2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
Our society forces us to be goal-oriented from the time we go to school. Such notions as taking a series of courses so that you will pass certain test and fulfill the requirements for a certain degree are motivating drives. Ideas like putting in your time to “pay your dues” before you can attain that career goal overshadow any other approach. It seems that we are always doing something tough or painful to earn the right to some happiness. Sadly, most of us forget the joy that can come from the process, the happiness we can have right now with the attitude God would like us to have. My favorite artist, Thomas Kinkade who wrote a wonderful book which I recommend called “Lightposts for Living,” is one man who has figured out how to capture this joy in the process. He is a God-led person who has realized that we can stop searching, because happiness is inside of us-put there by our loving Abba- if we will only take the time to find Him and thus, it. This doesn’t mean that we have to ignore practical goals like getting the right courses to earn a degree or doing the right jobs to gain the experience and knowledge we need in our careers to finally attain that dream job. It simply means that we can have joy in the process of getting there if we answer the call to holy living. That is the subject of today’s passage, 1 PET 1: 13-16.
Before I cite today’s passage, let me share the ones from which it comes. That will let us see that this teaching about holy living was nothing new in Peter’s time. LV 11: 44-45, “I am the Lord your God, and you must keep yourselves holy, because I am holy. I am the Lord Who brought you out of Egypt so that I could be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy.” This very same teaching is repeated in LV 19: 1-2, “The Lord told Moses to say to the community of Israel, ‘Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’ ” Learn for learning’s sake; work for the sake of the joy of accomplishment it can give. Be holy, because God is holy, and we need to be as close to like Him as we can. Know this latter comment has nothing to do with self-righteousness and everything to do with righteousness. Now, here is today’s passage, 1 PET 1: 13-16. “So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant. Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God Who called you is holy. The Scriptures [LV 11: 44-45 & LV 19:1-2] say, ‘Be holy because I am holy.”
My husband, Peter’s, experience being out of work for so long may very well have been God’s way of forcing both of us to appreciate the real value to us of holy living. All those human goals for which we had both so long worked were in jeopardy, our very ability to own a home, to retire some day, our dream to travel the world in the future were in question. It would have been easy for us to question our worth, to be angry at God for dealing us such a blow, and to throw up our hands and say, “I give up!” That is what the fleshly self does. But, God knew that He had equipped us not to do those things. He was teaching us a lesson about relying on Him, waiting for His timing, and revealing to us our ability to stay grounded in our faith. We both knew that Satan and not God is often at fault for the evil things that happen in people’s lives. Yet people often blame God. Throughout the whole experience, we knew that God never stopped loving or protecting us. While it was painful at the time, and I had to realize that there were areas of weakness in my own faith, God was on the job twenty-four hours a day working on us for our own good. He does that for all His children, loving us every day of our lives. I can testify to that.
When we were still ignorant, our lives were shaped by our flesh. The truth was suppressed and we couldn’t take the wonderful advice that Christ gave in MT 6: 19-21, “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are.” In previous messages, I have spoken about what that means from a material point of view. Let me also say that part of our riches is the attitudes we hold. If we spend our days looking for the good in people around us and things that happen to us, we are likely to find it. That is also true if we take the negative approach always looking for evil. Which attitude would God want us to have? I think the former. Does that mean we should never feel anger? Of course not. Christ showed us the are times when anger is appropriate, for example, the time when He threw the moneychangers out of the Temple [MT 21: 12-13; LK 19: 45-46; JN 2: 13-22]. But, it tells us that we should look at what we think, what we do, what we have, and who we spend our time with from a perspective quite different that the one Satan gives people. There is a wonderful metaphor that puts this point across succinctly. Like the Israelites wandering in the desert, we are “tent-dwellers” here on earth. God has prepared a permanent home for us in heaven, more splendid and eternal than anything we could ever buy on earth. JN 14: 2, “There are many mansions [rooms] in My Father’s house, and I [Jesus] am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so.”
PRAYER: O Lord, You have called us to holy living, because You are holy. We need to understand what that means and follow Your instructions, so that we can experience Your presence in our lives. When we do that, we are blessed with a positive, faith-building attitude toward the challenges of our lives. When we make the choice, given to us by the death of Your Son on the cross for us, to let the spirit dominate over our dying flesh, we need no longer spend our time searching for happiness. In You, we will have found it. The things of this world will pass away; but what our faith in Christ gives us transcends the grave and is ours eternally. We dedicate ourselves to answering Your call to holy living, knowing that it is what can bring us faith that endures and happiness that is real. For all these blessings and more unnamed, we humbly offer You our thanks, praise, adoration, loyalty, worship, and honor. We glorify and magnify Your holy name in Christ, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at 1 PET 1: 17-21, a passage that has more to say about why we should accept God’s call to holy living and how it was made possible for us. I hope you are discovering with me the truth that the more one studies God’s word, the more God’s love for us is revealed. Peter & I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn