I Peter, part 7

I Peter 2:9-12

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

In v. 9 Peter uses titles and descriptions for the Church that were exclusively held for the Israelite people for many centuries. What an outrageous thing unbelieving Jews must have believed this to be in his day! "You mean to tell me that GENTILES... pagan, idolatrous, Gentiles... are now the priesthood of God?! The 'holy nation' is no longer just Israel but people from every country who have Christ as Lord? Preposterous!" But this is exactly what Peter is explaining. What seemed so nationalistic for so long (God's people being Israel alone) was in actuality always meant to be people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. The Priest had come, became the sacrifice, was raised and now reigns over us all. And now we, his chosen people, are all priests who "proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." Friends, you and I are not just Christians, we are priests, both to one another and to the world. Being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, we are representatives of God to the earth, offering the mercy we have been given to others through the cross of Christ. Do you know his excellencies enough to speak about them? Have you grown in your knowledge of what He did for you so that you don't just stumble about in explaining it, but can confidently say "this is what He has done and why He is so amazing"? This challenges me because the world needs to hear it and be able to understand as best they can, yet I'm afraid my ineptness gets in the way of making the message clear.

Peter goes on in v. 11 to urge us, as sojourners/exiles, to abstain from passions of the flesh. Here's one problem I see in Christianity today: we don't act like exiles. We don't act like this world is not our primary "home" - we act as if this earth, America or anywhere else, is our deepest citizenship. Yet Peter calls us deeper, to realize that this new birth comes with it radical new orientation. No longer am I just flesh with a dead spirit, I am flesh with the Spirit of God living in me, having made me new and given me true life. I belong to Him most fundamentally and not my earthly place of residence. This is one important reason to abstain from passions of the flesh - because those things that we thought gave us life just won't, and indeed they never could.

But there's another reason we need to abstain from passions of the flesh. Peter tells us they "wage war against your soul". Sounds dramatic! Yet is this not exactly what happens? We know God calls us to deeper intimacy with Him, to deeper waters, and yet the temporary things of this world can have such a strong grip on our souls that we avoid God and consume ourselves with earthly, meaningless pursuits. Instead of developing our souls, seeking to grow in knowledge and wisdom, we absorb ourselves in sports knowledge (who won the World Series 27 years ago?), in the latest tabloids (how many women is it for Tiger Woods now? Are Brad and Angelina still together?), and so many other pursuits. While "passions of the flesh" may refer specifically to acting out sexually outside of God's intent, it has other ramifications as well. Anything that can cause us to avoid God, avoid spiritual depth and maturity, I believe to be passions of the flesh. And the truth is it is killing your soul - waging war and winning the battle for so many of us. Peter is not a kill joy - "guys don't go do stuff you want to do, even though I know it's fun and wish I could do it too". NO!!! God is calling us, through Peter's inspired writings, to come deeper with him and aggressively reject things that are trivial, meaningless, and ultimately wage war on our souls. We may not know it, we may not be able to see it, but there is a war being waged this moment on your soul.

Here's one way I know war is being waged on my soul: it is often times far more appealing and more satisfying for me to watch Sportscenter for an hour without distraction than it is to read my Bible for 15 minutes without distraction. The moment I open the Word, begin praying, read a book about growing spiritually, whatever... the moment I do these things is the moment a million things come to mind - that person to talk to, that game I don't know who won, that headline I want to read more about online, etc. etc. etc. War is being waged on my soul whether I know it or not.

Lord help us! Keep us focused on you this day, on your excellencies, and on the marvelous light you have called us into. Thank you for saving me, for dying for me, for rising so I can know I have everlasting life in you and with you. I want to play my part in this royal priesthood, whatever that means today. Thank you for living in each one of us who are your people. Draw men and women to yourself today, and may you receive all the glory. Amen.

I Peter, part 6

I Peter 2:1-8

Peter continues to exhort believers to take action in their lives, particularly to put away certain attitudes or traits from their lives. Hypocrisy is still one of those traits Christians are known for. The command to not be a hypocrite has been around for a long, long time! Yet today it is no different than in Peter's day - many people are claiming to follow Christ but have no true relationship with him. This only muddies the waters for Christians and non-Christians alike to try and discern who is really "walking the walk". Verse 2 seems to give us one indicator of a sincere Christian seeking spiritual growth: long for the pure spiritual milk of the word. Just as an infant knows they are in serious need of something, so we need also to instinctively know we are in need of God's Word in our lives. Peter's "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" is almost a bit of a jab... he's making sure people understand that what God is after isn't a moral code of obedience but a "tasting" - an experiential knowledge - of God's goodness.

Then Peter gets into a prominent theme in Jewish culture: that of the corner stone. The corner stone was the stone that was in a certain place in the structure of any building by which everything else was built. It had to fit perfectly, having exactly the right dimensions, or it would cause the whole building to be built poorly. Peter takes what would have been a common imagery in Jewish construction, as well as a popular concept in the Old Testament, and applies it to Christ. Christ is that corner stone on which the Church would be built. Not only that, but we also are living stones, being built into a spiritual house as we all are put into place to be in line with the Cornerstone. The picture is remarkable. Christians don't need a temple... they ARE part of the living temple of God! Christians don't need a sacrificial system... THE sacrifice has already been made for them and now they make spiritual sacrifices in the name of Jesus, giving glory to God. Christians don't need priests to pray for them... We have a High Priest in Heaven and we are a collection of priests, a "holy priesthood" together coming before God in Jesus' name. This also means we can't escape under the guise of "It's not my responsibility to know Scripture and point people to Jesus, that's the professionals' job." We each are responsible to know God is good, to be able to put to words what He has done, and to represent him as priests represented God for Israel.

Peter goes on in vs. 6-8 to quote the Old Testament, showing that God had planned this all along. The "stone", or person, that would be rejected would become the cornerstone of all truth, the cornerstone of faith, the cornerstone of all hope, and the cornerstone for the spiritual house that every Christian is a part of. God always has wanted faith and not just sacrifice. God has always promised us that many will reject him but that this does not make it any less true.

Thank you Lord for being rejected and yet for being the cornerstone. Help our feeble and weak spirits to know that YOU are good, that you are the cornerstone, and that we together are being built into a spiritual house in line with the Cornerstone. We are priests together on a mission to add more building blocks to the house for your glory. Amen

I Peter, part 4

I Peter 1:13-19

Peter is beginning to move from his opening discourse, rich in theology and elevating the salvation of God in Christ, to getting into the "nitty-gritty" of the Christian life. Like other authors the Holy Spirit inspired to write Scripture, he will mix theology with practical implications, but here it's more on the implication side - basically answering the question, "so what?" What difference does this living hope through the resurrection make in my behavior, motivation, thinking, and so on?

Verse 13 begins with "therefore". Whenever you see that word, always ask this question: What is the therefore, there for? It's a little play on words that helps me remember everything is connected. One danger of blogging about chunks of Scripture is my tendency to isolate it and treat it like its own entity, when that is entirely wrong because Peter is writing a letter, possibly all in one sitting, that is a unified whole. Peter's appeal here is that, because of all the prophets prophesied about and because this has been fulfilled in Christ, we need to be sober minded and ready for action, living for Jesus. Our hope is to be set on something interesting, namely the grace that will come to us at the revelation of Jesus. This is speaking of a future grace that we have not yet received. That is not to say we haven't already received grace, because we most certainly do every day, but Peter is reminding us the God is not done dispensing grace and when Christ comes fully revealed as King of all creation, his children will receive even greater grace. Beautiful.

Something comes up in this passage a couple of times that I think is worth focusing on. Peter talks about our "former ignorance" in verse 14 and then refers to the "futile ways inherited from your forefathers" in verse 18. The call is to not live like you once lived, before you knew God, before you knew what Christ had done for you, before you had received grace and been filled with a living hope. Notice though that Peter does not deny the pull of the former passions, but simply call us not to be conformed to them any longer. Christianity does not deny the existence of evil nor does it pretend that all Christians have some experience of immediately being released from addiction, temptation, or past sins. Some of those sins are simply ignorant people not knowing how to live, and some of them are the sins of our forefathers (dad, mom, grandparents... anyone influential in our lives in my opinion). We all have these things - ways that we see ourselves being just like what we hated in our parents, former passions and addictions that still haunt us and that we still pursue. But Peter does not simply say that being a Christian means gritting it out and becoming moralistic in order to stop these things, he gives us hope once again based on the character of God and the work of Christ.

Peter calls Christians to avoid these former ways of life based on God's character. He refers to God in verse 17 as both Father and Judge. We are his children (verse 14) and he is our true Father. We have inherited sins, addictions, and so much more from our parents but God becomes our Father through Jesus Christ his Son. We are adopted into this family of God, born again to a new Father, thus being able to leave behind passions and sins of our fathers. This is not an excuse to distance ourselves from our parents, but it is an encouragement to know that you once belonged to a lineage that was carnal and ignorant, but now have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and your identity at its core has been altered to now belong to God as Father. But God is also Judge - he will judge the living and the dead and we are included in that. Now is not the time to get into all the judgment stuff (nor am I adequate yet at explaining it), but Christians will be judged by God their Father, albeit in a different way than non-Christians. Just think of it! Your Father is your Judge! Does that not take some of the edge off of this whole "I'll be judged" thing? You step up to the judgment seat, and who is judging you but your Heavenly Father who sent his Son to die so that you might live, who has already forgiven you and who is there to talk about your life with Him... not your life previously without him. Amazing.

Lastly, the great news is that you and I are ransomed from the futile ways of our forefathers, which I see as another way of describing our passions of former ignorance as well. We were ignorant of God's ways, blinded to His goodness and maybe even denying his existence - certainly denying his authority! Yet we were ransomed, which is an illustration of being released from slavery. Perhaps one of the most dangerous and deadly things about sin is that we don't realize we are slaves to it. We get so comfortable in it at times that we forget, or perhaps never knew, that we are enslaved to passions of our own and passions/sins of our family lineage as well. Yet Christ gave his life, like the lamb of the old covenant, in our place and for our sins. He is the Lamb of God, perfect and without sin, who paid the price (thus ransoming us from slavery to sin) so that we might be free to know and love Him. What a wonderful Savior. So the call is not to "try real had not to sin anymore like your daddy did" but it is to "live in the new life with your Heavenly Father who ransomed you through the blood of his Son to live with a living hope, set on the grace of God". This is our motivation for obedience as children, because we have a Father in Heaven who has accomplished all that we couldn't so we could belong to Him.

Can verses become "too familiar"?

I've been thinking lately about some of the most well known verses in the Bible, and wondering whether or not some of them become too familiar to us and therefore lose significance. Many verses could be mentioned, but the one that comes to mind is Proverbs 3:5-6. In case you don't have it memorized (shame on you! Just kidding), it says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths." This is one of the verses we will be using tomorrow night for youth group, particularly trying to answer the question "how do I know when I'm actually spending time with God?" My thesis if you will is that simply activities such as reading the Bible, going to church, going to youth group, and other activities do not guarantee that you are spending time with God. Basically, the simple formula "reading the Bible = spending time with God" is not always true.

For me, Proverbs 3:5-6 is helpful in answering the question about spending time with God. I believe it sheds some light on the issue, namely that if reading the Bible doesn't always equate to time spent with God, trusting in God with all my heart and acknowledging him in all of my life does indicate I'm spending time with him. And if that is the case, then it can often be that the "less spiritual" things like going to school, doing homework, going to work, eating a meal, exercising, and so on can indeed be times spent with the Lord. It seems to me that Christians do a great disservice when we believe (or teach!) that the spiritual things are prayer, solitude, studying the Bible, and church attendance and other things mentioned above are not-so-spiritual. In the end, God is with us at all times by the Holy Spirit living in us, and therefore we are always spending time with God; or, at the very least every activity can be spending time with God if we are trusting in him and acknowledging him in our lives.

What other verses are "all too common" verses for us today? How can another look at them help us grow in our walk with Christ?

Wednesday Review - Disciples as worshipers

I'm going to try and get in the habit of writing a blog each Thursday about what we talked about as a youth group the night before. We have just started a new format in which every student is actually reading the Bible and discussing it. There is a main topic and text each week but the groups (split in Middle and High School) get to tailor what gets focused on specifically. They are learning to ask questions of the text and hopefully come to some good answers from God's Word that apply to their life. I'm excited about the potential of it. Last night was the first night like this, so it was an experiment. We talked about some good stuff, asked some good questions, but perhaps didn't walk away with a real sense of what was being said about worship, so I thought I'd write some thoughts down and hopefully they are helpful.

Psalm 63 was one of our texts (the only one the HS group got to). David writes it as he is fleeing from someone, likely either Absolam or Saul. He speaks of God as having steadfast love, of singing underneath the shadow of God's wings, of being his help, and beholding God's power and glory. There are stirring images of worship throughout the Psalm, and while I spend quite a bit of time talking about "worship" being much more than our singing, it certainly includes our singing to God. Worshiping God in song can change our hearts on the spot, taking the focus off of ourselves and onto God and his mercies, steadfast love, protection, and so on. David declared in several ways that God is worthy of worship, with the community of believers and also personally through anything that comes his way.

Romans 11:33-12:2 was the other text. Paul bursts into a magnificent praise of God in 11:33-36, after writing some deep, difficult, and wonderful things in chapters 1-11. All he can do is stand back amazed at the unfathomable wisdom, unsearchable knowledge, and awesome glory of God in his plan of salvation. Then, he appeals to Christians to, in light of the mercies of God, present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is our spiritual worship he says. That word "spiritual" can also be translated "rational" because it comes from the Greek word "Logikos" and speaks of being true to our nature, reasonable. It's a great picture: our lives being laid down, offered to God willingly in his service, is "true to our nature" because of all God has done for us. It simply makes sense. If we take in just a measure of the depth of God's love and the sacrifice he made for us in Christ, the only logical thing to do is to respond in worship and give him our whole lives.

I'll stop there. As we get used to this form of learning together I think we will grow in a deeper knowledge of God's Word and be able to connect important ideas together. I really enjoyed last night - all the talk about Jackals, singing reducing stress in our lives, and so forth was good stuff in my mind. But I hope that this "devotional review" is helpful as well.

Soli Deo Gloria

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Tough verses in the Bible

I love the Bible. I haven't always loved it, but I really do love it now. For much of my growing up years, reading the Bible was a duty-filled process, a guilt laden thing that I "needed" to do. It was not the source of great life and joy for me, nor did I really see it as all that necessary for growing in my Christian faith and knowledge of God. I can even remember a time in college when I was talking with my roommate, who was very committed to the necessity of Scripture for all of life, and asking him if a person could preach a "biblical" sermon (meaning true to God's Word) without using the Bible. He basically said that it's hypothetically possible but there's no reason for anyone to do it. I have come to see that he was right - no one should preach without the Bible being opened, studied, and interpreted accurately with a dependence on the Holy Spirit.

Anyways, while the Bible is absolutely necessary for our knowledge of God, since it is his primary method of revelation, it is also filled with many difficult passages. One such passage is I Timothy 2:8-15, where Paul teaches on women in the church. It's one of those passages that sort of makes you cringe when you read it. It's also a big reason Paul is unpopular, among Christians and non-Christians alike. But just because it's difficult, like other texts, doesn't mean it isn't valuable. If anything, the resistance we feel towards some of these difficult texts shows our commitment to rebellion and our sinful nature's continual hold on our mind.

Without going into every detail, Paul makes the case that women are not to "teach or exercise authority" over a man inside of the church. He also talks about the necessity of modest dress, but for this post my main concern is with the roles inside of the church. The first thing that needs to be made clear is that Paul is not saying women never teach - clearly they do, and should, teach their children, teach other women, and so forth. This is very important. Paul's emphasis is on the authoritative teaching, in a permanent sense, in a church. Simply put, that is not a role God has designed women to have in the church.

But how can Paul say this? What authority does he stand on, besides being an Apostle, to make such a claim? Often times when we make an argument for something we look around us, to the culture, and make our defense from there. Not Paul. He immediately goes back to the creation account, with Adam and Eve. He makes a defense based on the way God created the world to operate. Adam was made first, then Eve, Paul says. This has wrongly been taken to mean Paul believed men were better than women. This is simply a matter of fact, if we take Genesis 2 to be a truthful account of things. Man was created, like the rest of the creatures, from the dust - and woman (Eve) was created "out of" the man, from his rib. We are equal as image bearers of God and yet distinct in the roles we play. God's order in family and in the church are similar - men and women are equal in importance, yet men have been given the greater responsibility in leading, protecting, and teaching. Women also lead, protect, and teach, but are to do so in different ways than men.

Finally, v. 15 is a very difficult one if we don't keep it in the context of the creation account. Paul continues with a reflection on creation and says "she will be saved through childbearing - if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control." WHAT?! Does Paul mean salvation as in forgiveness of sins and eternal life? No, for "saved" isn't in a spiritual sense here. Think about it... after the fall, a curse was put on all of creation, and on man and woman. Man's curse was that the ground would war against him as he worked, and woman's curse was the increased pain in childbearing. I believe a good explanation of this verse is this: Christian women ("continue in faith" indicates Christian women) who go through childbirth will grow in respect to their salvation and Christian maturity, and will find great significance/importance in their God given role as child bearers.

These are difficult verses, and I'm learning a great deal by studying them. Do you have any other thoughts about them? Do you disagree with where I've gone in interpreting them? I'm open to disagreement or other views. Remember, I'm just another beggar trying to show other beggars where bread is - so, show me some bread!

Soli Deo Gloria

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