he gives us so much

2 Peter 1.3 says, 'God's divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.'

I don't know if you have ever seen a fighter jet in flight. It is amazing. They move much faster and with more precision than anything else in the air. They make airline jets look like a flying snail. These fighter jets can do amazing things. They can only do amazing things though if they have a pilot guiding them who knows what these machines are capable of and ALSO how to properly use the great machine. If the pilot is useless the whole vessel is useless.

We have the fighter jet spiritually. God has given us everything we need. This comes through Jesus. As someone has said, we don't need to learn how to jump higher we need to fly and only the Gospel of Jesus dying on sinner's behalf, sinners like myself, can make us fly. We have the jet.

Why is it then that we seem to flounder around? We seem to keep doing the same sins over and over. We seem to not trust God. We become anxious. We think we are made for happiness only. We could go on. If 1 Peter 1.3 is true, why are these other things true?

It is NOT that the cockpit of the fighter jet is complex and confusing and we just need to learn more and more before we can fly. No. I think it is that we don't believe the jet. We don't believe the Gospel. It seems too good to be true. If the Bible means what it says . . . no, we have learned better: if something is too good to be true than it probably is [too good and not true].

I understand. But here is the deal: it is either real and seemingly too good or it is nothing. There is no between. You're either barrel rolling in an F-16 or trying to jump a few more inches.

No matter what your upbringing tells you, the Gospel is real. The Bible means what it says in ALL its fullness. No matter what your life has looked like in the past and no matter how you may fall in the future, if you go to Jesus, needing Jesus and trusting Jesus you are Jesus' brother, you are a child of the God who created the galaxies and the gardenias in the yard. It is all true.

So what do you say we step in the jet again and stop jumping?