Grace - Food for the Soul

 1 Peter 1:22-2:3

As we taste the grace of God, as we experience the undeserved favor and love and kindness and goodness of God, as we begin to truly see the radical grace of God, we can put away the “crappy" things of this world - deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander (and the list goes on). We can put away our brokenness and start to move. The grace, goodness and love of God empowers us to begin (imperfectly) loving others with a pure heart - a heart filled with Jesus.  It allows us to see our broken natures through the lens of forgiveness and eternal salvation so much so that we can reach out to others, not from a critical or self-righteous position, but from a position of compassion and love knowing ours is an imperishable faith. 

Grace and Peace!

Holy

1 Peter 1:13-25

 

My Takeaway:

 

Gotta be honest, this is a passage I struggle with; I struggle with a command to be holy and obedient. It’s different now, I used to struggle with these commands with a rebellious attitude, but now it is from knowing I will never be perfectly holy or obedient (or even near perfect, or even half way perfect…oh you get the picture and even if I could somehow rise to this level I would probably be self-righteous about it).  So I prayed that God’s amazing grace and mercy would shine through during this passage.  I will also admit that while studying this passage, I was amazed to see the grace shining through and was somehow encouraged as I set my hope fully on the grace that will brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ!

 

Going forward, as I try to be an obedient child of God, I can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse - but here is another point where I got a little encouraged - while I can no longer claim ignorance, I can claim Christ and his finished work, I can trust in the amazing grace and tender mercies of God. In fact, it is the only thing that truly offers hope to me.  So, I will strive to be holy (set apart for God), I will strive to be noticeable different knowing the price that was paid on my behalf, knowing all that Jesus had to endure for me (because of me). 

 

And knowing that precious sacrifice, knowing that love for me a sinner, I will remain thankful for the beautiful truths of God, I will keep trying to love others with a pure heart - especially those different, those that are not easy for me to love and I will do it because Jesus loved me when I was not easy to love, I will keep trying not in any effort to earn, but because I have been born again.  I will be thankful that no matter the trial, no matter the problems I invent, no matter the mistakes of my heart that I can turn to the living and abiding word of God, the word of the Lord that remains forever, that speaks of love, forgiveness and mercy, that is more than good advice, that is good news!

 

Grace and Peace!

Endurance

1 Peter is a book in the Bible that I have read through a few times, but I have never really dwelled in it.  I have never dug deep and immersed myself in this letter.  Since our church is doing a series on this, I thought I would take the opportunity to do just that. I will post some thoughts, big ideas or takeaways...things I learn or things that make an impact on me.

1 Peter 1:1-12 

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Born Again to a Living Hope

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹ obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,¹¹ inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

My Takeaway...

In this fallen world we will experience storms, hurricanes, pandemics, trouble, illness, divisions and strife…all kinds of trials, but as believers, as elect exiles, as the chosen children of God, we can endure because of all Christ endured for us. We can endure because of the living hope we have in Christ, We can endure with love and we can endure even though we cannot see him now, knowing we will see him again. We can press on in the wondrous grace of God filled with and inexpressible and glorious joy, filled with confidence in the knowledge and assurance of our eternal salvation.

 

Hey everyone, in this world we will have trouble, but take heart!  Jesus has overcome the world…

Grace and Peace!

These Days

Father God,

Once again, we humbly come before you...but Father, this time it is different and I know you let us lament, to cry out, to question and I am so thankful. But Father, in these unique times, I am coming before you with such a range of emotions.

These days I find myself cycling through periods of confusion with all that is going on, with biased and distorted data and where we tend to turn opinion into fact. I then move on to frustration with the lack of answers, the lack of listening and understanding and most certainly the lack of progress, then I end up just simply disappointed. Oh Father, I can be so disappointed. Disappointed in the circumstances of life, disappointed with our government, disappointed with people and I can be so disappointed with myself. And Father, as I work through this cycle it seems as if I simply start the cycle over. Oh how we, how I need your grace.

Father, recently I have had this thought of something called the perfect storm and as I recall the perfect storm is when 2 or more fronts converge and become something overwhelming. Father, in this time it seems as if we are living in a perfect storm facing the fronts of a pandemic, an economic crisis, and most sadly even a crisis of equality, discrimination and issues of social justice and it seems that in our imperfect ways during this perfect storm we are doing nothing but creating sides – division is everywhere. Yet Father God, I still say thank you, thank you that in our imperfections you sent us a perfect savior to walk with us in this perfect storm.

Lord, it reminds me of King Jehoshaphat’s prayer in 2 Chronicles. When he was faced with a perfect storm he cried out to you, “we do not know what to do” which is how I feel a lot of the time. But there is more and it is the important part – he cried out ‘we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.’ Oh Father, what comfort that brings. Forgive us, forgive me for my imperfect actions, for my imperfect inaction, for taking my eyes off of you.

And the most amazing thing about Jehoshaphat’s prayer, is that you respond. You tell Jehoshaphat, you tell us, to stand firm, to see the salvation of the Lord that is on us, you tell us to not be afraid or dismayed, you tell us that no matter the storm you are with us. Father God, Lord Almighty, the Great I Am, thank you many times over.

At the end of the passage the people begin to sing out saying Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever and that is my prayer for us today. That we might keep our eyes on you, that we might stand firm in trying times, that we fear not and that we never lose the great and eternal hope that we have in you. Father, there are so many times when I do not know what to do, but this I know, we have a God we can trust and we have a God that loves us. Father, as we move forward, I pray for your guidance, I pray for the right steps to take, I pray for your protection. Father, this morning I pray for relief and healing for those sick, those suffering, those lonely and left out, I pray for an end to systemic racism, brutality and violence and I pray we all come out of this perfect storm and into the perfectly loving arms of Jesus Christ.

And Father, I also pray that Churches and Pastors and people everywhere would move forward proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel, that loving our neighbors, that loving those different from us, that loving those we disagree with would be our path forward, that we as your children will move forward with grace and compassion and kindness. Father, start with me...

Abba Father, we believe, help our unbelief, we love you so much and pray all these things in the perfectly loving and heroic name of Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen!