1. Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, March 4, 2018
Step by Step
Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard
Sunday, March 4, 2018

2. Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

3. Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

4. 2 Peter 1:2-8
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 

5. 2 Peter 1:2-8
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 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.

6. All we need
Apparently, we have everything we need to become the people we hope to be
The dream is to become “partakers of the divine nature”
There is a need to escape “the corruption that is in the world by lust”
Lust in Greek comes from the word for desire
It has a prefix, though— “upon desire”, or “on top of desire”

7. Picture: fleeing a burning house
Or, climbing out of a hole
Apparently, we can live in a pretty messed-up way, driven by over-desires, not fulfilling our potential

8. But a plan is given to lead us on . . .
Start with diligence
In your faith, add moral excellence
Then, grow in knowledge
Next, self-control
Then, perseverance
Then Godliness
Then brotherly love
Finally, Love

9. Diligence By itself, is still valuable
Proverbs 18:9, “He also who is slack in his work Is brother to him who destroys.”

10. Aristotle ( BC)
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

12. Dalai Lama XIV
“Learn and obey the rules very well so you will know how to break them properly.”

13. Diligence + But diligence needs direction and, something more . . .
Faith gives both direction and extra strength
Hard to think of a better picture for this than Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

14. Direction
Micah 6:8, “do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God”
2 Peter 1:2-8, “Love”
Parker Palmer speaks of people with “an undivided life”

15. A Hidden Wholeness: the Journey toward an Undivided Life
Welcoming the Soul
and Weaving Community
In a Wounded World
Parker J. Palmer

16. Jesus
37 But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

17. Steps Identify the need to change
Establish a vision for where you want to go
Ask for God’s help
Assume it’s there
Begin to walk toward the goal

18. Do whatever will help (include friends for support, change things up)
Keep positive and keep the goal in mind
Forgive yourself when you’re not perfect and keep going
Add inner strength through time in nature, with friends, prayer, Scripture, or whatever else deepens your resources

19. The new SCV plan