follow the rules and truly play the game. But I soon realized that the difference between my insufficient efforts and my amazing success was God. The Lord was actually on my side, working behind the scenes, helping me to emerge from the game like a champion.

Interpretation:

First, this was not a dream about God helping me gamble. It was a parable about winning at the game of life. I saw that, even when the cards are stacked against me, since God is with me, I inevitably will prosper. I also saw that when our faith is living, we have confidence. Confidence is the barometer of faith. God wants us confident in Him, regardless of our circumstances in life.

You see, too many of us are weighed down with doubt. This is vital, my friends, for our world has been baptized into fear, and fear is contagious. Many are quietly becoming so cautious that they are aren't moving spiritually. They still live moral lives, but they have no goals set before them, no vision. Yet, it is in this very season of increasing fear that the Lord desires for us to be increasingly confident. Remember, I'm not speaking of arrogance, but confidence. Hebrews says, "Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward" (Hebrews 10:35).

For people with faith, this is actually a day of great opportunity. People are asking questions, and the fields are ripe for harvest. In a time when fear will cause men's hearts to fail, those who "know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32). God wants you confident!

Those Who Overcome

You see, there is a difference between knowing doctrinally God is for us and actually believing the Most High is at our right hand. Listen to the Lord's promise:

"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

If we genuinely trust Him, walk humbly, and persevere in faith, we will gain the upper hand no matter what circumstance or conspiracy is set against us.

One may argue, "Francis, you are delusional. No one can expect to win all the time."

The principle that God is with us, that ultimately we win if we do not lose faith, is a truth repeatedly declared throughout the Bible. Paul wrote, "God...always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place" (2 Corinthians 2:14). Underline those words "always" and "every place." Remember, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians under great duress (see chapter 1). Yet, in that very context, he said God "always leads us in triumph."

When I told my wife the dream, she said she had just been studying Romans 8:28. This verse reads: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God." As we set our hearts to simply love God, we will discern He is, in fact, working in us, through us, behind us and often in spite of us! Indeed, as I review my life, I have found that none of the weapons formed against me have prospered (see Isaiah 54). The Lord has always led me in Christ's triumph.

Now, I am not implying that I've never failed or that my mistakes are few and rare. No, I fail often and come short daily. I've had to fight for my life at times, and sometimes the fight took months and even years. Yet, God has always been there; He is at my right hand to cleanse, restore and empower me no matter what I have had challenge me. I can say with awe, "No weapon formed against me has prospered."

Even in times of sorrow, the Lord never forsakes us. The psalmist wrote, "Passing through the valley of Baca (weeping)," God transforms our weeping into "a spring," and covers our pain "with blessings" (Psalm 84:6). Ultimately, even death itself will be "swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54).

Beloved, when God is the source of our prosperity, we can never be defrauded by man. He who steals our money, never takes our wealth. As the world's economies wither and life's challenges multiply, let us reclaim our focus: our great wealth is God Himself! No matter what cards we're dealt, He promises, "I will uphold you with My righteous right hand!"


Francis Frangipane
Ministries of Francis Frangipane
Email: francis1@frangipane.org


ElijahList Publications
310 2nd Ave SE,
Albany, OR 97321
www.elijahlist.com
email: info@elijahlist.net
Phone 1-541-926-3250

DGen Lesson: Adding and Increasing [Part 1]

I had a wonderful time discussing 2 Peter 1:3-13 during my one on one sessions with the guys under me in the cell group, and my co-cell leader. It's amazing how such a few verses can bring out such rich revelation from the Lord. Here are some of the things I was able to discuss with the guys...

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness...
+ All that we need for our physical life and spiritual life has been given by God. Everything. There is no lack.

...through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness...
+ Our availment of all the things God gave to us for life and godliness is limited by how much we know Him. If we only have a 10% knowledge of God, we can only avail of that much of the things He has given us. We are limited in how much we received from God by what we know of Him. If we don't know Him as Jehovah Rophe, our Healer, we will never be able to avail of His provision for healing. If we don't know Him as Jehovah Shalom, our Peace, we will never get to know His peace that passes all understanding.

We have to know Him more so we can know what else is included in the all-the-things-He-has-given-us-for-life-and-godliness package, and know how to avail of them and use them. Josiah used the analogy of a medicine kit -- everything is already in there but we have to know what it has in there and know how to use those.

...Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,...
+ This is part of package. This is part of everything we need for life and godliness. And the more we increase in our knowledge of God, the more we will increase in our knowledge of the promises He has made to us. Promises which He will definitely keep. Promises like "I will never leave you nor forsake you [Joshua 1:5]." Promises like "I know the plans I have for you; plan to prosper you, not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future [Jeremiah 29:11]." Promises like "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you [John 15:7]."

...so that through them you may participate in the divine nature...
+ The package God gave us, our increasing knowledge of Him, and the certainty of the promises He made to us, are there to help us partake and share His divine nature -- that of holiness, love, compassion, graciousness, etc. He has promised to sanctify us and make us holy... it enables us to participate in His nature of holiness. He has promised to make grace abound in our lives... it enables us to partake in His nature of graciousness and be gracious to others. He has promised to change us from glory to glory... it enables us to grow and radiate in the fullness of His glory.

...and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires...
+ Those very same promises also enable us to avoid the evil in the world by the killing off of our selfish, carnal and wicked desires. When we receive His promise of sanctifying us [making us holy] through the Holy Spirit, it also enables us to avoid the unholy things that we have the natural tendency to do. His promise of providing a way out of every temptation enables us to escape the corruption in the world. It means that our resilience against the world, the devil and the flesh exponentially grows when we grow in our knowledge of Him -- we are helped in our flight from evil. And there are many more promises in the Word that give us authority and power to overcome the world's corruption.

...For this very reason, make every effort...
+There is a reason why Peter includes this statement. The Christian life is not a passive life. We are not supposed to be sitting down and let God do everything. He already did everything, but God's Word always urges Christians to action with words like "fight", "run", "take", "go". "Make every effort" is no different.

Although God is in control of everything, and Jesus is the the Author and Finisher of our faith, and the Holy Spirit is the One who brings spiritual growth, every citizen of the Kingdom is still required to do their part in getting to spiritual maturity. This is a choice every Christian must make. No one can do this for you -- not your father; not your mother; not your pastor or cell group leader, not even the Lord. This is about choice. We either decide to make every effort to grow or don't make an effort at all. No one can make this effort for you.

...to add to your faith goodness;...
+ We all have a measure of faith given to us when we receive Jesus' Lordship in our lives. The more we feed our spirit, the better that faith grows. But why add goodness to it? Well, the guys spoke to said that goodness is the way we show our faith. The Bible does say that faith without works is dead. Faith is useless if it is kept within with no manifestation outside. That's why we need to let our invisible faith translate into visible actions -- more appropriately, through good works.

...and to goodness, knowledge;...
+ Josiah pointed out that we need knowledge in order to know what good thing to do and how to do that good thing. Ronnie, on the other hand, said that the way we know God affects the way we do good things, which to me means either you don't know God and the good things you do become religious acts, or you do know God and the good things you do become an act of worship to Him.

Knowledge gives goodness focus. Knowledge gives goodness direction. Knowledge gives goodness purpose.

. . . to be continued