A Quirky Journey

I posted this in another blog; but, thought I would share with you. You may be able to use it with people you speak with on a daily basis.....Hope this is of value to you. This process has been stewing in my mind and spirit for quite some time. So I thought I would share with you a little of how my mind thinks. Be warned. It may be crazy. It may be far fetched; but, I trust it will be worth the read by the end of the story. We go to church; some of us take a Bible, while other’s read along on their iPad, iPhone or some other smart device, listen to the speaker, then head back home. Many don’t pick the Bible up again until the next week when we do church all over again. Don’t get me wrong. I am thrilled we take our Bible to church in one form or another. The thing that has my mind stirring, is how often do we read the inspired Word of God for ourselves. Do we tend to push it aside because we believe it is too hard to understand on our own? Maybe we believe it is irrelevant for us; or, hearing our pastor, or some other speaker preach from the Bible once a week is all we need. For these various reasons, the wheels in my mind began to turn. I may be a little different, some may say strange; but, I am giving this a shot and hopefully it will inspire, encourage or challenge someone as they read. So as we begin this quirky journey, we will start with Peter’s thoughts on the pages of 1 Peter. Grab a cup of your favorite coffee, latte’, or soda and allow your imagination to go with me to the thoughts of one of the first disciples of Jesus. Find out who Peter was, by reading what he had to say to each of us, as he was inspired by the Spirit of God Himself. When we open to the book of First Peter it begins with Peter telling us who he is and to whom he is writing. He gives a tad bit of informational background before getting to the main theme of his first letter. For a minute let’s pretend we are Peter and we are writing this letter. What would that look like? Maybe something a little like this… In my case it would read… ******************************************* Just who am I? “Hi, I am Cheryl, a minister of Jesus. I am messaging each one of you who have been chosen by God. We are visitors in this world and scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Europe to Asia, Africa to Australia, and North America to South America. (2) We have been chosen by God, according to what He has known from the beginning of time; to be obedient to Christ and washed clean by His blood on the cross. May you be filled with an overwhelming amount of grace and peace.” ******************************************* Although we have just read what would be two verses of 1 Peter 1, I want to stop here and add a personal commentary. I am not confessing to be a Biblical Scholar, just a person taking verses apart, hoping to help normal, every day peeps understand how to apply the Bible to our lives. It is relevant and very helpful for todays generation. ******************************************* After reading the first paragraph of First Peter, we can see that there are peeps just like you and me all over the world. Each one of us have been chosen by God Himself from the very beginning of time. We have been cleansed by His blood and are expected to be obedient to Christ. Because of this we are encouraged to have an overwhelming amount of grace and peace. Merriam/Webster Dictionary’s definition of grace: a temporary exemption or reprieve, a virtue coming from God, unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. When I looked up grace in the Urbandictionary I found the only use of the word is describing a girl, beauty, or something feminine. hmmm This generation has no clue. Ok, back to Webster’s definition of grace. The definition uses the words regeneration and sanctification. We may understand regeneration, but, what exactly is sanctification. Let’s touch a little on both. Regeneration is something coming back to life or being restored or renewed after an injury. UrbanDictionary says regeneration can be traumatic. It can be traumatic because our lives are being changed and transformed. Much like a transformor from the movie by the same name. The only difference is as we change from our original “old” self to the new, we need to make a determined effort to continue changing and not go back to the “old” self. That is where sanctification comes into play. Sanctification is the process of growing and developing in the grace given you by God. Alost everytime I hear grace, I remember the scene in “Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring” where Arwen is taking Frodo to her father, after he has been stabbed by a wraith. They get across the river and Frodo begins giving up, soon to be a wraith himself. Arwen helps him from her horse, leans over Frodo, and says, “What grace is given me, let it pass to him.” Arwen knew grace was important. Now, the LOR Trilogy is just a story made into movies; but, it allows us to understand visually, a little of what Peter is talking about in his letter. Grace is important to the health of our life. If we are transformed or regenerated we must not stop there. We must continue to evolve into the new person we are to become through the process of sanctification by the grace God gives. That is it for this post. Check back again for the continued quirky journey through the book of 1 Peter. btw I would love to know what your thoughts are about what you’ve just read.

True Character is Shown by Our Actions

We get up and begin our daily routine...dress, get kids ready for school (if they're still school age), have a quick bite to eat for breakfast, kiss our spouse goodbye, and head off to work. Life seems normal and good. We arrive at our job or ministry and realize the things we asked to get done by today were not done the way we had asked. The people in charge had weeks to prepare. There just isn't an excuse for their lack of commitment to the task. We are clearly upset and let everyone know about it. In fact no one wants to be near us because of our reaction. It doesn't matter that we have talked about being an example to others and setting high expections for others to follow. Those around us cannot hear what we are trying to say because our actions are so offensive and clearly do not represent what we are trying to get across...

Our children cannot listen to what we are saying about life and representing Christ because our lives do not reflect what we are saying. We tell them to be committed to church, volunteer to help the needy; but, they just don't get it. Why? Because we have spent so much time in church and helping the needy that we have neglected our children.

Don't get me wrong. Ministry, participating in church and helping the needy are a must in our society; but, within reason. Make sure what we are doing is a healthy example of how to do ministry, church and helping the needy. When we do this our children and fellow colleagues or employees will have a desire to honor us by doing a good job and representing us well. This leads me to the passage of scripture I want to bring to our attention.

As I opened my Bible to read today, the page fell open to a passage I had underlined previously in Ezekiel. Once again it jumped out at me.

Just that one little passage says so much. I believe if more people would read Ez. 20:22 of The Message, we would all get along so much better, accomplishing so much more in our world that immediately surrounds us.

God was fed up with the Israel. He wanted to let His anger and frustration loose upon them. He had every right to. They had disobeyed. They were doing what they wanted without consulting God. They knew how to live their lives better without God. But God didn't "vent." He said, "I thought better of it and acted out of who I was, not by what I felt, so that I might be honored and not blasphemed by the nations who had seen me bring them out." Ez. 20:22 MSG

The next time something doesn't get done the way we wanted; or our kids don't want to do something we have asked of them, remember this passage. God thought better of venting. He ACTED OUT OF WHO HE WAS not by how He felt. For some of us we will have to work a little harder to not act out of how we feel. As we work on it we will find it will be worth it. People will respect and honor us more for acting out of who we are.

May we all be committed to working on our character. Allow God to shape us into someone that is honorable. Don't take the easy road. Becoming a man or woman of character takes work, but it is well worth the effort we put into it. Remember, our lives are being watched. What are our lives saying to others. Let's be challenged today to act out of who we are in Christ, not out of how we are feeling.