When life begins to get a little rocky and the waves start to pound all around us, it can be easy for us to feel unsteady, unsafe, and a bit seasick. When that happens, what we desperately need is something that will allow us to steady the ship amidst the waves. Peter’s teaching can help us to do this. In pointing us to his own experiences with Jesus as well as the writings of the prophets, he can give us what we need to sustain the pounding of the waves and keep us sailing to our destination.
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Sometimes the Christian life feels like we don’t quite have all the right ingredients- like we’ve chosen a complicated recipe that we can quite make according to plan. In order to get something on the table, we substitute ingredients and kind of guess at what the end product is supposed to be. The end result is often a far cry from what the recipe really called for. According to Peter, though, we have everything we need for life and godliness. Part of that is our own need to “make every effort” in applying Peter’s teachings.
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The Christian life is absurd if you live it the way the Bible teaches. As Peter finishes his exhortation to various churches about to suffer, his teaching is incomprehensible to anyone that is apart from Christ. But in Christ, his exhortation is the only thing that can give us hope. An exhortation to endure and to do it alongside others is the call of the church, and it is a call that will be worth it in the end.
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The beginning of a new year provides us with an opportunity to consider the previous year, rejoice in the successes, and learn from the failures. There is a lot of value in reflecting on the previous twelve months. However, the beauty of the gospel is that whatever the last year (or more) has been, today is a new day, a new beginning. God is always in the business of doing new things, and the invitation is open to be a part of what he is doing.
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When Jesus came, he came on a mission, in part, to bring us joy. When he dies, he prays for his disciples that they would have his joy, but also that they would be among those that bring that joy to others. We have been given the same mission that Jesus came with- a mission of joy, and we are ambassadors of that joy.
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As we gather on Christmas Eve, we reflect on the night Jesus was born and the why Jesus came. We consider his teaching and his mission, which he tells us was all about (remarkably) our joy.
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As the days rapidly countdown to Christmas Day, the waiting to celebrate is almost over. Soon gifts will be opened, meals shared, and memories created all around the world. For now, though, we wait. There’s something about that- the waiting- that seems to be a baked into all the things we love the most. It also happens to be a big part of the things we dread the most. Why does God make us wait? What do we have to endure pain, suffering, and darkness? There may be a lot of reasons God chooses to work this way that will never know, but we do know one reason why- joy. Whatever else waiting does to us, in the end, it is often the most important tool God uses to increase our joy- and there are no shortcuts.
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Tidings of comfort and joy- There are few things more “Christmasy” than that. Yet when we read the actual Christmas story, there is almost no comfort and joy can be hard to find. So how did these two ideas become so deeply associated with Christmas? After all, in a broken world, isn’t it dismissive and calloused to sing about “comfort and joy” or “joy to the world?” To answer that question, you have to know that the Christmas story is just one chapter in a much bigger story.
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The songs we sing at Christmas teach us a lot about what we’re looking for during this season. The theme of “joy” is one that is prominent in our songs, but how did we get there? What is it in the stories that teach us how to be joyful? Surprising little in these familiar Christmas stories provokes joy, but when you look at the fuller story- the source of our joy becomes much clearer.
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Follow the leader is a simple game. The leader does something, everyone else should do the same. Simple. Yet when Jesus is our leader- the last thing we really want to do is play that game. Because following the leader, when the leader is Jesus, means following him into some very hard places. The beauty of the gospel, though, is that He gives us a safe place to hide in the midst of the path that He walked.
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Suffering is disorienting. Persecution can make you doubt what you know is true. Our instinct is to fight back or run away from the things that harm us. However, Peter calls us to a different way. In an unexpected (and often unwanted) set of instructions, Peter tells us the way forward is through careful, strategic submission. While this idea feels unnatural and unhelpful, a quick study of Peter’s life and Jesus’s teaching show us why this is such a powerful position- even when it doesn’t feel that way.
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Submission is a word that makes us all bristle. Start talking about gender and marital relationships and the idea of submission and you have a recipe for a fight. Is this inevitable? Do we have to choose between some outdated model of marriage or a modern definition that seems to dismiss the bible as an authority? Careful study of Peter’s words and the people he is writing to can help open up our understanding of what he intended for the wives in the churches then as well as how we should live today.
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As Christians, how are we to position ourselves to an outside world? There is no shortage of culture wars to fight or causes to support, but what is our role? As Peter gives instruction to the Christians undergoing persecution, his advice might surprise many. His advice is not to look for a battle to fight, but for feet to wash. Why? Because that’s exactly what Jesus did.
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By asking “who touched me?”, Jesus invites us in to admit who we truly are and to enter into a life-changing relationship with Him instead of a superficial one. He sees into our shame, isolation, and desperation and gives us new names – sons and daughters of the King.
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You might not think you have much in common with the priests we encounter in the Bible. Offering incense, sacrificing animals, and serving in a temple rarely resonate with Christians today – and for good reason. But if Jesus is our Great High Priest (and He is) and if we’re called to be like Jesus (we are) then we need to know what it means to be priestly as we go throughout this life.
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