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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In what part of your life are you living with the greatest amount of FAITH? Trusting God to keep you healthy and alive in this COVID-19 pandemic? Trusting God for your financial stability or survival in times of great market fluctuation and job layoffs all around us? Trusting God with your children, grandchildren or if you have them, even great-grandchildren, in times bordering societal anarchy?
May I ask a very practical question? How much faith does it require for you and me to believe in God whom we cannot validate by any of our 5 senses? You cannot see, taste, touch, hear or smell God! Yet Hebrews 11:6 says “Without FAITH it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
How much faith does it require to trust Jesus Christ for your eternal destiny, when they say He is risen from the dead and reigning in heaven, but you’ve never seen Him? You didn’t witness His crucifixion or His resurrection, and you’ve never met anyone who did, right? These are the questions people just like you and me were wrestling with, as persecution of those people willing to be identified as Christians, intensified in the first century. It was to them Peter wrote his first letter that we’ve been looking at this week.
So Peter wrote: “Though you have not seen Him (Jesus), 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, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8,9) Paul had written to the Ephesian Christians a few years before, “For it is by grace that you are saved through FAITH, and not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of your works, so no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:8,9)
I can almost hear Peter begging the people to believe him, for of course he was an eyewitness, and a friend of Jesus. He’d spent months with Jesus, seen the miracles, heard the messages, and especially Peter had seen Jesus alive after His death, several times in fact! Finally, Peter was an eyewitness to Jesus leaving this earth, ascending into the sky, and returning to heaven. But of course camera’s had not yet been invented. Peter had no videos of Jesus, no Facebook page, not even any still photographs, not even a ‘selfie’ or two of himself with Jesus together! All Peter had was the dramatic change which had taken place in his life, turning him from an angry fisherman to a passionate proclaimer of Jesus’ story, and willing to die rather than deny Jesus!
This week the intensity of the political war in America has increased, again. The President has experienced COVID-19 personally! The VP debate is history and a second Presidential debate is coming soon. In truth, there are people willing to say anything, do anything, both legal or illegal, maybe even willing to risk their own lives, either to assure that their candidate is elected, or to assure their opponent is not! Almost equally intense, is the ferocious battle for the Supreme Court vacant seat. The raucous public debates will reach fever pitch in these next days. Are you able to think with God given wisdom and clarity, as you listen, and watch? Are you able to discern distortion of truth, outright deceit, and manipulation of facts?
Amazingly, at the center of both fierce battles are some fundamental issues which are very important to all people, but especially to followers of Jesus Christ, who seek to live their lives as Ambassadors of Jesus. Would you consider these. . .
* The issue of our responsibility as human beings to protect God created life, especially the lives of vulnerable people, and no life is more vulnerable than an unborn child.
* Or the issue of TRUTH. Is the truth proclaimed by the Creator God the foundation of all truth, or is man fabricated, man declared ‘truth’ supreme over all?
* Or the issue of moral right and wrong. Does Holy God define moral right and wrong according to His perfect standard of holiness, or does public opinion define moral right and wrong? Or do the circumstances of the moment allow anyone to define the moral right and wrong of that situation?
* Or the qualifications for legal, God honoring marriage, into which children could be responsibly born or adopted? Is God’s clear definition of those qualifications the only right qualifications or is marriage whatever any two people want it to be?
* Or does the legitimacy of a person’s birth gender define them as male or female for as long as they live, or is it negotiable and re-definable by surgery or re-issue of their birth certificate, or simply their feelings at any moment in time?
* Or how about the matter of integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, reliability in law enforcement, or courtrooms, or attorneys, or educators, or business dealings, or health care providers, or anyone in any leadership role, or especially every political position in society?
These are fair and important questions for 2020 aren’t they my friends? But guess what, these types of questions have been asked in every society, and every generation since the days of Adam and Eve, or a few generations later, Noah and his family, as they walked out of that ark and started over again. The issue is not the questions. . . the issue is the ANSWERS to the questions!
Have you noticed God welcomes any and every question that any human mind could ever conjure up? Because the Creator has created all that exists according to such unchanging truth, that no question is out of order, no question is illegitimate, no question is rejected by God without an answer. (Malachi 3:6,7)
May I invite you my friends to read the remainder of 1 Peter chapter 1 very carefully and slowly this weekend, beginning with verse 8 & 9, which proclaim that the salvation of our souls is a work of God, in response to our FAITH in Him and His truth. His truth about Himself and His truth about us, humanity. His truth about sin, and His truth about Jesus, and why Jesus’ death and resurrection is enough to purchase your salvation and mine, from our sin condemnation.
Then look at verse 10-12 and celebrate that God was leading the Holy Spirit inspired men, hundreds of years ago, to write things they did not fully understand, but what they wrote was fulfilled in the person, the teachings and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Those writings helped identify Jesus as the long awaited Messiah for Jews, and Savior for the world!
Then look at verse 13-25 and celebrate that with clear thinking minds and great faith in God, we are able to discern how to live in a manner which honors God as holy, and builds God honoring families, and God honoring societies where it is safe to live, raise the next generation, and serve one another with respect and dignity. Now that my friends is the answer to all the debates, all the riots in the streets, all the cable news harangues every night, all the protests and the confusion.
There can be found the only true and lasting hope for America, and any other society in the world. So I urge you to read these verses carefully and prayerfully. Ask God to help you understand them and integrate these truths into your life, as you then prayerfully define your position on the issues. And prepare to enter the ballot box, and live the rest of your life as a faithful Ambassador of Jesus Christ . . . regardless of who wins either the White House or the Supreme Court seat! Now, think about that!
My friends, I’ve just received the attached article from Dr. Al Mohler, which calls us to consider how the 2015 “Same Gender Marriage” Supreme Court Decision is now directly confronting our Christian liberties. I urge you to read it.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: 1 Peter 1:8-25; Malachi 3:6-7. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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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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