Short Thought from 2 Peter

Peter was always "bigger than life" and that's how most of us remember him. He was the one to jump into the water to reach Jesus first.  He was the first disciple to ask, "Lord, save me!"
He was the first to understand Who Jesus was.

In John 13 when Jesus was washing His disciples' feet, we read:

     He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, "Lord are You going to wash my feet?"

     Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I doing, but later you will understand."

     "No," said Peter, "You shall never wash my feet."

Jesus' answer?

     "Unless I wash you, you have no part of Me."

Peter's reply?

     "Then Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

Peter always wanted more.....

And we all remember how Peter exclaimed, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will..." No one else made that bold claim.

But we know it came from a heart of courage and love.


These stories about Peter recorded in the gospels tell us a lot about Peter, and so tells us a lot about ourselves.

Peter's personality changed after the resurrection. He became a great preacher and his overwhelming character became more godly -- but when I look at 2 Peter, I can see some of the old Peter, especially in the opening verses:

     Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

     Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God of Jesus Christ...


Paul also begins his letters with "Grace and Peace" -- (grace always precedes peace) -- but Peter writes that they "be multiplied."  He is the only way to word it that way. And he did it that way in both of his letters.

And in 2 Peter 1:8, when referring to the desired traits of a Christian -- virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love -- he says that they should be in "increasing measure," or "abundance" -- just having these traits is not enough, he says --  they should be gaining power in our lives.

     For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. (2 Peter 1:8-9)

Good verses to memorize. If I am developing the traits of a godly life, in increasing measure, my life and ministry will be more effective. And it is linked to my knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing Him.

If I am not growing in these qualities, that means I have forgotten where I came from! (How could any of us ever forget? But I do!)

Every morning when we awake, every evening when we lie down, and throughout the day -- we need to remember where we came from and what He did about it!

If we get one lesson from Peter, I supposed it would be that we should always ask for more. As Paul said in Ephesians 3:20:  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think.....that's our God!

Tradition tells us that Peter died an agonizing death, crucified upside down, in front of jeering crowds. He did not fall away.

Today martyrs around the world are suffering. This would be a good time to stop and pray, fast and pray, for the struggling (no, not struggling, the strong) Christians in Syria, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Korea -- Christians being tortured and killed right now for their faith. It's too much to comprehend. But Peter knew about it first-hand, as did most of our early Church leaders.

Pray for the persecuted church around the world --

Who Is A God Like Our God?

                               

                                     Who is a God Like Our God?

"Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob and show love to Abraham, as You pledged to our ancestors in days long ago. (Micah 7:18-20).

Micah spoke these encouraging words to remind his people that God would redeem and restore them after their time of captivity.

Notice that his audience is God Himself. The Hebrews would be listening in on his  conversation with God and marveling at his ability to enter into God's Presence and speak openly with the Sovereign Creator of everything!

Micah's name actually means "Who is like our God?" So this understanding about Jehovah had been part of Micah's world-view for many years!

I especially love the reminder that our God "delights to show mercy."

And I love the picture of Him 'hurling' our sins away into the depths of the sea. 'Hurling,' not dropping or letting fall, but powerfully casting them as a discus thrower propels his burden as far away as possible, eager to win the gold medal!

As far as we know, the deepest place on earth is the Marianas Trench in the south Pacific. It is about 6 miles deep, except for a section called the "Challenger Deep", that is over 7 miles deep. We base that on specially designed deep-sea diving units we send down -- no human can survive those depths.

Try to imagine 7 miles deep! That's how far God hurls away our sins. Another place tells us He removes from us  our sins  'as far as the east is from the west' - so far a distance it can't be measured!

 Christ did all that for us! Yes, who is  a God like our God? And we could add from those last lines - who is a God like our God who always keeps His promises? How blessed we are to have a God like this!

How God Wants Us To Dress

                                

                                

                                How God Wants Us To Dress!

How God wants us to live -- From Colossians 3 --

"Now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language...do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator....

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Bear with one another and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

So it's about, first, what we need to take off, and then what we need to put on. (We can't wear two outfits at once!)  So let's change wardrobes today - take off our old clothes and put on the new wardrobe God has given us!

Chesterton, Orthodoxy - - Memory

From Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, Chapter 4 ~~~~


     We have all read in scientific books, and indeed in romances, the story of the man who has forgotten his name.

     This man walks about the streets and can see and appreciate everything, only he cannot remember who he is.

     Well, every man is that man in the story. Every man has forgotten who he is.

      Man can understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, but thou shalt not know thyself.

     We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten who we really are.

     All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life, we forget that we have forgotten.

     All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful moment we remember that we forgot.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I get re-reading those last two paragraphs....is there a more perfect description of our life in the 21st century?

C. S. Lewis wrote a lot about this same topic (It was Chesterton's writing that was so instrumental in bringing him to Christ -- actually sometimes it seems to me that they traveled on very similar roads in their spiritual journey -- ). Lewis often referred to that "yearning" and "longing" we all feel that something is missing -- that we are not really at home in the world, because, Lewis, recalls, we were not created or intended for this world! Blaise Pascal calls that emptiness inside a "God-shaped vacuum" that only He can fill. St. Augustine talked about our emptiness and restlessness that only ceases when we find our rest in Him.

At another time Chesterton wrote: We are homesick, even when we are at home.

It happens to us spontaneously...the cry of a bird, egrets circling in the sunlight, a great poem, a fine piece of porcelain, Bach's music, a rainbow, kittens tumbling in the garden, Puccini arias, sunset in the Texas sky  -- all kinds of experiences that awaken within our hearts that intense desire for more (we know deep down that this is not all there is!) -- for an encore -- and even then knowing it is just a glimpse of what we are missing...and what is yet to come!  An intense yearning to have everything put back to its proper place...

Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Overwhelmed and Forgiven

 

                                    Overwhelmed and Forgiven

"When we were overwhelmed by sin, You forgave our transgressions"

                                    (Psalm 65:3).

It's all due to His grace. So how should we live?

How can we display His grace each day?

"Lord, because Your grace is underserved I should be humble; because it is costly I should be holy and loving; because it is unconditional I should be at peace...and through it all I should  be supremely grateful every moment. Amen."

"Lord, help me be to others as You have been to me. Amen."

He Longs to be Gracious

                              

                              Our Father God Longs to be Gracious to Us!

From Isaiah:  "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says, 

'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it....yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore, He will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of Justice, blessed are all who wait for Him.'" Isaiah 30:15-18.

What an amazing God we have! He 'longs to be gracious to us!' He even rises up to greet us and show us mercy when we approach His throne.

The prophet Micah says this: "You delight to show mercy!" (Micah 7:9).

Who would ever even imagine a God like this?

P.S. And notice where our strength lies? "In quietness and trust..."

"Be still and know that I am God" He tell us.

What is God Longing For?

From Isaiah:

"This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:

     'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,  but you would have none of it....

     'Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore, He will rise up to show you compassion. 

For the LORD is a God of justice, Blessed are all who wait for Him.'"

                                                                      --Isaiah 30:15-18

What an amazing God we have! He 'longs to be gracious to us'! He even rises up to greet us when we approach His throne to show us His mercy.

The prophet Micah says this: 'You delight to show mercy'!

(Micah 7:9)

Who could ever imagine a God like that?

What do I Need to Get Through This Day?

For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 

For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, 

 abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Psalm 86:4-5

Father,  what more do I need to get through this day! NOTHING!

Just knowing You are good, forgiving and merciful gives me the power to move forward with confidence and joy.

Nothing can separate me from Your love. 

I am one of those who call upon You.

I have so many regrets for my sins, but You constantly remind me of Your forgiveness.

Fill me with Your mercy now so that it will overflow from me into the lives of the other people I encounter today.

Help me to be to them as You have been to me.

In Christ's name I pray.

Amen.

Looking for the Right Job? C S Lewis

 

                                               Looking for the Right Job?

Thoughts from C S Lewis:

"We have in our day started by getting the whole picture upside down.

Starting with the doctrine that every individual is of 'infinite value,' we then picture God as a kind of employment agency whose business it is to find suitable careers for souls, square holes for square pegs.

In fact, however, the value of the individual does note lie in him. He is capable of receiving value.

He receives it by union with Christ.

There is no question of finding for him a place in the living temple which will do justice to his inherent value.

The place was there first.

The man was created for it.

He will not be truly himself until he is there."

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

Modern Weapons

                                 

                                            Modern Weapons

"Let your conversation always be full of grace" (Colossians 4:6).

Always...full of grace...

I find this admonition hard (and it is a commandment to us, not a suggestion for people who just want to win friends and be popular).

Words have become weapons these days; they wound and scar, permanently disabling people.

We who love Jesus should stand apart from the world, with its mean-spirited comments on social media. (Most times I think it should be called 'hurtful media', not 'social media'. 'Social' sounds too friendly!)

According to Matthew 12, every word -- even offhanded careless ones -- are indicators of what is really in our hearts.

I need to deal with that!

"Lord, save me from the sins of my tongue and the serious flaws of character that produce them. Make my words honest (by taking away my fear), few (by taking away my self-importance), wise (by taking away my thoughtlessness), and kind (by taking away my indifference and selfish irritability and motives).

Help me speak words full of your grace...always... Words that edify, not tear down. Amen."

Where is God when it hurts? Where are we? Notes from Philip Yancey

Where is God when it hurts? Where are we when it hurts? 

(40 days after Christ's resurrection, He ascended from earth back to His eternal heavenly glory...)

Dealing with Christ's Ascension back to His Glory....

Jesus knew that the world He left behind would include the poor, the hungry, the prisoners, the sick. The decrepit state of the world did not surprise Him.

He made plans to cope with it: a long-range plan and a short-range plan.

The long-range plan involves His return, in power and great glory, to straighten out planet earth.

The short-range plan means turning it over to the ones [us] who will ultimately usher in the liberation of the cosmos.

He ascended so we could take His place.

"Where is God when it hurts?" I have often asked. The answer is another question, "Where is the church when it hurts?"

That last question, of course, is the problem of history in a nutshell, and also the reason why I say the Ascension represents my greatest struggle of faith.

When Jesus departed, he left the keys of the kingdom in our fumbling hands.

The problem showed itself early on.

Commenting on the church in Corinth, Frederick Buechner writes, "They were in fact Christ's body, as Paul wrote to them here in one of his most enduring metaphors--Christ's eyes, ears, hands--but the way they were carrying on, that could only leave Christ bloodshot, ass-eared, all thumbs, to carry on God's work in a fallen world."

I could fill several pages with such colorful quotations, all of which underscore the risk involved in entrusting God's own reputation to the likes of us.


Unlike Jesus, we do not perfectly express the Word. We speak in garbled syntax, stuttering, mixing languages together, putting accent marks in wrong places.

When the world looks for Christ, it sees, like the cave-dwellers in Plato's allegory, only shadows created by the light, not the light itself.

Why don't we look more like the church Jesus described? Why does the body of Christ so faintly resemble Him?

If Jesus could foresee such disasters as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Christian slave trade, apartheid, why did He ascend in the first place?

I cannot provide a confident answer to such questions, for I am part of the problem. Examined closely, my query takes on a distressingly personal cast: Why do I so poorly resemble Him?

How can one sinful man, myself, be accepted as a child of God? One miracle makes possible the other.

I remind myself that the apostle Paul's soaring words about the Bride of Christ and the temple of God were addressed to groups of hideously flawed individuals in places like Corinth.

"We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us," wrote Paul, in one of the most accurate statements ever penned.

-- From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey.

[Note: You can read Paul's two letters to the flawed church in Corinth in the New Testament of your Bible - the letters are titled, not surprisingly, 1 and 2 Corinthians. For other examples, you can look around you at some of us other flawed sons and daughters of God!]