1 Peter 1:21-22 Fervent Love

Through Him you believe in (adhere to, rely on) God, Who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him honor and glory, so that your faith and hope are [centered and rest] in God.  Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart. 1 Peter 1:21-22

v20 says Jesus was chosen before all time to come.  Through Jesus I believe in God.  

I love adhere - stick to, have loyalty to.  Stick to as Mary did seeing Jesus in the garden - cling to His feet.  I adhere to God, His ways.  

Rely on - only through His grace can I love and follow Him.  Jesus raised from the dead, Jesus has honor and glory now so my faith and hope are focused on God.  

What do I need to do to have God at my center?  

Where is He not?  Show me Lord!

v 22

1. My obedience is only through the Holy Spirit, not on my own.

2.  My heart is purified by obedience.

3. A purified heart can have sincere affection for others.

4.  My love should be fervent (very hot; glowing; marked by great intensity for feeling).  

Lord, help me to purify my heart so I can love fervently.  So I can exercise your mercy on others.  On this point I have far to go, but You, my Lord, are the only way to get there.

1 Peter 1:18-19 The Ultimate Obedience

You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold, But [you were purchased] with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1:18-19

It is on me to recognize my redemption and ransom bought with the price of the blood of Jesus.

     -- Man's natural way is useless - fruitless.

     -- It is only through the Holy Spirit that I can live in the fruit of the Spirit - it is my choice.

The precious blood of the lamb - there is power, power, holy working power - this hymn comes to me from verse 19.  He was a perfect man, no sin, no temptation overcame Him.  And for they joy of completing His Father's work He obeyed.  Precious indeed.

What temptation am I giving into?  What fruitless acts are consuming my time?  Where do I need to submit in obedience?

1 Peter 1:17 Stranger

 And if you call upon Him as [your] Father Who judges each one impartially according to what he does, [then] you should conduct yourselves with true reverence throughout the time of your temporary residence [on the earth, whether long or short]. 1 Peter 1:17

1.  God judges impartially.  He has no favorites.  He doesn't compare us with each other.  He judges the times we did and shouldn't have and the times we should have and didn't.  He is just.

I will be judged for what I do and don't do - only me.  

2.  NIV says as you are strangers here.  This weighed on my heart last week.  All the reverence I lived in last spring has disappeared.  How easily a bad attitude moves in where you aren't noticing.

This is not my home.  This is not where I'll find comfort.  Fix my eyes - heart - life on the Father who will bring me home.

1 Peter 1:13-16 Obedience

 So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.  [Live] as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel].  But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.

For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:13-16

I am to prepare my mind - think over circumstances and the consequences.  NIV says 'prepare your minds for actions and be self-controlled.'

* Think on how each circumstance effects eternity.  How will I react?  Will my selfish impatience aid the circumstance (the answer is always NO!)  What might I say or do that would bring about eternal blessings?  I want to learn how to bring Jesus into my conversation and actions more.  Lord - please show me!

* Focus my hope - my thoughts - on the grace of Jesus.  I am to be obedient to what the Holy Spirit has taught me since I accepted and believed the Gospel.  I am to strive to be holy as Jesus is Holy.  Where am I lacking obedience?  What has the Holy Spirit convicted me of (not me choosing) and I'm not obeying immediately? 

* Through obedience to Christ  can i be holy as Christ.  Obedience brings wisdom.  Many people struggle to find the will of God for their lives.  The are confused of what to do.  Perhaps even claiming that the Bible doesn't speak to their situations.  If that's you, try obedience in the smaller things and see if the bigger things become clearer.  Honor your parents.  Love your neighbor.  Give generously.  Be patient.  Be willing to do your part.  I love the song "While I'm waiting" by John Waller.  We can still be obedient in the small things while allowing God to work out some "big" things.  Obedience in the small things brings wisdom, opens our eyes to what God is doing.

1 Peter 1:8 Thrill

Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy. 1 Peter 1:8

Oh the things of this world I allow to distract me from the joy, the thrill of knowing and loving Jesus.  A smile goes on my face thinking about Jesus.  Help me, Lord, to remember my precious love.  To love as You do.  Help me to stay in the joy, the inexpressible glorious joy!  Help my express my gratitude of thankfulness endlessly - that it drown out the impatience and selfishness.

1 Peter 1:7 Refined Faith

So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed. 1 Peter 1:7

Redound - add to, accrue; to have an effect 

1 Peter 1:6 verse spoke about test (from outside of me) and trials (from within me) are proving my faith and growing it in all areas.  Gold is considered precious, but it is perishable - not like the value of my faith, which is imperishable.  Gold is refined by fire.  My precious faith needs refined as well.  Refined faith redounds my praise for Jesus.  My faith adds to His glory and honor.  Of course it is only by the Holy Spirit my faith can grow - all of it gifts from God.  

Where do I need to change my attitude about trials and temptation?  What areas am I complaining about?  When do I become impatient?  Allow those times of conviction on my attitude become time of praise for the great work God is doing within me.  The more I turn from complaining and impatience the easier it will become.  I hope one day I will be patient first, I will not complain.  I so look forward to that day Lord!  Let it begin today.

1 Peter 1:6 Joy!

 [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, 1 Peter 1:6

Exceedingly glad - not just a little happy, but exceedingly - for I have an inheritance this world does not and the world cannot spoil.  No better way to spend your time then thinking about our inheritance.  The joy should overflow us.  It should put Jesus on our lips often.  For how glad we are to have our hope in something so wonderful.  To know others can have that as well!

For a little while - not long.  This world will distress and I will endure temptations and suffer through not giving in.

Trials (without me) and temptations (within me) are real.  This world is here for a short while.  In my inheritance it will be gone.  The distresses over trials in their world can be let go - for God says it's temporary.  It's ok to suffer under my own temptation.  God has something better planned and He will use the trials and temptation to make me holy.   He will enable me. 

1 Peter 1:2 and 3 b Choosen

(A) Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: (B) May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be realized in and through Christ, freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts]. 1 Peter 1:2 (A and B added)

A:  Look at the faith Peter has.  It is genuine faith he is writing about to encourage other Christians.  His faith and love for Christ carried him to obedience to what Jesus instructed.  I am chosen.  I am known by god - He consecrated me with His Holy Spirit to be obedient to Jesus and sprinkled - saved me - by His blood.  All these holy things are me as part of Christ.  God chose me.  He knew I would be His before I submitted to Him.

B:  I have freedom in Christ.  I am free from fears.  Free from my sinful nature.  It is no longer part of me.  I have grace through Christ.

By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,1 Peter 1:3b

God's mercy spared me from my sin and consequences (eternal death and temporal results of sin).  His mercy brought me out of sin and into blessings.  In Him I place my never ending hope.  What confidence Peter has in Christ.  I love reading about it. 

 

Love of Emptiness - Part 3

What I like most about this term – love of emptiness – is the fact I do not love emptiness, yet it describes my habits!!  Being able to name it means I can recognize it and be alert when it creeps into my life.  I can follow the prompting of Holy Spirit when I’m doing empty things. 

When I argued back about the ease of hopping on the computer, or flipping on TV, just to fill a little time.  The little time that I couldn’t devote to real study of God’s word or be able to clean anything properly.  The excuses went on and on.  Perhaps this should have been my first clue that I was truly in the wrong.

So I asked Him to lead me to make His word available to me.  Help me figure out that setting down to read a short passage, without all the bells and whistles a “true” Bible study had to it.  (Not that I never did this, it’s just rebelling against doing it regularly.) 

I began to obey.  I left my morning study open and Bible open so I could just sit down and jump right in.  God did deliver me from TV watching – because I asked Him.  It was slow going, I was reaching for the computer more than the Bible, but that was coming.  God is delivering me from the mindless activities.  Giving me motivation to do what I really need to do. 

so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

God word does not come back empty.  It fills, makes beauty where ashes once where.  It reveals Jesus where only ugly sin once was.  Filling the emptiness with God, becoming so content with Him that nothing else will do.  

Love of Emptiness - Part 2

We fill the emptiness of our lives with a hundred pieces of world.  The smart phone is this – it must be check, must be looked at, must have the latest app to simplify your life in a complicated way!

We must stop!  It reminds me of the Never Ending Story that Nothing is slowly taking over the imagination of children therefore consuming all of  Fantastica.  The Nothing is spreading yet many are unaware of it coming.

You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. Micah 6:14a

It is the same with any habitual sin.  We’re always seeking to fill up on the world, but since we are not filling up on what last, we are empty.

What to do? 

It is asking God to make me aware of His presence.  To help me focus on His word.  It remove the sinful habits of going to email, computer time, TV that consume my day. 

It’s not just stopping the above actions and bam, I’m no longer empty.  For Jesus said:

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” Matthew 12:43-45

So we are to replace the emptiness.  For me, God prompted me to begin journaling first thing, writing out scripture and writing what He speaks to me.  This was the first step.  It meant I got up about 15-30 minutes earlier to have that quiet time.  And for someone who loves sleep, this is a big deal.  Slowly, God showed me how to replace the emptiness.

Proverbs 10:11

Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. 

This is the second time part b is mentioned.  Part a supports love covers a multitude of sin (verse 12).  Encourage and edify one another.  My words can be a fountain of life or a source of death.  I've written before on this point.  I want my words to be a fountain of life for others (and me).  My self talk is often worse the what I speak to others.  Do my words align with God's words?  Am I speaking truth?  God's word is the fountain of Life, direct from Jesus!

Lord put a guard over my mouth so my words honor You and bring life to others.

Proverbs 10:8

Proverbs 10:8
A wise heart accepts commands but a chattering fool comes to ruin.  

Part B is repeated in verse 10.  It is all about what comes out of the mouth (which comes from the heart).  If I'm interested only in speaking, I run out of things to talk about, I move onto other people - as in gossip, not excluding a busybody.  Chattering indicates nothing useful, just sound.  What can turn me wise?  By shutting my mouth and accepting the commands given to me by my Father!

Proverbs 10:9
The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes a crooked path will be found out.

integrity:  the quality or state of being complete or undivided (www.m-w.com)

 One thing I've learned through my BSF studies is the importance of integrity and how God desires that from His people, how He is (faithful).  Integrity means no compromise, being faithful, tempered, dedicated to God's decrees wholly.  A person with integrity goes the extra mile out of love and finishes all things with excellence.  My goal in life is to finish with excellence bringing God glory each day, in that I am securely in Christ.

Proverbs 10: 4-5

Proverbs 10: 4-5
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.  He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

Again, I can see the truth in looking at my life.  During my 20s I was lazy.  My priorities were wrong.  When I had time to myself, I did nothing - which I sought more than anything.  It did make me poor- for I spent my money, time on gaining nothing but my own laziness (ex. eating out often).  I have made great strides in this area for the Lord has granted me motivation.  Motivation to spend my life loving Him and others.  I thank God for this motivation, that His wisdom is making me new!

Summer Fun

God has called me to lead a Bible Study in my home for my daughter and her friends.  My goal is to instill a thorough knowledge of love and what that will look like when acted out in daily life.

So 1 Corinthians 13 here we come.  It is a Treasure Island theme.  I'll have crafts to go along as well, which will include a palm tree with what love is written on the leaves and treasure boxes.  I'm also researching some nature skills that is appropriate for a 8 year old to know.  That means we'll skip the fire starters.  Initial skills is to identify some trees.  Perhaps some herbs.  And around my house we have a lot of examples of poison ivy and oak.  As a side not, I'm note allergic to poison ivy, but poison oak is the worst.

I'm really looking forward to breaking down scripture and interacting with the girls to see what it really means to leave that out.  I know I have a lot to learn right along with them.  I've felt this tug over the summer before to reach out, however I always allowed my selfish side to kick in and say summer is for me and my girl.  I know it will be a lot of work, but it will be so worth it! 

I'll post more when I get it all together. 

Proverbs 10:1

This begins my summer walk through of Proverbs.  I'm not following any plans and I'm beginning in chapter 10.  I may go back to 1-9 if I have time at the end.

Proverbs 10:1
The proverbs of Solomon.  A wise son brings joy to his father, but  a foolish son grief to his mother.

I can observe the truth of this passage in my own family.  When someone is acting foolish - the grief my parents feel.  With seven siblings, there are ample supply for each to act foolishly.  some are foolish and can never seem to get life right, since they do not know the wisdom of God.  They pursue their own pleasure over real pleasure of God.  Others have gained some wisdom and bring comfort.  In times of turmoil, I am the one my mother usually calls for comfort.  Not that I am perfect, as I have written about that many times, but it is my firm stance in Christ that comforts her.  God has granted me wisdom to help her in her walk with Him, in that I am blessed.

Teach Me Luke - 10

I have participated in the Luke study put on by Good Morning Girls.  I decided to go ahead a use some of the lessons here.
 

Read 5:1-11, SOAP 5:6, 11

 
Determination and His timing are in this passage. Are you determined to try one more time? Do it the way God is prompting? Peter and his partners fished all night and caught nothing. They cleaned their nets while Jesus used their boats to minister to the people on shore. Tired, wore out, done fishing for the day, Peter was ready to go home. He had fished most of his life. He knew how to fish. This night just didn't produce anything when he did everything he knew about fishing.

Jesus then gives him specific directions to catch fish. It went against everything Peter knew about fishing. In the deep? During the day? No, that isn't how you fish. What if Peter said no? What if he allowed his pride to say 'I know better, I did it how it's suppose to be done with no avail.' He would have missed out on the abundant blessing of fish. Missed out on a chance to spend the rest of his life following Jesus.  

I will listen for when God says go - this time it's in my timing, abundant blessings are waiting for you. Only time with Him will allow me to recognize His voice, His prompting.

Teach Me Luke - 9

I have participated in the Luke study put on by Good Morning Girls.  I decided to go ahead a use some of the lessons here. 

Read 4:20-30, SOAP 4:24, 27

Oh, this passage struck a cord. 

Application:
1. Don't allow those who know my past and their rejection of the renewed me (and their idea on what a Christian should be like) to prevent me from doing what God has called me to, nor interfere with the work He is doing in me - I'm not perfect - but I'm on my way!
2. Do I try to determine someone to be a leper, not able to be cleansed by Jesus? Who am I declaring to be beyond God's healing power? Sadly, the very people who reject me because I know their past, their sin and endured their harden hearts. (Don't you just love the speck/log truth? The sin I so easily see in others surprises me when I see it in my own heart.) I have renewed determination that God can and will reach these gentiles. 

 Oh Lord, send your instrument into their lives, turn their hearts to You, that they may experience Your cleansing. I look forward to the work You will accomplish in their lives. Praise You for the work I've already seen. Thank you Jesus! Amen

Teach Me Luke - 8

I have participated in the Luke study put on by Good Morning Girls.  I decided to go ahead a use some of the lessons here.

Read Luke 4:1-13, SOAP 4:4, 8, 12

Jesus' fast and temptation - He knew how to handle it well! 3 types: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16) - can you pick out which temptation is which root sin? Extra credit is to read Genesis 3 and pick out the temptation that lured Eve to sin.

What I loved about today's SOAP is Jesus had the armor of God on (Ephesians 6). He wielded the sword, our only offensive weapon is the WORD, at Satan every time he attacked. My A was: Am I in the word enough, know it enough to be able to wield it when I am tempted? What changes do I need to make to Bible time the must have, base of my schedule and put everything else around it - not the other way around? I'm heading the right direction and GMG study is helping me get there.

In studying Genesis 22, I just had to share part of the lecture on temptation and test. First, God does not tempt us (James 1:13). Temptation seeks your failure, to have you succumb to the lure of sin. Second, God does test us to prove your faith (1 Peter 1:7). Testing seeks your success, grows your faith, proves your reliance on God to persevere and to have an opportunity to bear good fruit. We can fail on both points on our own. With God's grace, we continue on until we reach maturity in Christ. I just love how God worked these two studies together today. It's all part of His plan.

Teach Me Luke - 7

I have participated in the Luke study put on by Good Morning Girls.  I decided to go ahead a use some of the lessons here.  

Read 3:19-38, SOAP 3:22

Today's passage is slightly longer. It goes over one of the genealogies of Christ. What I love about genealogies - They are no longer boring list of names, these are people God choose to be part of His holy line. Everyone is important to God. God had a plan - from all they way back to Adam for this day. The whole OT foreshadows it. The whole NT glorifies it. God has placed us all where we are so His mighty hand could be seen in our lives. He wants you to want Him. Are you willing to spend time with Him today?

Applications: I am in Jesus and Jesus is in me. Every moment Holy Spirit is transforming me to be like Jesus. That means I am loved and I delight God, just as Jesus in me is loved and delights His Father. Do I live with an active knowledge bring joy to my heart?

Teach Me Luke - 6

I have participated in the Luke study put on by Good Morning Girls.  I decided to go ahead a use some of the lessons here.  

Read 3:10-14, SOAP 3:10-11.

And the multitudes asked him, Then what shall we do? And he replied to them, He who has two tunics (undergarments), let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do it the same way.  Luke 3:10-11

Application:  ask God what my repentance should look like.  I can't determine what it means, only God can.  I often think I know what it would look like, just stop doing what I was doing that was wrong.  Yet on the verse 11 - making it about other people. What do I have in which I can share? What need do I see that I can show my love and meet?