God’s Word Daily

The Acorn and The Promise

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Scripture:  1 Peter 1:23-25

22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24for

“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Observations:

The capacity to love come from the new birth we experience in Jesus.

The Word of God is not a perishable seed, it is an everlasting seed.  It is a living and abiding–taking up residence in our lives kind of seed.

The flesh withers like grass and its beauty fades.

BUT, the word of the Lord remains forever.  The Good News is the word preached, and it lasts forever.

Application:

A seed has incredible promise.  Right now I’m carrying around an acorn.  I’m able to look out my window and see the kind of tree it produces.  One seed. Over time. A massive tree–producing thousands of new seeds!  Years ago during university, my friends Jeff and Malea Glenn gave me an acorn as a reminder of what God and His Word can do in our lives.  I carried it around in my coat pocket for years.  Their simple gift gave me courage and hope to keep on trusting God and applying His Word in my life.

Life is short.  But the word of the Lord remains forever and what the Good News does in our lives lasts forever.  And here’s the amazing thing… the Word of God through Jesus is producing love in our relationships where we live, work, and play.

Life is short, so feed on the Word of God.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for this body, that is able to carrying around in it the new life secured for me at Jesus’ great expense!  Now may your Word produce the life of love you intended.  Thank you for the eternal life I have with you now.  Please give me wisdom to prioritize the passing demands of life with the eternal glory of life with you.  AMEN.

Trust and Love

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Scripture:     Read 1 Peter 1:21-22

21Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

22You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
Observation:

Jesus and the Gospel restores and makes it possible for our trust in God to grow.

Responding to Jesus and the Gospel is a form of obedience that cleanses us from sin; sin impacts our relationships.  Sin complicates life such that its difficult to love.  But now in Christ we can love sincerely and deeply.

Application:

Two things I know that need to keep happening in my life.  1.  To keep trusting God.  Jesus is making this possible.  He has shown how trust worthy God is.  And 2.  To keep letting Jesus cleanse me of sin so that my love capacities grow.

Without these two works of God’s grace I will use people rather than love them.  And I will get stuck in patterns of unbelief, not trusting God with my life, being independent from Him and having a low tolerance for the stressors of life, easily adopting lust, gluttony, anger, impatience, prejudice, and self-righteousness as the go-to positions of my heart.

Prayer:     Heavenly Father thank you so much for giving me the grace to trust you.  Forgive me, cleanse me for the unbelief that lurks in my heart.  That unbelief is so destructive!  Cleanse me and give me the grace to love sincerely.  Give me the courage to take off the masks that keep me from loving and being loved.  Cause the love of our church to grow so that we can “love each other deeply with all our hearts.”  AMEN.

 

Awesome God!

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Scripture:     1 Peter 1:17-20 NLT

17And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” 18For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 19It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.

Observation:

The fact that God, our heavenly Father, judges our lives, creates a most awesome love for Him.  — reverent fear — generated by a new awareness that He has sacrificially paid the ransom for our souls through Jesus.

Observations on this question:  What does this passage reveal about God?
God is our heavenly Father.
God hears our prayers.
God judges our lives.
God rewards us according to the manner of our lives.
God has paid the ransom to bring us into a meaningful life rather than an empty life.
God paid the ransom with the blood of Jesus.
Jesus is the sinless, spotless, Lamb of God.
God chose Jesus as our ransom before the world began.
God reveals Jesus the ransom to those He is calling out.

Application:

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, Grace is not cheap:  “cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

The Gospel of Jesus’ grace and the forgiveness His gives me, makes me fully alive to the reality of God and creates a thoughtful, love-generated, awe of God.  God is awesome!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, you are awesome!  Thank you for the grace of knowing you.  I’m amazed that you paid the price for my freedom.  Thank you for revealing Jesus to me and ushering me into a meaningful and full life.  Give me wisdom for living today.  I give you my life so that you may reveal Jesus to others and give this grace to them.  AMEN.

Be Holy. But How?

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Scripture: 1 Peter 1:14-16

14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Observation:

Vs. 14 — Peter gives us a contrast with a way of life when we were not redeemed and regenerated by Jesus.  “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.”

Now we are children of God, born of the Spirit and the Father’s will.

Now we have a capacity for obedience that we lacked before.

This capacity for obedience in our behaviour is enlarged as we experience the relationship with God that the Gospel now makes possible:  we are called into relationship with the Holy God.    vs. 15

For now by the Gospel we have been made holy.  vs. 16  “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Application:  Be holy, but how?

Holiness has to do with relationships.  It is a quality of God that is reflected in His relationships.  He is without fault, uncleanness, or imperfection.  God is holy.

To be brought into relationship with God required the work of Jesus expressed in the Gospel.  Through this Gospel we are forgiven, cleansed, declared righteous, and brought into relationship with God through the work of Jesus Christ at the cross.

To be holy in my conduct, means that in my conduct in relationships begins to reflect the character of God.  The Law is helpful to let me see God’s vision for relationships.  However, the rules do not accomplish holiness in me.  It is the grace of God through Jesus’ love and power that establishes holiness.  Now “being” holy, is a product of relationship with God.

What He has worked into me, I must now work out.  The Spirit is empowering us to pushing back against the conforming mold of our sinful passions.

Prayer:     Oh Heavenly Father, Yes I agree with you! I know my sin and I am far from your holiness in my own strength.  Lord have mercy on me and continue your transforming work.  Without the Gospel of Jesus, I would be consumed by your holiness.  Instead you have forgiven me, and cleansed me.  Now by your power, let me BE holy!  Show me my relational patterns that are not holy and lead me in the way of Jesus.  AMEN.

Thinking Grace

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Scripture:   1 Peter 1:13-14

13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

 

Observation:  

Peter recognizes that the Christian life is inclined toward action.  vs 13.

But, we must prepare our minds for action.  And we must be concerned about what kind of action we are giving ourselves to.

Sober-minded:  A kind of clarity and rationality.  NOT — drunk, unclear, foggy, or acting without wisdom.  We know what we are doing and we have considered the implications.

Our preparation consists on a kind of “Gospel-thinking” that considers the grace that is ours by the revealing of Jesus Christ.

Application:

Habits come in all shapes and sizes in our lives:  emotional, physical, mental, and social.  Their impact can be life-giving or deathly.  Habits by definition become “automated.”  In our life before receiving Jesus’ life-giving Spirit we may have lived without thought about the impact of some habits; they were our passions and we just responded without thought.

A new kind of thinking discipline is required.  Gospel-thinking moves us into a contemplation of our relationships informed by God.  We are realistic about the brokenness we experience in this world, but we are also extraordinarily hopeful because of the entrance of Jesus into our relationships–His humble birth, His ministry, His redemptive work on the cross, and His victory over death in the Resurrection.  Now by the power of His Spirit we glorify the Father by living through the perspective of the Cross in all our relationships.

This kind of thinking prepares us for action.  Action with Jesus is a grace-gift we live in now.  The Scripture proclaims “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” (See Romans 12:1-3.

Prayer:   Heavenly Father train me for action by guiding me with your Spirit to meditate on the glory of the Gospel of your Son.  Thank you for loving me.  Now by the grace given me may I act with love for you and for people.  AMEN.