Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you adjusted to writing the new date of 2023 yet? NEW sometimes takes time for adjustment, doesn’t it? If you are a parent you remember, I’m sure, the challenge of adapting to a new baby in your house! If you’ve ever moved far away from home, you remember how long it took to adjust to a new place, right?
Come, let’s rejoin Peter as he’s trying to encourage first century Christians as they face daily challenges trying to understand all that God is doing in them to change them, and how the Holy Spirit wants to help them adjust to living in their same bodies, but being ‘new creations in Christ’. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Or living in the same place but now feeling like an alien, a foreigner, an exile because they were attempting to live counterculture as they lived a God honoring life in a very wicked world.
Do you find yourself struggling with these things sometimes? So, Peter writes: “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s life impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” (1 Peter 1:17) May I ask, do you struggle thinking of Almighty, Holy, Creator God as your heavenly Father? The people to whom Peter was writing really struggled wrapping their minds around this concept. They were accustomed to thinking of God as Creator or All Powerful sustainer of the Universe or the Holy Judge before whom they and we will someday stand in accountability. But loving Father was an entirely different concept which awakened great hope in them and should in us too.
Peter wanted them to understand that while we will ALL stand in accountability before Holy God, those who have trusted Jesus to be their Savior, will stand there as a son or daughter before a Father who has forgiven them and loves them!
Peter continues: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed [rescued] from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:18,19) Yesterday we looked closely at the power of these words, and I hope you frequently give joyful thought to the fact that if you have trusted in Jesus to save you from your sin bondage, then you are free… no longer enslaved to sin and no longer condemned by your sin. It was Jesus’ blood, shed for us, that paid for your deliverance and mine! But you and I still live in a sin filled world, don’t we?
Every day, many times a day we see and even experience the horrible effects of wickedness deeply ingrained in our societies, our politics, our education, our health care, our business and military. But before we point fingers or cast stones, we must agree we see this ugly stuff deep in us, you and me and even the people we love, don’t we? It’s selfishness, it’s deceitfulness, it’s anger or bitterness or unforgiveness. And it hurts us and hurts our families and our friends. But Peter didn’t want his readers then, nor you and me, to wallow in our self-pity or give up, so look as he picks up his stylus to write again: “He, [Jesus Christ], was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
I wonder if Peter and John talked about that, because you may remember as John wrote about his friend Jesus, John wrote this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it!” (John 1:1-5) Do you see Jesus was there, as God and with God the Father, in the infinity past and at that time Father, Son and Holy Spirit devised the plan of redemption that required God the Son to leave heaven and come to earth, living among us in this wicked place, being the LIGHT of God in this dark place.
Do you remember Paul wrote something about this too when he wrote to the young Christians in Ephesus: “God chose us in Him [Jesus Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. IN love God predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves, [Jesus]! In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace which he lavished on us.” (Eph. 1:4-7) Yes, my friends, the apostles Paul, John and Peter are all declaring glorious, wonderful, powerful truth about the saving, life transforming work of Jesus Christ available to any person in the world, no matter how deeply they are enslaved in sin bondage, no matter how terrible the wickedness they have lived! This my friends is the glorious Gospel, the best possible news available to ANY person… all because of Christmas and who Jesus is and what He accomplished when He came here to rescue us!
It’s also the glorious news that no matter how hard it is to believe or understand, God wants to accomplish this amazing, life changing work in all who trust in Jesus, so that every day, many times a day, we have the privilege of standing in awe and reminding ourselves that we are now a new people, forgiven of our sin, adopted into God’s family, the Holy Spirit living within us and therefore there is every reason for us to have HOPE today, that God walks with us, empowers us and protects us as we live our lives in this crazy world.
Now that is worth celebrating as we adjust to living like that in a new year of 2023, do you agree? So, let’s celebrate with another great song of worship. Oh, how Charity Gayle puts into music what Peter was writing… so let’s worship together, friends…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 1:17-20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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