1 Peter 4:3-5 MES

You've already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken and profligate life. Now it's time to be done with it for good. Of course, your old friends don't understand why you don't join in with the old gang anymore. But you don't have to give an account to them. They're the ones who will be called on the carpet—and before God himself. 1 Peter 4:3-5 MES

I have spent my time running away from God. At the time it seemed fun and free. The person who did all the partying is dead. I am a new person. My life followed a little different course than this verse. When I fit bottom I didn't have any friends to try and drag me back in. At first I thought this was a good thing because it made it easier to change my life. Now I look back and I am sorry I didn't have an opportunity to be an example to my old friends.

I was cleaning out a closet a week ago and found a box with papers I had saved from ten years ago. These papers reminded me of my old life. Things I felt were important, I now see as an incredible waste of time and energy. I see it for the emptiness is really is. I now spend my time on activities that grow me. These activities are much more fulfilling.

1 Peter 4:1-2

Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want. 1 Peter 4:1-2 MES

Learn to think like Jesus. I think this is great advise. How better to learn about someone, than to learn how they think. If we learn how Jesus thinks, we can better understand why Jesus did the things he did. If we know the what and why of Jesus's actions, we can be more like Jesus. Isn't that the goal of a christian?

So how do we learn what Jesus was thinking? The bible does record some of Jesus's thoughts and feelings, but mostly it is a record of what Jesus did and where he went. If Peter is telling us to "think like Jesus", why isn't the bible full of Jesus's thoughts?

I don't know the answer. It might be because if we read and study Jesus's actions and work it out ourselves we will be more out of it. It might be another way for God to speak to us.

1 Peter 3:8-12 MES

"...bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing..." 1 Peter 3:8-12 MES

Are you a blessing? Do your words bless? Do your actions bless? When these questions come to mind it usually means I haven't been a blessing. I know we are suppose to be good people and we are called by God to do the right thing. I get a picture in my head of a person sitting in a easy chair and when someone comes into the room we should be nice to them.

When Peter says it's our job to bless, I see this as more active. I can't just sit and wait for people to come in the same room so I can be nice to them. I need to get up and "go to work". I think of all the preparation I do to go to work. I spend at least five hours every week. This preparation is things like keeping my clothes clean and my car ready. How do you get ready to bless people? Just think for a minute, if your job was to bless others what would you do?

1 Peter 3:1-4

The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition. 1 Peter 3:1-4 MES

Have you seen that commercial, I think it is for on on line dating service? Where the couple are sitting at dinner and the lady says "First impression, Would you marry me?".
I know this is meant to be funny, but I can't help think about how common this really is. Every day people are making decisions on their first impression. I do it all the time. I do believe a first impression has value, but I think it gets too much importance.

In this verse Peter is talking about marriage. Marriage is the second most important decision you will make in your life. These principles can be applied in all of our relationships. If we live on the surface all that will be important is hair styling, jewelry and clothes. If we want to have a great marriage and great relationships, we must look deeper. I always am reminding myself not to live on the surface. I lived on the surface to a long time. My life and relationships are much better doing it God's way.

1 Peter 2:18-20

You who are servants, be good servants to your masters—not just to good masters, but also to bad ones. What counts is that you put up with it for God's sake when you're treated badly for no good reason. There's no particular virtue in accepting punishment that you well deserve. But if you're treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God. 1 Peter 2:18-20 MES

Be a good servant to a bad master. What kind of crazy talk it this? If your boss is a jerk, you do whatever you can to make him/her look bad. It's OK to waste time at work because you have to put up with the boss and that deserves some extra reward. Maybe that is not what God is saying. Maybe God asking us to go and find a bad boss and work for him? Or if we are working for a bad boss, do we just stay there and take the abuse?

I don't think any of these statements are right. If you are in a situation where you have a bad master, you need to do the right thing even if they don't. You need to do the right thing until you can move on to another situation. You need to give a full days work and if you are going to leave you need to give notice.

I know that God's way is not the world's way. God says he will make non-sense out of what we think is right. This passage brings this out. In plain words, God will not accept another's wrong actions as an excuse.

1 Peter 2:8 NIV

A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall They stumble because they disobey the message ...

God gives each one of us stones. Stones are the situations and decisions we run into during our lives. God takes great joy in creating. He gives us a stone to create with. There must be celebrating in heaven when we are given a stone and we use it to create. And also what sadness there must be when we stumble over a stone. Instead of using this situation to build up, we let it tear us down. What stones have you encountered this last week? Did you use them to build or to tear down?

This brings hockey to mind. (OK maybe it just works in my head. Keep reading and it will make sense.) While we are here on Earth we are not going to be perfect. We are going to stumble. I have always struggled with this. I want to do what is right all the time. Every time I find a stone I want to use it to build. It is easy for me to start thinking about why I work so hard to do the right thing if I am going to fail at some point. It is much easier to follow the world. This is where hockey comes in. A goalie's job is to keep the puck out of the net. The goalie is human just like me and is not perfect. Goalie's track their save percentage. This is the number of times they stopped the puck from going in the net. For this example is would be how many of the stones you encountered did you use to build. Dominik Hasek, the goalie for the Detroit Red Wings, has a save % of .908. This means over 90% of the shots did not go into the net. If this was my stone %, I would have used 90% of the stones I have encountered for the right purpose. I haven't been keeping track, but I don't think my stone % is anywhere near that high. It helps me keep on track when I do stumble over a stone. My goal is not to be perfect, but to have my save % increasing.

1 Peter 2:1

So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. 1 Peter 2:1 The Message

The bible says we should make a clean sweep. What are the things we should remove from our lives when we accept Christ? What about the books we read? What about the decorations in our house? What about the car we drive? What about our job?
If we change too much what will our friends say? Will we have to change our friends too? I don't know about this Christ thing anymore. It seems like my life will be very different.

These are some of the questions I can imagine a new christian asking. Wondering what they are being asked to give up and then realizing it is going to be a very big change. I had a new christian ask me about items from his old life. They had given their life to Christ a couple of months ago and started going to a church every week. They had been into a new age religion. One of the things they used to do was purchase incense to burn. They had removed the items they had that were associated with the new age religion and they still had the incense and wanted to know if they should dispose of it.

My thoughts were if this item was going to have any more importance than a Glade Plug In, it should go. It started me thinking if there was anything in my life I had not removed. Were there any items I had kept? Were there any activities I still participate in? Was there anything that was questionable? Was there anything in my life that was a stumbling block in my walk with Christ?

It was very interesting to think about. Give it a try.

1 Peter 1:13a

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming... 1 Peter 1:13a The Message

When I think of gifts, I think birthday. What do you have to do to be ready to receive a birthday gift? I guess the answer is to keep sucking air for 365 days. Not much to it. I have received some nice birthday gifts, but how do you compare a new pair of jeans to one of God's gifts?

So, do you think we have to do something to be ready to receive God's gifts? What happens when you are not ready? Do you still receive the gift? I think you still receive the gifts. What if God were to give you a software package that could create a cure for any sickness? What if you never bothered to work on the computer hardware to run the software? So, instead of curing people you use the software as a door stop. You received the gift and you put it to use. Instead of curing cancer you saved the wall from a ding.

What do we do to get ourselves totally ready to receive God's gifts? Read and study God's Word. Use and develop the gifts and abilities you have already received.

1 Peter 1:1-2

I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!

Do you feel like an exile? I don't feel like an exile, but when I think about believers who are physically far from here, I think of them as being exiles. They are spreading God's Good News in the far corners of the globe. They may be thousands of miles from Grand Haven, but are they any further from God then we are?
Would our daily actions be any different if we were aware we are working side by side to the people in Africa and China? I have no idea, but I think it is an interesting thought.

The End of the Beginning

I have fully enjoyed reading and writing on Proverbs. It has been a great blessing in my life. I have been surprised at the number of people who were reading the thoughts I have been writing here. The original plan was to read through Proverbs. We are at the end of Proverbs. Where do I go from here?

The keynote speaker at my high school graduation spoke about high school not being the end. Finishing high school is the end of the beginning. Today is the end of the beginning. I don't know where I will go from here. That is OK. I do know a couple of things: 1. I will continue to follow God's lead. 2. I will not be right all the time, but I will not let that stop me. (Read my disclaimer from about a week ago. I am no bible scholar. I am me.)

So hold on tight. Here we go....