The Gift We Would Never Ask For

1 Peter 1:3-12, The Message - What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!

 

                Peter writes to gentile Christian communities all over the Roman empire who were being persecuted for their faith.  He wants to encourage them with three important reminders.  First, he reminds them that they now have a “new and living hope.”  They have an eternal future that God has promised to those who believe.  God will heal their brokenness and make them whole.  These promises lead to the second reminder; through Jesus, they are given a new identity.  As we talked about last time, they now part of God’s chosen people.  Thirdly, they now a part of a new family, God’s family.  They are adopted sons and daughters of God.  These three reminders provide the core of the message of the entire letter.

                These reminders are important for people who are suffering.  They need to know that they are not alone, they are not forgotten, and their suffering is not in vain.  In the passage for today, Peter makes a bold claim. He tells them that there is a gift in the midst of their suffering.  Through fire, metals are purified and refined, and through suffering, faith is purified and refined.  The salvation available through Jesus is made available through Christ’s suffering. Likewise the salvation received by those in Christ is deepened and strengthened though adversity. 

                All this truth is our truth as well.  We too have been given a new and living hope, a new identity, and a new family.  Take some time to reflect on that today. 

 

Questions: What is the state of your hope right now?  Does it align with the truth of what you have been given because of Christ?  What does it really mean to you that you will be made whole and healed because of the Holy Spirit at work in you?  What value do you maintain in the fact that you are now part of the family of God?  How does all of this change how you view your difficulties, pains, and challenges?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, thank you for the hope I have because of you; help that hope sink even more deeply into my soul.  Thank you for my new identity as a chosen child of God;  help me see the unique way I can live out that identity wherever I find myself.  Thank you for including me in Your family;  help me see my brothers and sisters as You see them. Help me see my trials as an opportunity for You to purify and refine my faith.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the leaders of our local government today.

 

Song:  Living Hope - Phil Wickham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2FXxDVO6w

You are Among the “Chosen Ones”

1 Peter 1:1-2, NIV - Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

 

Today, we begin looking at the first of two letters commissioned by Peter, one of the central figures in the early Christian movement and one of the original disciples of Christ.  The letter is commissioned by Peter, but it is actually composed by one of Peter’s disciples/assistants named Silvanus. It was written to gentile Christians in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) who were experiencing persecution from their neighbors. 

 

Right here in the opening we’re introduced to one of Peter’s key themes that he will continue to develop throughout the letter and in 2 Peter.  He addressed the letter to “God’s elect.”  This is the term used to describe the Hebrew people throughout the Old Testament, but Peter uses it to describe the gentile Christians to which he writes.  This is on purpose. Peter wants the gentile followers of Jesus to know that God chose them just as much as He chose Abraham and the Israelites.  It was God’s intention to use the Hebrew people as a vehicle for of sharing God’s blessing with all the peoples of the earth.  Peter’s audience are the people God mentions in Genesis when God promises that, through Abraham, all the nations of the earth will receive God’s blessing.  All would be invited into God’s family.  You and I are one of those people as well.  We are part of the family of God.   Abraham is our Father as well.  

 

                Right now, approximately 3 out of every 10 of the world’s people are professed followers of Christ.  What I’d like to point out is that each of those Christians became Christians because of who their parents, friends, or other people they know were also Christians.  The fact that we know or are related to them closely enough to “catch” their faith in Jesus is significant.  Some might even call it luck, but they’d be wrong.  We were chosen.  We were called to be one of the 3 in 10 so that we might be a witness to the other 7. 

 

                You and I were chosen for the mission of God.  Spend a few moments pondering that.  You didn’t happen to wander into faith in Jesus.  God has been working in your life since before you were conceived by your parents to bring you into the Family.   It’s not an accident.  You are here because God wants you here.  And God wants you here because there is a purpose that only you can fulfill.  Don’t take that lightly.  Don’t shrug it off as unimportant.  You are part of God’s chosen people.  Live like it.

 

Question:  Do you truly see yourself as someone chosen by God for a holy purpose?

 

Prayer:  Give us your eyes Lord that we might see ourselves for who we truly are – your chosen ones for your purposes.  Give us enough confidence in that truth that we begin to live it.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for 7 people you know who are not followers of Jesus.

 

Song:  Family of God - Newsboys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kOkIJV-0M

Jude’s Claim to Fame

Jude 24-25, CEB - Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.  All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

               

                The ending to Jude’s short letter is a passage that has been used countless times over the centuries as a benediction.  It is an absolutely gorgeous expression of praise to God and proclamation of divine provision for those who trust in God.  It has inspired many over the years and it continues to inspire me. 

                One of the powerful proclamations Jude makes here is the assurance that God is able to “keep you from falling away.”  I am drawn to that because I am all too familiar with my propensity to fall away.  It’s never on purpose, but the old hymn describes me well;  “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”  Most of the time, I’ve wandered quite far before I even realize it.  Maybe I’m not the only one who is like that.

                Good news . . . God knows I’m like that.  Even more than that, God is often the one who prompts me to come back and paves the way for me to do so.  Sometimes it is a “still small voice.”  Sometimes it is an unnerving jolt.  It is not always pleasant, but like a parent who is willing to be unpleasant in order to protect the child and bring them back into the fold, God is able and willing to do the same.  Obviously, there has to be a willingness on my part to be brought back.  But it is good to know that God is able and willing to do it when I am agreeable.

                There’s more good news.  Not only is God willing to bring me back when I stray, God is willing to treat me as if I’d never strayed in the first placed.  This is God’s justifying grace, the grace that treats me “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned.  No wonder Jude describes us coming back into God’s fold with ”great joy!”

                All this is because of Jesus Christ.  And because of that, All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen!

 

Question:  Instead of a question today, simply recite Jude’s benediction to yourself slowly a couple of times as a way to allow God to bring you into the divine presence.

 

Prayer:  Lord, you are awesome.  I praise You for your forgiving and gracious character.  I thank you for bringing me back so many times when I’ve strayed.  “Here’s my heart. Take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above.”  All the glory, power, and authority are Yours.  Amen and Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for flood victims today who have lost everything.

 

Song:  Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing - Chris Rice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_aACQ9LjoM

Three Powerful Prescriptions from Jude

 

Jude 20-21, NLT - But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

 

Right before Jude’s famous benediction (our reflection for next time) we have some succinct prescriptions for staying true to the faith that is Christianity. 

1)      Build each other up

2)      Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit

3)      Wait for God’s mercy

The first key to staying true to faith in Jesus is to NOT try to do it alone.  This seems obvious, but it is even more powerful than many realize.  Of course, it’s easier (most of the time) to do something if you have good help.  This is certainly true of living the Christian faith.  Seeing others doing what I’m trying to do makes what I’m trying to do more accessible and attainable.  Having others encourage me and pick me up when I fail makes it easier to get back on the right track.  Knowing others are watching me adds accountability to my actions.  But when I commit to actively help others live their faith, my faith is strengthened in a way that it can’t be any other way.  This is why Jesus was less interested in attracting crowds than investing in his small group of twelve disciples.  Of course, Jesus helped them, but by them helping Jesus, they became strong in ways they never could by simply being a part of the crowd.  Faith in community is God’s purposeful design.

Next, Jude talks about prayer in a specific way.  Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes, we get the idea that prayer is simply us talking to God.  While that is certainly part of it, what is happening is much more expansive than that.  In many places in scripture, we are reminded that God resides within us.  Far too often though, we live as if that were not true.  More to the point, we pray as if we are asking a God in a far-off place to come help us with our struggles.  To pray in that way is to neglect the truth that God is literally in the breath we use to speak our prayers.  When Jude tells us to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, he is reminding us that when we are praying, the idea is to connect with the power that God has already placed within us. 

Finally, Jude asks us to “wait for God’s mercy, who will bring you eternal life.”  I believe several interpretations of this prescription are possible, but I receive it as a call to humility.  Humans seek affirmation in many things, but ultimately we are affirmed by the God who created us, is redeeming us, and will sustain us forever.  Seeking ultimate justification and affirmation from other sources can lead us to pursue things that our unworthy of our divine creator, redeemer, and sustainer.  Living with the conviction that, no matter what anyone else may say or think about us, only God’s valuation of us truly matters in the end.  To the extent that we can live with this assurance, we are free to simply live out what God has called us to do, not being influenced by the pull of other sources of importance, prestige, or position. 

 

Question:  Which of Jude’s prescriptions did you most need to hear today?  What will you do about what you have heard?

 

Prayer:  God, thank you for the power of community, prayer, and humility.  Help us see these powers already at work in us.  Convince us of the steps we can take right now to more fully cooperate with Your power in our lives.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to lead you to someone you can help today.

 

Song:  No Matter What – Ryan Stevenson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It_xQ4NYtDQ

Hey Jude, Part Deux

Jude 3-19, CEB - Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you concerning the salvation we share. Instead, I must write to urge you to fight for the faith delivered once and for all to God’s holy people.  Godless people have slipped in among you. They turn the grace of our God into unrestrained immorality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Judgment was passed against them a long time ago.

I want to remind you of something you already know very well. The Lord, who once saved a people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who didn’t maintain their faith.  I remind you too of the angels who didn’t keep their position of authority but deserted their own home. The Lord has kept them in eternal chains in the underworld until the judgment of the great day.  In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and neighboring towns practiced immoral sexual relations and pursued other sexual urges. By undergoing the punishment of eternal fire, they serve as a warning.

Yet, even knowing this, these dreamers in the same way pollute themselves, reject authority, and slander the angels.  The archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil about Moses’ body, did not dare charge him with slander. Instead, he said, “The Lord rebuke you!”  But these people slander whatever they don’t understand. They are destroyed by what they know instinctively, as though they were irrational animals.

They are damned, for they follow in the footsteps of Cain. For profit they give themselves over to Balaam’s error. They are destroyed in the uprising of Korah.  These people are like jagged rocks just below the surface of the water waiting to snag you when they join your love feasts. They feast with you without reverence. They care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; fruitless autumn trees, twice dead, uprooted;  wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom the darkness of the underworld is reserved forever.

Enoch, who lived seven generations after Adam, prophesied about these people when he said, “See, the Lord comes with his countless holy ones, to execute judgment on everyone and to convict everyone about every ungodly deed they have committed in their ungodliness as well as all the harsh things that sinful ungodly people have said against him.”  These are faultfinding grumblers, living according to their own desires. They speak arrogant words and they show partiality to people when they want a favor in return.

But you, dear friends, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the end time scoffers will come living according to their own ungodly desires.”  These people create divisions. Since they don’t have the Spirit, they are worldly.

 

                Today’s passage in Jude is a bit strange in that some of it references material not in the Christian Bible.  It’s important to note a few things about this.  First, just because it’s not in the Bible we have now doesn’t make it irrelevant or not useful.  I am helped and my knowledge/wisdom has grown from reading LOTS of material that is not in the Bible.  Second, this material is in the Hebrew scriptures.  Because of this, it helps us understand the assumptions and faith of the people to which Jude was writing.  Jude prefaces these references by saying, I want to remind you of something you already know very well.”  Third, there is a reason this material Jude references is not in our Christian scriptures.  The reason is that the worldwide Christian community, through ecumenical councils in the early centuries of the Christian church, made the decision that this material does not represent the core of the Christian faith as well as other material that was deemed authoritative.  We should hold all of this in mind when we listen to Jude.

                What shouldn’t get lost in all that is that Jude is making a point by citing these strange stories that is valid and, by the way, WAS deemed authoritative by those same ecumenical councils.  The examples Jude uses are all people who teach and/or profess one thing and deny what they teach by their actions.  In other words, they lack integrity.  Further, God takes such a lack of integrity seriously.  Because God takes that seriously, we should too.  Character matters.  We should not follow leaders whose lives do not model the life they teach and preach.  Leaders are never without error, but there should be a general integrity between what they say and what they do.  When this integrity is missing, we should be wary. 

                Jude’s warnings should also prompt us to examine ourselves for gaps in integrity.  Do I engage in behavior that I know is not best because I know God will forgive me?  Am I tempted to manipulate and/or massage the message of scripture in order to justify actions that I know are not the best?  Do I engage in divisive behavior because I care more about being seen as right than I do about people that God dearly loves?  These are difficult questions to ask ourselves, but doing so will refine and deepen the faith we hold dear. 

 

Questions:  Ponder the questions in the last paragraph.

 

Prayer:  Examine me, God! Look at my heart!  Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts! Look to see if there is any hurtful way in me, then lead me on the eternal path! Amen. (Ps 139:23-24)

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the leaders of your faith community today.

 

Song:  Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA

Hey Jude

Jude 1-2 (CEB) Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James.

To those who are called, loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus Christ.

May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.

 

                Today we begin a very short series on the New Testament Letter of Jude (pronounced “Ju-dah”). Jude was one of the earthly brothers of Jesus, although it must be noted that Jude did not believe Jesus was the Messiah until after Jesus died.  Eventually though, Jude becomes a prominent Christian leader, particularly among Jews who have become Christians.  This letter is one that Jude wrote to one of the communities he had served, though we are not sure of the specific community. 

                Jude is not widely read in Christian circles even today, probably because he has many strange references to angels and the devil that are not found anywhere in the current Old and New Testaments of Scripture.  We’ll talk more about that next time, but for now, we’ll note that at the time of Jude’s writing this letter, the texts he references were commonly read texts in the Jewish community.  Some of them are still part of the Jewish scriptures.

                Today though, let’s simply hear the charge Jude makes to his readers in the opening to his letter:

                “May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.”

Jude’s hope and expectation for those he leads is that they are growing in peace, love, and mercy. This forms the basis for the purpose of the letter which we will talk more about next time, but let simply hear for ourselves the charge on it’s own right now. 

                “May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.”

                Think about your long-term relationships (family of origin, spouse, children, grandchildren, friends etc).  Now, think about the character of those relationships in the past.  Go back a year, two years, or more and recall the level of peace, love, and mercy in your part of the relationship back then.  Obviously, we have no control over how others behave, but how did you exercise these virtues in these relationships in the past? Now think about how you behave towards them currently.  As you compare the past with the present, would you say that you have more peace, love, and mercy now or less?

                One of the core assumptions of the Christian faith is that following Jesus produces a character transformation.  We exhibit more and more of the character of Christ in how we live and relate to others.  Jude’s expectation and hope is one we should take seriously and think about often.  How are we growing in the ways we live out our faith in our daily actions?

Questions:  Review the questions above.

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help us see how we have grown (or not grown) in our faith in the recent past.  Show us our opportunities to grow right now.  Make us more and more people of mercy, love, and understanding. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the many victims of several mass shootings over the holiday weekend.

 

Song:  What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding – Taylor Momsen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48glZCdj4Rc   

A Prayer for Our Country (from Steve Garnaas-Holmes)

God bless our country
with humility and wisdom,
to hear your voice
not in triumph over others
but in love for one another,
for all who, for every reason,
find themselves upon this land.
May our patriotism be care for all,
not just for one family or place or kind.
Give us courage to face injustice,
to resist the powers that diminish life,
to repent of hate, and heal oppression,
for the sake of liberty and justice for all.
Bless us with prosperity of gratitude,
freedom of love and abundance of generosity.
For the land and water that so richly provide for us
we give thanks and pray for healing and renewal.
Bless us all that we may truly belong to the land,
to one another, and to you,
in a spirit of unity, gratitude and joy.
Amen.

If I Had a Hammer - Pete Seger (at 94 years old)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWUSM_KJF_E