I've been "on a tear" the past 5 months, reading and marking up my "new" Bible (my old one was so tattered and worn that pages were tearing and other pages sticking together – note to self: never use white correction fluid on your written notes in the margins ... it works like glue!). My new Bible is an exact copy of my old one, so I can quickly find familiar passages (e.g. "It's on the bottom left of the page").
I won't go into the details of how I study God's Word (at least not this time), but instead simply say that 1 Peter has been one of many books I've been immersed in. This morning, as I reread it slowly, I created a summary of what it says: the wonderful truths about my life, my situation, and my future -- that God declares to be so. As I share my simple summary below, I do so in large part to remind myself of what God says is spectacularly true of my life ... and potentially of your life, as well.
Here we go. Enjoy the truth. 1 Peter says that ...
Though a stranger (1:1, 17; 2:11) and alien (2:11) in this world,
I am actually Elect. (1:1)
I belong to God. (2:9)
I am chosen, royal, and holy. (2:9)
I have Him who is my Shepherd. (2:25)
I have real life. (3:7)
I have God's full attention: His eyes and ears, (3:12)
and I carry His surname: Daniel Joseph Flynn Christian. (4:16)
I belong to His family, (4:17)
and He cares for me! (5:7)
And if all this weren't enough ... my future is spectacular!
I will rise. (Hinted at in 1:3 and 1:21)
I will receive an inheritance. (1:4)
I will live in 'heaven' ... the New Earth. (1:4)
And I will experience never-ending glory. (5:10)
That should put a smile on our faces, right? And the smile on our faces come from the inner awareness of what Christ has done for us. Every morning we must go on a treasure hunt in His Word to rediscover this. To end our time together, I'm reminded of the words of George Mueller, the famed Christian pastor of the 1800s in Bristol, England, who prayed and prayed and prayed ... and whom God answered and answered and answered. It is his words below that I think were the secret to his life:
"The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord ... how my inner man might be nourished ... by meditation on God's Word."
Ok, now let's go get our souls happy in the Lord! That's what our decaying world needs most from us today.