Peter, due to his own impatience, understands as well as anyone how difficult it is to wait upon the Lord. In opening his letter he begins with acknowledging that, while we wait upon God for many things, we wait upon him for these four items in particular: Our future inheritance (verses three through 5), our deliverance from trials (verses six and seven), a glimpse of our savior (verses eight and nine) and for complete understanding (verses 10 through 13). The goal of our faith, which is constantly tested, is our salvation. That salvation is a great mystery and of great worth, is both secure and eternal, and will be made complete at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
January first, the day millions – perhaps billions – of people make life-changing resolutions. New Year’s Resolutions is tradition that goes back thousands of years, all the way to the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonians vowed to repay their debts, but it is from the Roman’s that we inherit the modern practice. The Romans made promises to Janus, a god from whom many wrongly believe the month of January is named after (January is actually named after the god Juno). According to the Romans, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions and has two faces, one on each side of his head, which permits him to look forward into the future and back into the past.
Last year we started a tradition of giving our readers a speacila gift on Christmas day, and this year we bring you another free download. Download our latest periodical on one of our most liked series of the last year, Five Forms of Prayer. Feel free to to download it, print it and share it with those you believe may benefit most.
This salvation that Peter has spent the first 13 verses discussing provides us four things we desperately need to please God: enlightenment (.14), holiness (.15), a new identity (.16-.20), and hope (.21).
A good friend of mine has seen tough times and it has caused questions he has always set aside to come to the center of his attention. Questions like, why is there so much suffering in the world, and why doesn’t God do something about all the suffering in the world. There are of course quick answers to these questions, we brought suffering into the world when we sinned and God is not responsible for making our lives easy even though he has taken on the responsibility of our salvation. While these answers are true, they do not satisfy the deep feelings evoked when going through intense suffering.
It can be stressful to see another year end, another one begin and perhaps this is the best time to remember that we worship a living God.
Of all the things you have learned about our savior and of our place in his kingdom over the last few weeks, nothing is more important than our full acceptance of the person celebrated today. Jesus came into this world as an infant, grew up with all the same emotions and temptations we have faced, and battled our darkness and the darkness in the heavenly places for a single purpose. To suffer and die at our hands and the hands of God’s enemies. Through his perfect birth, life, sacrifice and resurrection we have the chance to be made whole. Being complete means more than being independent of our sin, it means being in right relationship with the one who has loved us since before we were born. Mankind is not whole until he can enter the presence of God without fear.
I am pleased to live in Colorado, for it is a state where the beauty of its natural resources and its people is completely incongruous to the events that unfolded in France last week. To the families of the innocent victims we at Think-Biblically.com offer our condolences and our prayers. To the families of the now dead perpetrators of these evil acts, and to all Muslims around the world whether practicing or not, we would like to say:
After seeing the latest Hollywood exploit of a major Biblical story, I intended to write a review of Exodus: Gods and Kings. I considered talking about the stellar performances from the all-star cast, and the production value. All of which are exceptional. Then I thought of creating a list of all the ways the writers and directors altered the original story, which would have been remarkably long. In thinking it through I realized this isn’t the Biblical story, this is a new Moses, one where acts of nature replace acts of God, and acts of terrorism are accepted as acts of justice. A story where God is a figment of one man’s imagination after hitting his head on a rock. How can a movie be so good in so many ways and yet miss the mark so widely? Pondering this led me to a more important question, what creative liberties can one take with God’s Word?
Thank you readers of Think-Biblically.com for your feedback and valuable questions regarding our Christmas timeline. At your request we’ve put together a chart that shows much of what was discussed on Christmas Eve day and the Scripture passages that match the events. This probably should have been part of the article in the first place.
It has been surprising to me how many Christ-followers do not know the timing of events related to the birth of their Savior. A mixture of tradition and good storytelling have confused many, so Think-Biblically.com is taking a moment to explain the timeline of events that may contain a surprise or two even for the seasoned believer.