Hello Mornings Week 2

We spent this week exploring 1 Peter. What a treasure trove of wisdom and encouragement! God used this little book mightily in me this week, and I'm so glad to have spent some time in these verses.

We were asked to choose one verse each day for meditation. Here are mine:

Day 1 - Therefore, 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. (1 Peter 1:13 ESV)

Day 2 -  Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:16-17 ESV)

Day 3 - Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3-4 ESV)

Day 4 - Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. (1 Peter 4:19 ESV)

Day 5 - Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV)

I wanted to focus specifically on 1 Peter 5, though the entire book was just perfect for where I'm at these days. I'm so thankful that God provided His words to me at the right time.

1 Peter 5 is initially directed at the leaders of the church, the shepherds of God's flock. The encouragement is to lead humbly, not for personal gain, not domineering, but being examples of Christ. Peter reminds the leaders in v4 of why they should behave this way: there is a Chief Shepherd! He will return one day, and his faithful servants will receive the crown of glory. My husband is the pastor of our church. This passage gives me great examples of how to pray for him as he leads God's people as well as assurance that every pastor is truly an under-shepherd that is called to faithfully serve the Chief.

Peter begins to wrap up his letter, but he has many important reminders thrown together in v6-11. Humility is a Christian word, one that not many people use outside of churches. We've been working on teaching our son the meaning of humility and have tied it very closely to being teachable. Here Peter ties the idea of humbling yourself first to the mightiness of God. Be humble because God is awesomely powerful, mighty to save, more than able to meet your needs. Next Peter says be humble so that God might exalt you at the proper time. Show the world that your treasure is Christ and that God's promises are true by being humble in the face of suffering and persecution. Peter says demonstrate your humility by casting all your cares on God because He cares for you. How we handle our daily stresses reveals our hearts. If we believe that we can carry the world, we will be on edge, constantly planning and attempting to control our circumstances. But Peter calls us to a different life. One that says, God, I know I'm incapable of changing my situation. I'm even incapable of changing myself. However, Your Word says that you care for me, that you will keep me, and that you will not give up on me. A humble life embraces these truths and trusts in God to complete the Spirit's work in our lives.

Verse 10 sums it all up: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

I'm so thankful that God chose to preserve this encouraging letter from Peter for the good of the church eternal. What a great testimony of His grace that a man who denied Christ would write of the goodness of God to restore, confirm, strengthen and establish His people. May we too be drawn into the fellowship of suffering with hearts that turn to God in our time of need.

Hello Mornings - Day 5

So today's passage is 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. As I was reading, I realized that 2 Cor 5:17 has become a favorite verse of mine, in part because of the Rizer's song, and the joy of hearing my children sing along to such a glorious truth.

 Also, v21 is a one that I will always lovingly attach to the memory of my dad. He often helped us memorize Bible verses for AWANA. I think it stands out in my memory most because of the sound of the verse rather than the amazing meaning behind it. However, that that being said, I'm thankful that God is faithful to use our service, sometimes years later, and even after we are gone (Dad went to heaven in April 2011).

The more I read today's passage, the more I am seeing the depth and significance of its teaching. Since we only have 5 lessons to do each week, I'm going to spend the next couple days exploring this passage.


From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

(2 Corinthians 5:16 ESV)

v16a - As we live in community with other believers, we ar ecalled to set aside our impressions of their shortcomings. "Flesh" is often used to describe the sinful nature that remains even as we are being made holy by God. So we are encouraged by Paul to love despite sinful tendencies that remain. I think its fair to interpret this is two ways. First, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to love other people even though they are sinners. Secondly, we are called to no longer view other people from our own sinful attitudes and prejudices. Of course we fail at both often, but as we grow as believers, may God lead us toward a loving and embracing mentality that accepts others as they are, acknowledging that we are all sinners.

So then as the verse continues, we move away from how to handle interpersonal relationships, and Paul wants to tie back in to how we relate to Christ. Before our spiritual connection to Christ, we may have judged him in various ways: as a good teacher, humanitarian, heretic (as Paul did), demon-possessed (as some of the spiritual leaders of the day thought), uneducated hillbilly (Can anything good come out of Nazareth?), etc. These impressions came from our own sin. We know from verse 21 that there was no sin in Christ; so the failure must reside in us. And the truth that we were blinded to is so glorious!

Christ is God who became man to show us the depth of our failure, but then lovingly took the punishment for our failure on himself so that we might be invited to the world's greatest party. It will be an eternally joyous, perfectly loving, wonderful fellowship of men and women enjoying God's presence forever.

Thank you Jesus that you have called our hearts to you so that we may see beyond ourselves to the glorious truth. Come quickly Lord Jesus!

Hello Mornings - Day 3

For those of you who aren't aware, we read the same passage of Scripture on Day 2 as Day 1, but we focused on the character of Jesus rather than Peter. I found that my thoughts were mostly conveyed in my previous post.

Today we read Acts 4:13-21 seeking to note changes in Peter's character. Here are my thoughts:

Throughout his life Peter retains his passion for Christ, but now in Acts 4, he faces danger again (this time imprisonment) for naming Jesus as his Lord. He stands up to the high priests and proclaims with John that they will not be silent about what they have seen and experienced.

I was thinking about how God's transformation of Peter is not about erasing his personality and making him a holy robot. God is not interested in issuing standard makes and models of Christians. Instead God takes all the best gifts that He gave Peter and refines away the fear that held Peter back while granting boldness through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This passage reminds me that God calls a person to do His will; a person with gifts and weaknesses. And many of the annoying or less admirable traits we see in ourselves and in each other can be redeemed for the kingdom and used for God's glory as He makes us more like Christ.

Let it be said of us that we will not be silent about what we have seen and experience that the world may know we are His disciples.

Hello Mornings - Day One

Our Hello Mornings Challenge begins today! The challenge is designed to provide accountability for women desiring to spend time with God before the day begins.

My goal was to wake up around 6:30 AM to have time to read and get the day going before the kids got up, but Emily had other plans as she didn't go to sleep until past 11:30 PM. So when the alarm went off, I just decided to turn it off. God graciously woke me up just early enough so that I was able to do the little Bible study before the girls woke up..

This challenge we're studying 1 Peter, and we're looking to see how Peter's faith was matured from the gospels to his epistle.

Here are my thoughts on Matthew 26:30-35, 69-75:

On the night of Jesus' betrayal, Peter was passionate about his love for Jesus and secure in the knowledge that he would be willing to die for him. However he clearly did not know the weakness of his faith until he was tested. We know that God allowed this test of Peter's faith, and that He did not do it out of bitterness but love, so it must be that Peter needed to see himself fail his own standards catastrophically.

Peter and the other disciples had healed and cast out demons in Jesus' name. They had seen His power over storms and even death. Yet God chose to begin the new chapter of His kingdom on Earth by showing Peter how utterly powerless he was on his own. Matthew 26:75 says that Peter wept bitterly after his denials of Christ. God led Peter to a place in his life where he could not mistake his overwhelming need for forgiveness and grace.

And later we'll see how the character of Peter is refined so that his passion and leadership will be qualities that God uses to bless His people through the power of the Holy Spirit acting in and through Peter. I often forget when I see men and women of amazing faith that their faith is a gift from God forged in the flames of testing and trial. I pray that God will graciously preserve me in the time of testing that I too might know even more the power of Christ in me, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).