Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you noticed the closer something gets that you have been anticipating a long time, the more exciting anticipation becomes? We’re now two days away from Thanksgiving, which is always celebrated the last Thursday of November by Americans no matter where they live in the world. That means Christmas is only about 4 weeks away and the new year of 2023 is now about 40 days away! Oh my, so many exciting things happening in these next weeks. But then there are things we anticipate for many, many years aren’t there? Today let’s rejoin our friend the apostle Peter as he describes something Christians worldwide anticipate not knowing exactly when it’s going to happen.
As Peter is writing his first chapter of his first letter we’ve been looking together at this powerful statement: “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 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.“ (1 Peter 1:4,5) What is this ‘coming salvation’; and how will it be revealed; and when is the last time Peter speaks of?
I hope you understand, my friends, that this miraculous salvation experience is a momentary miracle which God accomplishes in a person beginning when we recognize our need for a Savior, we confess and repent of our sin, we turn to Jesus in full faith and trust Him to save us. The miracle begins in that moment and God accomplishes a great many changes in us which we’ve been discussing lately. But the miracle of our salvation continues and develops and as we mature spiritually every day, for the rest of our lives!
The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Philippi writes this about the spiritual maturing process:“…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation…” (Philippians 2:12-15) Paul also wrote to the Christians in Ephesus that the Holy Spirit seeks to “…equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 2:11-16)
Peter is even more specific when he writes: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…” (1 Peter 2:2) Now when we take these and other similar Scriptures together what do you see God wants us to understand about our salvation experience being an ongoing, growing, developing, spiritually maturing experience?We all understand the importance of the human physical development process. When that baby is first born, feeding becomes a priority quickly and a baby nursing at its mother’s breast is a God given natural instinct for both baby and mother, right? Soon, however, that baby will need more solid food than the mother can naturally produce from her breast, so the infant’s diet changes, and the means of feeding the baby changes, and even the number of people involved in feeding that baby grows! Carefully parents and medical folks watch that baby’s development looking for clear evidence of any malnutrition or illness or other dysfunction which would indicate a problem in the child’s God designed development from newborn baby all the way to adolescent and even adult!
Guess what my friends… God has the very same design built into our spiritual development process! God gives to us a natural spiritual hunger for growth as soon as we are ‘born again’ and it’s important for a new Christian to find good nourishment sources including other Christians who are more mature than they are, to help them grow properly and at a fast pace.
So, I need to ask a few really important questions, my friends… are you ready?1. How old are you spiritually?
How long ago were you ‘born again’ by God as you trusted Jesus to be your Savior? Perhaps you’d be honest enough to say you have not yet experienced that life transformation, and we sure want to help you with this very exciting, lifesaving step, my friends. Please contact me with your questions.
2. If you are a ‘born again’ Christian, what has been your spiritual development path?
What is your spiritual diet, your frequency of feeding? Are you on baby food, infant food, children’s food, or a solid, healthy, well-balanced diet of adult spiritual food? When and how do you nourish yourself spiritually?
3. Just as physical development from infant to teenager to adult is more than just food intake but involves activity, rest, exercise, learning, relationships etc., so your spiritual development is much more than simply food intake. So, what are your spiritual exercise routines?
What activities are stretching your spiritual muscles, your spiritual vitality, your ability to engage even in spiritual battle?
4. If you had to identify a growth point on the journey from newborn child to teenager to young adult to mature adult, where on that continuum do you believe you are in your spiritual maturity journey?
Are you still a spiritual infant, a spiritually fussy 2-year-old, a rebellious teenager, an active young adult, a spiritually mature adult, or an older adult looking forward to heaven?
Ok so we understand our salvation miracle is both a miraculous ‘born again’ experience with God, but it is also a DAILY spiritual growth journey requiring spiritual nourishment, spiritual exercise and helpful spiritual relationships.But did you notice Peter’s final words in that statement: “until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5) This phrase ‘the last time’ is a common one in the Bible when talking about the future and our great anticipation of seeing Jesus face to face in heaven. Here, this phrase “last time” means it happens for a Christian as their earthly journey comes to an end. Immediately they will depart from this earth in death and be transported by God directly to heaven to be with Jesus. In that moment their salvation miracle is completed as they arrive in sinless heaven. They are face to face with Jesus, and their eternity with God begins. No more pain or suffering, no more battle with sin. Their salvation is finally fully revealed in all its splendor.
For those people who are alive when Jesus Christ returns to earth, and we are raptured from earth to heaven, and we receive our heavenly, glorified bodies, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, it is in that glorious experience that we too experience our ‘last time’ on earth and the full realization of our salvation as we enter into the presence of Jesus!
Oh, my friends, I hope the thought of this makes you want to dance and celebrate as you thank God for the certainty and majesty of your salvation being fully revealed in your arrival in heaven! Here’s a new worship song to help us celebrate heaven, my good friends.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 1:4-5.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
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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