Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas — I know I did.

This Sunday we’ll be returning to our study in 1 Peter, reading ch 2:11-12.

Peter is now going to be moving from a largely theological perspective to the practical ramifications of what he’s been saying up to now. This is very much like Paul’s approach. In v 11-12 Peter sets up the theme of what this pilgrim journey will look like when it’s lived out in real life.

In v 11, Peter encourages us to redirect our human appetites for two different reasons. What is the first reason, and how do you think that mindset would help you redirect your passions? What is the second reason? Do you think this is Peter telling us to deny that we have appetites and desires that seem unruly at times?  Does this sound like Peter condemning us because we experience these passions of the flesh?  How does the war imagery help us to find a stable motivation for change in our lives?

In v12 Peter tells us what our loudest testimony is – what is it? How has someone’s behavior effected your view of them, positively or negatively? When we think about our calling to take the GOOD NEWS to the world around us – when the world looks at the behavior of the (21st century American) church (or at least, those who seem to represent it most in the media), do you think our behavior translates as good news? What steps can we take to rightly represent the GOOD NEWS in our lifestyle?

Should prove to be interesting fodder for thought. Hope to see you then!

What a difficult day – how broken this world is. It’s not easy to concentrate and do our necessary tasks in light of the great tragedy this day brought to an unsuspecting town in Connecticut.

Dear God,

we sing songs about a savior coming,

about peace on earth and goodwill toward men,

while in the background we hear the rattle of gunfire

and the sounds of children screaming.

Oh, we slump down to moan.

May your kingdom come,

your will be done on earth,

like it’s done in heaven.

God of all comfort, be with us yet.

This Sunday we’ll be reading 1 Peter 2:4-10.

I’ve talked a lot about how the church is not a building – and yet, the church IS something God is building, as Peter so aptly describes it in this passage. All of the things that Peter uses to describe us are taken from the Old Testament descriptions of temple worship under the Mosaic law. What do you think he’s telling us about the nature of the church in the gospel age?

A cornerstone was used in ancient times as the spot the rest of a building would be sited and measured from. If Jesus is that to the church, what does that mean concerning our mission, practice and values?

Note that Peter says that we are a PEOPLE who once were not a people. He doesn’t say person, singular. Does that stir any thoughts about the church – it’s nature and it’s importance? What thoughts have been stirred?

We’ll see you Sunday. Hug your children if you have them. Pray for this broken world — overcome evil with good—-love with all your might.

This Sunday we’ll be reading 1 Peter 1:22-2:3.

In this section Peter makes some strong statements about God’s truth and the word in relationship to our journey as Christ followers.

Now, it’s important to acknowledge that what we mean by the word of God and what Peter meant are not totally the same thing. Peter didn’t have a canonized New Testament, nor did he have immediate access to the Old Testament on a whim. For writers of the New Testament, the concept of the word of God meant the writings they were familiarized with from the Old Testament, and the kerygma – the apostolic proclaimation of the good news about Jesus.  Now…I’m someone who believes that we don’t do damage to the original intent by inserting our present, canonized Bible into the meaning of the original writers, because I accept (by faith) that the Old Testament and the kerygma of the gospels developed into the bible we hold today. So…that’ s just my apology for extrapolation in the passage we’re going to read.

Reading about how this truth purified our lives for the purpose of showing love – what does that tell us about the priorities of the biblical revelation?  What should the truth of the bible be producing in our lives…and is it?

Peter says that the word of God is living and abiding in and with us – what does that tell us about the nature of God’s word?

In chapter 2, he compares our need and intended longing to a baby craving milk (of the word…or maybe, the word lived out). What effect does Peter believe the word will have on our Christian journey?

How has the word affected you…or has it? In what ways is your life impacted by the story God reveals in Scripture?

Some stuff to ponder…hope to see you on Sunday!

Have you ever been invited to a party where you don’t know anyone at all? Those are awful times, in my opinion. Even if you try to mingle and join in to conversations there are always those moments where those who have history together reference things unknown to you and you smile awkwardly – and if you’re like me, you plot your escape.  Being an outsider is not a comfortable position – and yet that’s the relationship the Bible says we are to have with the world’s broken system in which we live.  When it’s that uncomfortable to experience, why would we want to go along with this challenge?

That’s what Peter is going to address in our study this Sunday as we read 1 Peter 1:17-21; the why of our pilgrim status.

V17 can sound a bit intimidating on the surface. When you see words like “judging” and “deeds” and “fear” sprinkled through the sentence, it can be a little disconcerting. But we have to keep in mind the familial context of this section. Peter called us “obedient children” a few verses back, and now he connects that with our relationship to our Father. The word for “judging” doesn’t mean, in this context, judgement for sin, but carries the connotation of examining or paying attention. Its actually very intimate, picturing God watching over us to guide us and mold our behavior accordingly.

I don’t know what your relationship with your natural father was like. Mine wasn’t that great. I didn’t really even get to know him until I was thirty – and he was very old by then, in his 90’s. Yet just before he passed away, he prayed a blessing on me and told me he was proud of me, and I find myself recalling that very often as I’ve lived since then. How could the father/child relationship become a motivating factor in living the Christian life the Bible calls us to?

Peter moves from the Father to the Son in v18-19, identifying another powerful motivation for being an intentional outsider. In what ways does the cost of your redeemed life impact the way you live?

v20-21 make it clear that Christ’s death and resurrection weren’t an ad-lib of God’s  – this has been the plot all along. Does the fact that this is an ongoing, epic story unfolding have any bearing on how you choose to live – and if so, in what way?

Ok….well, that should give us something to chew on for this Sunday. See you then!

 

Running late again…sorry. This Sunday we’ll be reading 1 Peter 1:10-12

It’s an interesting little passage. Fun to read and contemplate, not so easy to build a 3 point teaching around.  Pete has been encouraging us to live as people who are foreigners to this broken world system…and in v9, he reminded us what’s at stake in this, the salvation of our very souls.  He seems to want to hang on that subject and emphasize it’s importance to us.

The first thing he does is point backwards. This salvation isn’t just something dreamed up out of the blue by Jesus or his followers – this rescue has been announced for a long time. This has always been God’s plan. The fact that all of this orbits around God’s grace being revealed in significant to me. God’s plan has been all about salvation, about rescue. What does that tell us about God and his relationship to man, and does an emphasis on that idea alter the way you perceive of God?

Where Peter lands in v12 is interesting to me too. Who is it that gets entrusted to advance this plan in the world? Hint: it isn’t angels…they seem to be curious inquisitors about this whole drama of redemption. (Which, by the way, is such an odd little concept tacked on to the end of this verse. He drops that as though we should know what he’s talking about…but sheesh, what is he talking about? – it makes me think Pete was a strange dude.)

Hopefully we’ll have this all making some sort of sense by Sunday….hope to see you then!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you don’t have all the equipment you need to accomplish a goal? Whilst in South Sudan, Matt, Garret and Blake were trying to remove a transmission from a truck and fairly frustrated because all they had for the job were a small set of hand tools from K-Mart. Blake kept making sounds like an air wrench to emphasize how woefully ill-equipped they were for that particular job.

In our study of Peter, we’ve learned that as followers of Christ, we are like foreign travelers through this world’s system.  In our next set of verses this Sunday (1:3-9), we’ll see that God has equipped us with everything we need for the journey.

In vs 3-4, Pete praises God for providing us with a living hope. Read v3-4 in the Message version – I think Peterson provides some real insight as to what a living hope actually means. What do you base your hopes in life on? How does that compare with what Peter is describing as the core of our hope?

Vs 6-7  we find a reiteration of what James reminded us about concerning the value of trials in life – they can prove and refine the faith we have in God. Have you ever had your faith tested like this? How did it effect your hope, and ultimately your attitudes about life?

“You haven’t seen Him, but you love Him.” – that is such a profound verse to me. I love it because it tells me that Peter had seen Jesus, hence he uses the term you. Jesus was real, and when Peter heard that name he associated it with a face and a voice and personality of a real person he had spent personal time with. That’s pretty cool. But I like it that the Bible isn’t just some ancient document about people’s experiences that I have no connection with….Peter was writing to people who experienced exactly what I have, that is, NOT seeing Jesus but still loving Him. I’m connected to a looooong line of “have not seens” who love Christ anyway. For whatever reason, that comforts me.

It also reminds me of another way we’re equipped for traveling…we’ve got the strong motivation of love to keep us going. Ever been away from home, away from a loved one? Can you connect the feelings of love that motivated you to return to your love with our love for Christ?

Anyway, it should prove to be an inspiring study.  Hope you can be there!

Psalm 67

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us–

2 so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

3 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

 4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.

5 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

7 May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

This Sunday we’ll be looking at Psalm 67. It’s a Psalm that lets us know in no uncertain terms from where our blessings come from…as God’s people, even as a nation. The thing we want to examine though, are the two words that get repeated twice in this poem…the words, so that. God is the source of all we count as blessings – and we certainly live in a nation which has seen its share of blessing in the form of supply and comfort – but what is our responsibility that comes with that blessing? So that…two very powerful words that remind us that our lives are not meant to be lived simply for ourselves. When you read this Psalm…how do you understand the “so that”?

See you Sunday!