Yes! I am off on the dates and the readings, but not the DAY. It is Day 323 of our year long reading through the bible. And in the last week I posted twice on two different days so the posts show the same DATE even though they were intended for different days. And, in my vastly limited mental capacity, I somehow lingered longer on a passage and got one day behind on the the reading schedule. Such is the life of a pastor who is limited in mental capacity to keep details straight! So today, I blog on first and second Peter… you guessed it… containing a couple more of my favorite passages!
1 Peter 1:3-12 first. Look at all the thing that are ours in Christ! By the mercy of God in Jesus Christ we have:
1. new birth into a living hope
2. an inheritance that is:
imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven
3. protection by the power of God for a salvation to be revealed
And in these things we rejoice, even if for awhile we suffer various trials! Then chapter ones says something most remarkable. Knowing these things are ours causes us to rejoice “with indescribable and glorious joy.” Hmmmm. I don’t see too many Christians walking around indescribably and gloriously joyful! What is wrong with us? Perhaps we really don’t understand or believe these things are ours. The outcome will be the salvation of our souls–for eternity–that ought to get us going!
Then Peter says that concerning this salvation the prophets made careful search and inquiry and wanted to know! But they were told, “It is not about you!” Can you beleive it?! The Prophets were told that what they were longing to know was going to be revealed later to us! We have the privilege of seeing and understanding things the Prophets desparately wanted to know! And then the bomb! Angels longed to know it, too! I can just see it. The angels in heaven going around trying to “peak” at what God was up to! Gathering in groups and sharing all sorts of speculation about how and when God would save us! Amazing! It was not revealed fully to the prophets and it was not revealed fully to the angels. It was revealed to us! this is why we should be rejoicing uncontrollably and it is also why we should be able to put up with “various trials” because of the living hope that we have been given.
2 Peter3 :1-13 second. (Remember, two favorite passages in these letters.) Scoffers will come, Peter says. Scoffers who make fun of the idea that Jesus will return. They ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They say, “All things continue as from the beginning!” They are ignorant–they ignore some very important truths. They ignore the truth that the same word (the word of God) that formed the earth and the heavens will also destory it. They also ignore the truth that with God (who is eternal) one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. We (our lives and life spans) are just a drop in the bucket! Then Peter closes up by saying, IF these things are really true, what kind of people ought we to be? Well, duh! If this creation is going up in flames we had better be putting our hope in the new one that is coming! But that one is one centered on righteousness and the glory of God not on ourselves and our needs and wants. So we had better be about transforming our lives with the help of the Spirit of God so that we are getting “practice” in living holy and righteous lives and in giving glory to God. We have our work cut out for us!