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Growing in the Divine Life for a Rich Entrance into the Eternal Kingdom 87

Peter 1:10 also states that we need to be diligent to make our calling and
selection firm, that by doing these things we shall by no means ever stumble.
So, if we want to avoid being stumbled, we need to be diligent. Second Peter
1:15 says, “Moreover I will also be diligent that you may be able, after my
exodus, to bring these things to mind at all times.” For ourselves, we need to
be diligent. And for others, we also need to be diligent. One of the brothers
gave a definition of diligence: diligence is to be urgent, persistently applying,
giving attentive care for a particular thing. I referred to a dictionary and it says
that diligence is to be persevering with painstaking effort. Another dictionary
says to be diligent is to have a steady attention and effort in an undertaking to
accomplish something. Today, we need to be diligent, especially in enjoying
the Lord. This is our salvation. The only One that can meet all our problems is
the Lord. We need to be diligent to enjoy Him. We need to be diligent to grow
and develop this divine life and nature, so that we can have a rich entrance
into the eternal kingdom. To be diligent means that we cannot be lazy. Are
we lazy? When I was growing up, my parents told me stories on how to be
diligent. They talked about a particular family. One day, the wife was going
to her parents’ place and she was very afraid that her husband may die from
starvation. The wife made a big donut that can be hung on his head so that he
does not need to even lift his finger to eat. The wife went to her parents’ place
and returned to find that her husband had died. She saw that only the front part
of the donut was eaten because he does not even want to turn the donut to eat
it. This story has been told to so many people, but I do not know if this is how
we are in eating Christ. In Proverbs 19:24, it says that a sluggard is one who
buries his hand in the dish. He was too tired to bring the food from the dish to
his mouth. Are we a sluggard or a diligent person? That will tell how we grow
in life. May the Lord speak to us directly and touch our very being. I believe
we all have the burden to serve the Lord. We all love the Lord and want to go
on in the Lord. We need to be diligent. We need to enjoy the Lord and eat the
Lord. We need to develop the divine life and divine nature that we can have
a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom. I hope and pray that the Lord would
be so merciful to all of us. For the sake of our locality, for the sake of the
Philippines, for the sake of the whole world, we must ask for the mercy of the
Lord that we would be those that would develop this life. – (A. L.)