Peter 2 11-25...... The PATH

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

¹⁸ Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. ¹⁹ For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. ²⁰ But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

²² “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”^[e]

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” ²⁵ For “you were like sheep going astray,”^[f] but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

These verses I believe are speaking to how we must live as believers in Christ. Peter starts this passage by saying, “to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.” It is beautiful language but extremely meaningful. That is the NIV translation. The NASB and King James translate sinful desires as fleshly desires. These are important contextually because people so often people think that Christianity is about being a good person and being nice to people and etc. That is but a piece of the pie my friends. What good is good for goodness sake? Christianity is about a blood stain cross. It is about God who became man to bear the sins of the world for you and I and resurrected and is to come again. That is the substance of the material. That every circumstance you go through is to become more Christ like. We must remember the trials and tribulations are not without merit but with purpose.

I don’t want people to read this passage and just think that Peter is telling me this so I don’t have that constant struggle of war within my soul, but that he is writing this so you are able to look at the bigger picture. In this passage we have great microcosmic themes for Christianity here. Peter starts with abstaining from sin then goes into honoring authority quick digression, we honor all authority because it was given by God and then Peter tells us to use Christ as our example always. That’s it in a nutshell. That is the path we must adhere to. There are other things we must do such as discipleship that are important but you can’t create disciples if you don’t even know the path. You can’t create followers if you can’t lead. He started talking about a war on your soul and ends it stating in verse 25 “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and ^[ab]Guardian of your souls.” That shepherd and guardian is God. I will end on a quote I saw tonight which I feels correlates to this post. "God speaks in the language you know best...not through your ears, but through your circumstances" Zuirrae Mitchell. It is through our circumstances God seeks to make us more Christ like and push us gently or hard onto the path.

Knowing About God is Not the Same as Knowing God

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:17)

How often do we substitute knowing about God for knowing God? How often do we pride ourselves on our ability to collect “the facts”? How often do we attend church and Bible studies yet in the end seem no closer to God than when we began? Too often we have mistaken knowledge about God for knowledge of God.

In Ephesians 1:17 Paul prays that his readers will grow in their knowledge of God. However, the words translated “know” carries a deeper meaning than simply acquiring the facts about God. This word carries the idea of becoming thoroughly acquainted with someone. This doesn’t happen through reading about someone, it happens by spending time with someone, getting to know them intimately. In the Old Testament this word was used of the physical union of a man and woman. When a man came to “know” a woman they were moving beyond surface knowledge and coming together in deep intimacy.

Don’t get me wrong, reading the Bible, going to church, attending Bible studies, and memorizing Scripture are all great things to do. Just remember that they are simply the means to an end. They are tools that bring us closer to the heart of God. The goal isn’t head knowledge it’s a relationship, intimate communion with the Almighty.

I pray that you would know God better, not simply the facts, but by experience may you know a growing thriving relationship with the God of this universe.

GOD choses us!

1 Peter 2-10 (NIV)

¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house^[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”^[b]

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”^[c]

⁸ and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”^[d]

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

In this passage the phrase chosen by God appears and chosen people appears. It is important to start off with the point of God’s chosen people. It is important to make the distinction that God choses us. I thought it was I who made the conscious decision to accept Christ but in reality it was him who drew me near to him by placing the people and situations in my life that allowed me to accept him to be the leader in my life. It is also good to make the point that we don’t try to be those things to become holy or holier.

God chose us set us apart for holiness and loves us so pretty much just come get yourself some God. He demands our love for others because He loves us. He gave his son for us. I can’t experience anything else without the love of God and the love for God. Faith without love is worthless. Seeking God without a solid desire and love is equally as worthless. God judges the heart. At the end of the day it does not matter how many acts of service or what you listen to or what you wear but that you love God with every single beat of your heart. The verses state again that we were “destined for this” It all starts with a recognition of God calling us to service or calling us to be apart of his kingdom. Be that “precious cornerstone.”

1st Peter 13-25

Be Holy

¹³ Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”^[a]

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.^{[b] 23} For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For,

“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
²⁵ but the word of the Lord endures forever.”^[c]

And this is the word that was preached to you.

Some people seem to struggle with the question, “What is it that God wants from us?” I think a partial answer is revealed in these verses from 1^st Peter. People have different perceptions of what Christianity is about and how to live and things that should be deemed right or wrong. The basis of Christianity is Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. What the price He paid for your sins for my sins. The process I spoke of last week is to bring out that Christlike being that we receive once we give ourselves over to God. It is funny how we then ignorantly ask, “What is it that God wants from us?” Plainly stated in verse 15 and 16, “¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Be Holy because as Steve Gaines once said, “You don’t not belong yourself you belong to Jesus.” He owns you and has revealed you to the knowledge of God and the spirit of God and he demands your holiness, after all he JUST gave His life for you. Before the acceptance of Christ and after the acceptance of Christ you sin. The key difference is that afterwards you are no longer ignorant to that sin. You are no longer blind to the sin and offenses against God that you commit. This is explain in verse 14. ^“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”

The last verses are important because it goes to the endurance of God. In the sense that we need to understand that we can’t understand that God is the best marathon runner there is. That God outlasts the energizer bunny. As my Pastor references Rocky during these instances, I’ll refrain because I would just do it a disservice. What I will say is that the glory of man is clearly finite. That it doesn’t matter how much wealth you amass. How much glory you give to your name and how much power you get. It all falls short of the glory of God and that His word endures forever, in you and through you. That once you give Him your all, it is there forever. Be Holy because he was Holy. It is that simple and that complicated

1 Peter 1-12

1 Peter 1

¹ Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ² who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise to God for a Living Hope

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

This passage comes a very timely phase in my life as I am learning to deal with various personal and professional hardships. As people struggle through their problems and faith they are constantly asking, “Why?” I suggest the question should be, “Why not?” As believers you must consistently remember the theme of being recreated into a Christ like image. In verse 6 and 7 its easily stated, “ ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” As my Pastor would say it is all about the process. The process that God brings us through is almost sometimes greater than the end result. So when you are facing trials and tribulations and can’t figure out why, understand the simple things that we learn the most through our times of hardship then we can ever learn from our times of peace. Another metaphor that can be used is a blacksmith and a sword. He beats it and beats it until it is perfect.

We need to embrace the tough times and use it to propel us forward. Not blindly but towards a stronger pursuit of God. A stronger desire for God in the times of hardship is what hardship brings and the end result is as the scripture said more precious than gold.

Then & Now

When I blogged regularly at my previous site, I always did an end of the year perspective. Since I haven’t done much on the FUSION blog lately, I thought I’d take the opportunity to do my year end perspective here.

For me, 2011 has been a thought provoking year of introspection. It was 20 years ago that I graduated from High School. I can honestly say that my life is nothing like I had planned and that is ok with me! As I look back I have changed tremendously!

20 Years ago…

- I lived by two mantras....(1.) You have nothing to fear but fear itself! (2.) Second place is the first loser!

- I had great dreams of making money, having power, and living the American Dream.

- All I wanted to do was get away from my home town as soon as possible.

- I had lots of angst over what I perceived as the inequities of life.

- I had boundless energy.

Today…

- I have learned that courage is not the absence of fear but persevering in the face of it.

- Every “major” decision I make involves handing my fears over to God and, in faith, pursuing the path he has marked out.

- My new mantra…"You’ll never be a man of faith if you focus on predicting results”

- On a very practical note, having a child totally changed the way I make decisions.

- I know it’s ok to lose as long as you gave it your best and did it with character.

- I’ve embraced the fact that God is a God of process. He cares more about using the process to shape me than he does about me achieving a goal of mine, even when it’s something I’m doing for Him!

- I have great dreams of how God might use me to impact people.

- I came back home because God gave me a burden to see lives changed in this region.

- I deal with inequities by being the change I want to see and trying to pass it along. A good friend of mine puts it this way, “Do for one what you would do for 100”

- I have no energy!!! LOL…my daughter has taken all of my energy!!!!

In 1991 I set out to change the world. Instead, God changed me. The death of every personal dream I had was replaced by a God given dream/vision which I pursue in his strength! FUSION is one of those dreams. It’s the dream of a ministry that impacts young adults, a ministry that will live beyond me and impact generations to come.

What dreams has God given you?

What dreams has he eliminated from your life?

If you gave him FULL CONTROL of your life, what could he do in and through you over the next 20 years?