Peter's final warnings

Coming to the end of a journey through Peter's letters,  into chapter 3. There is a great sense of urgency, a desire that we keep focused, not letting others sway us but living mindful of the moment and times we live in.: "First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, they’ll mock, “So what’s happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed.”

I want that sense of urgency. I want to live a BIG life, not a little one: and who knows how much time we have, anyway? "... what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God..."And yet..."for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day."

And yet. I struggle, daily, with living out grace. I find myself reacting badly to and in situations at work, at home...and there are the 'ought to's above...

Other people seem to have it together. Gretchen Saffles quotes Christine Caine: “Her success is not your failure.”

I have linked to Gretchen's article, but it is so full of wisdom I am quoting it here:

"The success of other women (the amount of followers, the number of sales, the opportunities of others, the influence of others) is never to be compared with the task that God has set before you. Never. The dangers of this comparison game is that it sneaks its way into the church! Women in Bible studies and in areas of leadership compare their influence and styles with each other. It can happen even without us noticing it. After all, Satan’s ways are crafty, deceptive and cunning. He knows exactly where to shoot a dart at a us to make us crippled in what God has called us to do.

In 1 Peter 3:8-12, Peter was well aware of the disruptive nature of comparison and commanded the church to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind.” It all begins with each woman seeking to follow Christ. We must on a foundation of making Jesus famous throughout the whole earth. Whatever means that happens should be a joy to us. Whether it is through another’s ministry or through the daily tasks God sets before us in working hard and caring for our family. We are all living this life for one purpose: the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

It is easy to have the head knowledge of our purpose, but we need for this truth to sink deep into our hearts and take root. We are all in this life together! One way we see the fruit of this truth in our lives is when we can rejoice with the success of others and bless them instead of bring them down or point out their faults. Even more-so, when we can encourage them and help them along in their pursuit to make Christ known. Anyone else feel a little sting in their hearts reading that?The biggest way to defeat and crush comparison and discouragement in our hearts is to rejoice with others. Also, the easiest way to know what is rooted in your heart is to take note of what comes out of your mouth in these moments.

Have you ever said something that shocked you? I have been surprised by things that have come out of my mouth (especially in marriage). The Lord uses what we say to reveal to us what is in our heart. Matthew 15:18-20 tells us that what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. When you see someone succeed, does a blessing come first, or a discouraging remark? As women who seek after God’s heart together, we are to be grace speakers into the lives of others, giving them praise and blessings because we have been blessed by the hand of God ourselves. 

1 Peter 3:10-12 gives us a list of descriptions that should fit our talk: “let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit”, “turn away from evil and do good”, and pray righteous prayers before God our Father. Just as Isaiah’s mouth was cleansed by the seraphim touching a coal to it (Isaiah 6:4-6), so have we been cleansed by the blood of Jesus washing over us. Our mouths were created to be tools to bless, not to curse. The speech that comes out of our mouth should come from a heart that is a recipient of grace and a giver of grace as well. No one is perfect. I am not perfect. You are not perfect. Only God is perfect, and He dwells in us as believers. Through Him, we can live in the grace of God and extend it to those in need.

Today, choose to bless someone with the fruit of your mouth. If this is a struggle for you, spend some time in prayer, asking the Lord to uproot the envy in your heart and plant a seed of blessing, faith and unity instead. We were created to bless and be blessed.

• What is flowing from your mouth today? Who do you need to encourage?
• Have you been harboring bitterness or envy in your heart towards a sister in Christ? Confess it to the Lord and ask Him to give you a new heart. Dwell on Ephesians 4:31-32."

I don't struggle overly with bitterness or envy towards other Christian women (at the moment, that is: I have in the past) but, underneath, is an insidious belief that I do need to be 'as good as' in my relationships with my colleagues.

Perhaps a little more humility, a lot more gentleness, a huge heap of compassion and a ton of encouragement towards my co-workers AND my bosses would turn a difficult work situation around? And do so, for the glory of God? I say I want to live a 'big' life - do I dare take 'big' risks?

My prayer is that I have the courage to do this when I am back at work. Serve and honour God by the way I live. ...Make certain that the Lord finds me pure, spotless, and living at peace....Let the wonderful kindness and the understanding that come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help me to keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever!

God is in control

1 Peter 5:10 - 11 But God shows undeserved kindness to everyone. That’s why he appointed Christ Jesus to choose you to share in his eternal glory. You will suffer for a while, but God will make you complete, steady, strong, and firm.
God will be in control forever! Amen.

Thinking this morning about Joseph, and how God used his sufferings for great good. How he learned forgiveness and humility; living an upright life.

Difficult to learn without suffering.

My prayer is that I accept the 'suffering' I go through (which is not much, really: just loss of pride and reputation; loss of friendships and relationships; loss of confidence...) rather than trying to control my circumstances to suit myself.

And perhaps I can begin to pray Jennie Allen's prayer 'anything':

Anything. God. Anything.
And in that one little word we turned in everything for God’s anything.
Every dream for our lives.
Every dollar and possession.
Every safety and comfort.
Every person’s approval.
Every ambition.
Everything.

And we opened our entire lives up to anything God had for us.
Any risk.
Any country.
Any act of obedience.
Any dream God had for us.
Anything.

And Christine Caine: He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. — Psalm 147:3

I had to tackle many challenges from my past in order to step into my God-given destiny. I was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted when I was born and am living proof that no matter how you start in life, you can take charge of your life and run to win. We do not need to live like victims; rather we can appropriate the truth of the Word of God in every area of our lives and experience complete healing and wholeness.

If I had not allowed God’s Word to bring healing into my life, I would not be fulfilling my destiny now. Despite having the God-given gifts and talents that I needed, I was so weak emotionally that my soul would not allow me to go where my gifts could take me. It was crucial that I dealt with all the areas of brokenness in my heart.

Our inner world totally affects our outer world. If there is a disparity between what’s going on inside our hearts and what’s happening in our external world, we will eventually implode; our lives will break down or blow up. The Bible is full of examples of people who did not run their race and finish their course because they did not deal with issues of their soul.

Ensure that you allow God to work deeply in you so that he is able to work powerfully through you.
Moment of Reflection

Is your inner world affecting your outer world in positive or negative ways?

Love

Life is sometimes very, very challenging. Ill-health, difficulties at work, problems with relationships, uncertainty of all kinds...sometimes it just seems as if nothing is going right in any way.

But I can still breathe.

And as I breathe, I pray. I pray with words and without. I pray my words and those of others, when I can remember them. But above all, I pray the Lord's Prayer.

Today, I got stuck on 'Our father'. I found myself thanking God for my husband, that He is OUR father together, that we are no longer orphans (in the sense of the world, as all our parents have passed on now) but that HE fathers us.

And Peter says:
"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

Cheri Gregory offers an interesting take on this:
"In the classic “Hero’s Journey” paradigm, heroism and villainy involve the same two core elements:

sacrifice and salvation
A hero sacrifices herself to save others.
A villain sacrifices others to save herself....

it all comes down to surrender.

The choice to:
live like a villain, sacrificing others to save myself.

or
surrender to the one true Hero – the One who sacrificed himself to save me,
quit chasing Holy Grails,
hear (from the One who heard from his own Father, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”) “I’m so glad you’re my daughter!”
receive His Blessing…

…and start bestowing."

Love is indeed the answer to all our troubles. Putting others first, remembering that God is OUR (not just MY) father, because God loves me. 

I don't need to EARN it by loving others.

I don't need to GRAB it by being selfish.

God loves me anyway. Just as I am. No conditions.

Wow.

And so, knowing this, I can be generous:
"Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help....

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.... 

Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well. ...Everything should be done in a way that will bring honor to God because of Jesus Christ 1 Peter 4:10 - 11

Living. well.

1 Peter 3

"What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition.
Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. ...

...Be like-minded, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

No giving back as good as I get, no wish to get revenge.

Whoever wants to embrace life
and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
on those who do evil things.

If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.

He went and proclaimed God’s salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn’t listen. You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact—saved from the water by the water. The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus’ resurrection before God with a clear conscience. Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. He’s standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.

Obedience. The ultimate example.

Today is Good Friday. As I walk through 1 Peter, I arrive, today, at the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy. Who would have thought it, those hundreds of years earlier, that THIS description would be that of the longed-for king. The leader who would come and restore Israel to its former glory and rescue the people from oppression and slavery.

But "The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him."

This is what Peter says: "They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls."

"Although he was abused, he never tried to get even.
And when he suffered,
he made no threats.
Instead, he had faith in God,
who judges fairly.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats."
He said nothing back.
He suffered in silence.
He LET GOD be in charge.

My example. Sin often takes over, directing my ungodly responses to difficulty and 'suffering' far more often than I would like, but I am always brought back to this day, to Jesus and what HE suffered.

My difficulties are nothing in proportion to that.
My forgiveness and obedience is called to be everything in response.

1 Peter 2:11 - 17

Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. 

Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul or surrender to those desires that fight against you. 

Always let others see you behaving properly, even though they may still accuse you of doing wrong. 

Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then on the day of judgment, they will honor God by telling the good things they saw you do and be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.

Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens: he wants you to obey all human authorities. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. 

It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society: you will silence stupid and ignorant people by doing right.. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. You are free, but still you are God’s servants, and you must not use your freedom as an excuse for doing wrong.

Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Respect everyone and show special love for God’s people. Love your spiritual family.

Revere God. Respect the government.

(The Message and CEV combined for emphasis and clarity.)

As I read the Epistles, I am again and again reminded of all my mistakes and how very far short I fall of God's standards. I feel as if I am continually striving to improve, to reach a standard of 'perfection' that seems absolutely unattainable.

Far from making progress, I seem to slip further and further back. 

My sinful responses to awkward situations increase.

I become less generous and forgiving.

I behave more and more badly.

BUT Paul encourages me:

"But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do.  What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.

So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin."

And so does Alan Redpath:

"When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible man, and he crushes him."[...
"The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime."
"The Christian life doesn't get easier as one gets older."

But I don't beat myself up. I realise that these exhortations and admonitions are written in the Bible because others struggled as I do. They were written because they were needed. 

Life hasn't changed. 

Wise Peter, his wisdom gained through weakness and betrayal, through faithfulness and love, through suffering and sorrow...

May I have the courage to keep on deciding and deciding and deciding with my mind to serve God. 

To decide with my mind to live an exemplary life.

And, when my selfish desires try to take over, to remind myself that I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

And remind myself of all those who have done that and are persecuted. I determine, again, to know Christ in the power of His suffering.

However small that looks in my life.

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:7 - 11

The Cornerstone

And so I seek Jesus, for he is - he HAS to be - the foundation of my life. The cornerstone.

Christ alone, cornerstone,
weak made strong in the Saviour's love,Through the storm
He is Lord
Lord of all



My hope is built on nothing lessThan Jesus blood and righteousnessI dare not trust the sweetest frameBut wholly trust in Jesus name

Christ alone; cornerstoneWeak made strong; in the Saviour's loveThrough the storm, He is LordLord of all

When Darkness seems to hide His faceI rest on His unchanging graceIn every high and stormy galeMy anchor holds within the veilMy anchor holds within the veil

Christ alone; cornerstoneWeak made strong; in the Saviour's loveThrough the storm, He is LordLord of all

When He shall come with trumpet sound,Oh, may I then in Him be found;Dressed in His righteousness alone,Faultless stand before the throne.                      Hillsong, 2012

Peter reminds that Jesus is precious to me, but not others.

"To you who trust him, he’s a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him,

'The stone the workmen threw out
is now the chief foundation stone.

For the untrusting it’s

'. . . a stone to trip over,
a boulder blocking the way.'

They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted."

But i do not need to fear those who oppose the Good News:
Matthew Henry says, about Isaiah 8:14 which Peter quotes here: "The believing fear of God preserves against the disquieting fear of man."

The Lord All-Powerful
will destroy the power of death
and wipe away all tears.
No longer will his people
be insulted everywhere.
The Lord has spoken!

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. He is my support, everything on which my life is based:

"But you are God’s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say,

Once you were nobody.
Now you are God’s people.
At one time no one
had pity on you.
Now God has treated you
with kindness."

We ARE God's people, we who believe.

Me too. Even me.

Once I was nobody.

Now I am God's chosen.

God has treated - and treats me - with great kindness.

How can I do any less towards others?

Save me, God, from my sin and selfishness!

Becoming clean(er)

1 Peter 2:1
"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
Stop being hateful! Quit trying to fool people, and start being sincere. Don’t be jealous or say cruel things about others.
So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk."

Oh, I wish. I wish I COULD get completely rid of all of these. And as I struggle to become who I really am, I beloved daughter of God, I grieve over these faults.

I manage, usually, not to act on my feelings. 

But sometimes they get the better of me.

And I am not alone. I read, many times, of others who struggle like this as well.

I gain wisdom. And as Peter says, in the Message, 'clean house', I am reminded of a story which both Matthew and Luke recount: " “When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place.”

So, as I do make a clean sweep, just for a moment, of malice etc etc, I am reminded of the NEED, the ABSOLUTE ;NECESSITY, of living with the Holy Spirit. Making sure that I fill my 'clean spaces' with Him: HIS thoughts, HIS attitudes, HIS intentions.  I cannot eliminate my feelings - but I can stop them taking over. And I can do this by cultivating an attitude of generosity, replacing negative feelings with positive words, criticism with compliments, unkindness with kindness...

'taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ'.

And how? Peter goes on to say: 

"You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God. Be like newborn babies who are thirsty for the pure spiritual milk that will help you grow and be saved. You have already found out how good the Lord really is."

Seek Jesus: "Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor. Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God."

Present myself to Jesus. Only be staying close in his presence do I have a prayer of managing.

Inspiration for living life loving

Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. (You obeyed the truth, and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart.) 

Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said,

The old life is a grass life,
its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers;
Grass dries up, flowers droop,
God’s Word goes on and on forever.

This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.

God's Word.

Not just words from God on a page in the Bible, but God's Word. 
The Word that was made flesh. Jesus. 
The Word which was there at the beginning, before Creation.
The Word who promised that He would be with us always and for ever.
The Word who promised to send us another to help and encourage us - His spirit.

I have new life. I can leave everything that belongs to the old life behind - not just when I die, but now.

I can leave my sinful desires out of my life if I choose to love others as if my life depends on it. 

I can be free from being a slave to my sin. I do not have to give in to temptation. 

I CAN. 

Live rightly - for the best Reason

1 Peter 1:17, 21: "You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Live out your time here as (a) foreigner(s) with reverent fear.

I am a foreigner in my workplace, my community, my 'frontline' as Mark Greene (author of Fruitfulness on the Frontline) would put it.

...Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God."

A deep consciousness of God. As Matthew Henry says, "the Word of God been planted in my heart by the Holy Ghost. is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life."

I feel this. Not often, but just now, as I struggle with angry thoughts and wishes for revenge. I feel my thoughts in an uncomfortable struggle inside me.

Almost like a feeling of indigestion, where the body struggles to digest unpalatable foods, I feel my ungodly responses trying to rise to the surface and spill out of my mouth. I feel the struggle and live in grateful amazement that my sin is not winning my soul. It is NOT turned into action.

I live with huge tension, constantly trying to turn every thought into obedience to Christ, I am discovering this truth: "Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored." Romans 8:5-6

And so 1 Peter 1:21 says: "It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God...Through him (Christ) you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."

My faith and hope are in God. That 0 and WHO -  is what enables me to get through times of trials.

Living generously

I read Peter's call to holiness, to right living, to a generous life: "So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. (Put all your hope in how kind God will be to you when Jesus Christ appears.)Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. 
As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”

And I have just written of living generously, and the cost to my self will, the need to kill my selfish desires:

Living generously
is not about giving out of my riches
but my need.

I forgive my enemy
the friend who has betrayed
the colleague who has put me down

open-handedly giving away
my need to win the argument
my desire for love and rognition
my wish for revenge.

  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Living generously
is not about benevolent feelings
but selfless actions.

I bless my enemy
do good to the friend who has betrayed
speak well of the colleague who has put me down.

grudgingly putting away
a desire to wound
yearning for a nasty response
craving harm.

  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Living generously
shows me how far short I fall
of perfection.

And how can I do this? Because I have received the gift of life that is Jesus. Because he has saved me from condemnation  because he loves me. Because I can be joyous and endure because of him.Because.

I set my mind on things above.

Keep on keeping on

Eternity. The prospect of life for ever with Jesus. When I think of it, REALLY think of it, imagining life where there is no pain or heartbreak, no sorrow or tears, no dull ache of emptiness and grief...yes, I know this to be true: 

"I know how great this makes you feel, 

even though you have to put up 

with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. 

... 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."

And what IS my faith? 

My faith is in believing that Jesus died because of MY ugliness and sin: I cannot try to beautify it, ignore or hide it.

My faith is in believing that if I follow Jesus' example, I will try my best to live a life of self-sacrifice and care for others - recognising that I cannot achieve 'goodness' or 'greatness' in my own efforts. I can only do what little I can, steeped in imperfection and the possibility of mistakes, and offer it to Jesus to use.

(A bit like grubby uncooked pastry which 4 year old me offered to my grandmother. I remember my puzzlement that she didn't seem to want it...)

Because: "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."

Keep on believing.

Living for eternity

1 Peter 1: 3 - 5 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.

And so I can rest. And smile at the future. God has it.

For, as Angela says over at Love God Greatly:
"This is the reality for those who are found in Christ. Here Peter writes a letter of hope to a people, then and now, who are suffering, hurting… who are needing to be reminded that there is this amazing inheritance waiting for them when they get to heaven. An inheritance beyond anything they can ever imagine. A place with no more pain, sadness or heartbreak. A place were we are finally complete, whole… and without sin.

The place our hearts and minds have been aching for since we drew our first breath. Home. Our real home. 
...Like Peter states at the very beginning of Chapter One, we are strangers in the world.

This is not our home. So let’s start living with this truth in mind.

Let’s stop trying to make heaven here on earth.

Let’s stop trying to “save” for the future, and instead pour our lives into NOW.

Jesus is coming back you all, and with the passing of each day His arrival is getting closer and closer. Let’s spend our days wisely, investing in what will last for eternity…"

Spend my days wisely. The second time in as many days I have been reminded of this. Reminded of Andy Stanley's advice: "In the light of my previous experiences, my present circumstances and my future hopes and dreams: what is the wise thing to do?"

The wise thing is to dress myself with compassion, seeing others through Jesus' eyes. Treating others as I want to be treated. Remembering that this earth is not my home and what matters here is only what is of eternal significance.

"Only one life, will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."