Called

This is not really related to my counselling posts from before, though I have to say that it is the process that brought me to listening to John Piper's sermons on Romans. He preached through the whole book from beginning to end and didn't just do chapter by chapter, but verse by significant verse. I thought it would be good to not just listen to it, but also take notes because it is a long process for me to get to the point that I can believe that God really does love ME and that He called ME for His purpose. It seems like Romans is a good place to learn about all of this and what grace really means.

Anyway, I am only on sermon 4 and that is just Romans 1:6. I'm not going to give you a blow by blow on the the whole sermon, just what came to my mind as I was listening and taking notes on the sermon.

The sermon focussed on the phrase "called of Christ Jesus". Now I don't know what your views are on predestination. For those who believe that we choose to come to God and everyone has an equal opportunity to be saved, this post is going to be strange for you. I don't want to act as someone trying to convince you otherwise because I think it is a conclusion I came to by seeing what the Bible says - even as far back as Genesis - and you need to come there for yourself. I do have to say though that I think it is God that led me to that, but not just because it is the truth, but also because I need it to have a better relationship with Him and grow closer to Him. I need to know it inside out before I can be really healed - at least that's what I think...

Ok, "called of Christ Jesus"... So for me, the main thought I had is "Why don't I live like this is true?" I mean the whole sermon focussed more on how it is the grace of God that enables our salvation and not our own merit. Yes, there is the temptation to despair and saying, well, if I'm so terrible then what hope do I have, well, um, I have hope in God's saving grace. And there is also the temptation to have a bruised ego and be offended because you aren't as good as you thought you were, which, um, is also true. But it is a difficult concept to grasp all the same.

For me the problem is that I don't hate my sin. I mean I know that sin is wrong, but I have no real idea of how disgusting it is in the sight of God. I've read the verses - I think Ephesians 2 does a good job of dealing with what life without God was like - but I don't see the reality of it in my life. I think it's mixed up with knowing that my sins past, present and future are all forgiven and so I suppose I think, well then, it's ok. So, I'm looking forward to Romans 6 when it talks about grace not being about us sinning and then just thinking, well, it's ok because I have grace. At the rate the sermons are going though, it won't be for a while...

So going back to my earlier question - "Why don't I live like this is true?" I think part of it is that I have no concept of my own sin. I think if I had been like Paul, grace would have had a bigger impact, but that's also making excuses, isn't it? Because if the Bible is to be believed, that it would seem like my sin is just as bad as the sin of a persecutor of the Church. And it is, whether I like it or not.

Maybe it's clear to you which way I lean when it comes to the two temptations I talked about earlier - it leads me to despair, which ironically is also pride... Pfff! Why am I despairing? Well, because I feel like I'm missing out on something BIG. The fact that I can't seem to grasp the evil of my sin makes me feel like I'm missing out on the truth of how amazing grace really is. I'm not sure if I'll really see how great it is on this side of heaven, but I have to live in context of Phil 1:6 - I am a work in progress - and trust that God will show me what I need to persevere in this life toward growing closer to Him and becoming more like Him.

The other reason is that I feel like if I could understand this fully, it wouldn't be so difficult for me to forgive the people on my list. I am working through it, but I suppose I think that the list wouldn't be so long in the first place if I knew just how much it means that God has saved me, forgiven me and made me righteous in His sight. 

Anyway, I just pray that this will become real for me and I will learn the truth about God's forgiveness and grace so that it can lead me to repentance daily and I can forgive freely as He has forgiven me, knowing that His grace is undeserved. The next sermon is about how we are loved by God. That will give me another perspective too. I just want to get to the point that when I ask, "Why should I?" I can answer, "Because God..." and it won't just be like a Sunday school answer, but a reality that convicts me and brings me a deeper understanding of what Jesus went through for me.

Forgiveness

Ok, so in my last post I said I was going through counselling and the next homework was going through my baggage and reliving those memories and then forgiving those people. Well, I've avoided it a lot. But I eventually made a bit of a dent in my list. I went through and forgave the people from Calvary who hurt me and also the ones who have hurt me from MICC - my current church. 

Both experiences were really different. The first group made me cry, and I mean body-wracking sobs! There was so much grief and so much pain. It was unnerving. Of course that made me want to put off working through this stuff even more! Tonight I finally kicked myself up the bum and worked through my current church. That was really, really different. No tears at all, but a lot of anger, which I had to repent of. In fact I also had to repent of my sense of entitlement and my pride. Totally eye-opening.

So, what I've had to do is write down the names of the people and give an account of the hurt they caused or any perceived or real offence committed. Then I had to grieve it. How I dealt with it was to type it all up and then to read through what I'd typed and then pray. It's been HARD, but also I think good. I do feel a little bit freer. The next step is to go back a little further to the people in my life after I left university and Glasgow. I think that will probably be a mixture of tears and anger, but once that is done, I will be another step closer to freedom. I will probably leave my family to last. That will be the hardest one and to be honest I am really scared.

A few people have already said they were proud of me for being so brave. I don't really think it has anything to do with courage or bravery. I think what it is is that God has brought me to a point where I realise I really need to deal with all this unnecessary baggage I've been carrying around me with me my whole life, so that I can finally experience freedom in Christ. So that I can finally live life to the full (John 10.10).

Forgiveness really is a funny thing. Funny in the sense of weird. It is so very difficult to do, especially when you think you didn't deserve to be hurt or treated that way. That's only when you look at it from your perspective. If you look at Jesus and His life, you see that of all people, He really didn't deserve how He was treated on earth by both His friends and enemies. And He cried, "Father forgive them" from the cross!!! Looking at it like that, I feel like an idiot for not forgiving sooner. What could anyone have done to me that is worse than what I have done to Jesus?!

On the other side, or maybe not the other side, but related... Anyway, MY sins are FORGIVEN. Not just past sins, but present AND future! I'm really starting to see just how amazing that is. I'm also starting to understand Jesus's command of forgiving as God forgave you (Col 3:13). God's love really is ludicrous.

My hope is that I will finish this process with a deeper knowledge of God's love for me, His grace, mercy, goodness, protection and wise leadership over my life. I want to finish this free of my burden and equipped with a new strength to pursue a fuller relationship with God and with the people He'll put in my life. I also hope for wisdom and discernment in being able to choose my friends. I don't think praying for this is against God's will.

Anyway... This forgiveness thing will take a while. I'm not going to push myself to do more than one 'group' a week. It's too hard and I really need to work myself up to it and I need the time to be able to work through it, pray and deal with it. Work is just too busy, so I only have the weekends. But it will get done and I will be free of my bitterness. I just have to be patient and be willing to do the work. Pray for me to persevere and not give up.

Counselling

After years of carrying unnecessary baggage, I have finally admitted I need professional help and am seeking it. I thought I only had baggage from the time I had cancer, my grandmother dying really suddenly and the subsequent years of living a life apart from God. Upon starting, I've realised that a lot of my pain started early in my childhood. I mean, I had a difficult childhood, but I thought I had dealt with it. I really haven't dealt with a lot. It makes me really sad. 

My first task was to write a letter to God about how I thought he had abandoned me and why I didn't trust Him. I thought it would just be about the cancer, but a lot of things came up that surprised me. My second task, which I've avoided until now, is to look back on my life and relive the hurts and forgive those people. The first thing I did about it was to make a list of all the people who hurt or I perceived hurt me. I think there is an overwhelming list of about 50 people!! Ok, so I went back far - right to my childhood when I still lived in Malaysia - and if you take in the fact that I'm nearly 30, 50 people makes sense. The task is even more overwhelming though. Just remembering those people hurt me makes my lips quiver, my throat tighten and my eyes fill with tears.

I mentioned earlier that realising I had had decades of pain on my back in an invisible burden made me really sad. Well, I see now that the pain held me back in a lot of things. Not so clearly. I would say that my vision is still distorted. Even so, it makes me think of the passage in Joel (2:25) about the years the locusts have eaten and I wonder if - I'm too afraid to hope - God will replace those years. I wonder whether I will ever be really free from this burden. This whole process terrifies me and has petrified me. I'm walking into unknown territory and I feel completely lost.

All this pain has affected my friendships over the years. I think it definitely is the reason why I am not even sure who my friends are. I feel totally at a loss. When I go to sleep, I see myself as a little girl, sitting in a dark, dirty room in white pajamas all alone and I'm just sitting there. Sometimes little girl me is also crying. She feels numb. She feels afraid. She feels alone. She wonders if anyone is coming to let her out of that prison.

I really feel like I'm losing my grip on reality. Somewhere inside I know that that is a good thing because it is my 'reality' that has kept me prisoner all these years. Losing my grip on it and letting it go will hopefully lead me to a genuine 'reality', one where I'm living in the freedom God has promised me in His word. One where I have a new awareness and knowledge of what it means that He leads me, He walks with me, He goes before me, He prepares the way, He saves, He rescues, He guides, He loves, He protects. I will have to go through a lot before I, who am heavy and burdened, can take up his yoke (Matt 11:28-29).

And yes, I have doubts. I have questions. Will my life really be better under this other burden? Will I ever be free? Isn't this a deep-rooted rut that I will never escape? Will I really ever be able to forgive these people? Will I ever know what it means that God loves me, has chosen me, has made a plan for my life, is sanctifying me and bringing me ever closer to Him and His holiness? Will I ever be able to live as if I believed all of that to be true? I so long for His freedom. I so long for His light. 

Anyway, the truth is, I really won't know until I go through this fire. It really feels like I am going to experience all kinds of 'burning', but it can only be good. I keep telling myself that it is like when Eustace has to be transformed back into a little boy after he had been a dragon (Voyage of The Dawn Treader, CS Lewis). I suppose what will happen is all the unnecessary 'crap' will burn off and what's left will be me. The real me. The one God created me to be. And I hope that at the end, little girl me will no longer be in her dark prison, but free and walking with Jesus.

Sabbath rest

Over the last few weeks, I've been so busy and haven't had time to properly rest. I mean like a day where I can sleep in and not have to do much else. I know this probably sounds like hell to a lot of people, but though I am outgoing, I am introverted. I need time alone and sufficient amount before I can charge my batteries. I haven't had that time for weeks and I won't have it again until the end of June. That prospect is giving me anxiety. None of the things that have filled my schedule are things I can say no to.

The biggest burden is work. My timetable is full, which is good because I need the money to pay my bills and it's hard to say no when you are a freelancer. Because it takes up almost all my time and energy, I have very little to give when there are fun things or necessary things like church and bible studies. 

I have been told many times that God created the Sabbath because he knew we would need a day for us to charge our batteries. He knew that without this one day, we would only be running on empty and that ultimately wouldn't be good for us. He also created it so that we could spend time with him. Our schedules are hectic and our daily devotion times may not be sufficient to charge our spiritual batteries. He knew that if our energy levels were low and our 'spiritual' levels are low, we would be prone to attack from the enemy.

I would just like to advise you to take that time to rest physically and especially take the time to rest in God. Take it from someone who is suffering as a result of very little rest. You may be someone who can go a long time with an empty battery. You may be someone who gains anergy from being with people. Nevertheless, take that time to have a day of rest and spend that time with God. You will definitely benefit from it. Don't be like me and learn it the hard way. God created it for a reason. Trust him and take him at his word.

Convenience

It's just occurred to me that this is a big idol that I have. The other one is financial security. I forget that sometimes God takes us out of our comfort zones so that we can grow more dependent on him and less on ourselves.

I really like my comfort and I desire financial security. I'm a freelancer, so work is really important to me, but recently, I have worked so much that I have had no energy left to pursue friendships and to meet my commitments to church. I also am so tired that all I can do is do my daily Bible reading. I really needed that penny dropping moment to see that I was pursuing an idol, when I should be pursuing God and I should trust God to provide for all that I need instead of relying on my own strength and abilities.

I go through highs and lows. In the highs, I am so aware of how much I need God and how powerful prayer is and also how necessary. It is so ridiculous how quickly we forget the most important thing in our lives... But it is equally good to realise how far we've wandered from the path so that we can turn back and head in the right direction again.

How great is it that the God we serve is patient and remembers that we are but dust!

Superficiality

I had a really depressing conversation with my flatmate this afternoon. I won't go in to all the details, but basically we were talking about how people get treated differently based on how they look. She thought that it must be different in the church because everybody is trying to be better people. Unfortunately, that's not true... Or at least not in my experience...

Long story short - you can't escape superficiality. Not even at church. It's so sad... But how do you change that??

I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the moment. Life seems to be getting on top of me and I feel like I'm constantly tired. It's funny how at times like these the first thing that got out is any time spent on God. I haven't read my Bible, done my scripture memorising and I haven't prayed. Though the prayer part is the strangest...

I realised a couple of weeks ago that though I did read the Bible and do Bible studies, I very rarely really prayed. And now I am not doing anything at all... And yes, I do think there is a connection there... 

At Gisselle's funeral - the girl who died in the last post - I learned of how devoted she was to prayer and that was such a great challenge. Though she wasn't a very lose friend at all, she always came across as centred and  at peace and it must've been her constant contact with God. But what I don't understand is why we always stop? We don't stop breathing or eating or even showering when we're tired, but isn't time with God and especially praying just as important as all those things?

It's so much easier to do or to waste time reading, watching movies or playing computer games and just shutting your mind off, but really the most important thing is to spend time with our Father... I mean, then you are less stressed and less frequently grumpy and you have the strength to care... Also, when we're tired, that's when the enemy attacks...

Anyway, I know all this and yet I am frequently here. I need to get back on my feet and start again. And start first with prayer... Pfff! This walking with God business is hard. We - at least I do - so often forget just how vital he is for my life to function properly...

The last few days have been really bizarre. I can't believe it is already Sunday and tomorrow I'll have to go back to work. I can't believe it was only last weekend that it was Easter...

Currently, a person I know from church is lying in a hospital and slowly dying. It has been a great shock because she is the same age as me and her loss is being felt all throughout the church. Though we were only loosely friends, she did come across as a woman who loved God and had a heart to serve. She was by no means perfect. I am not going to dishonour her memory by making her more than she was, but hearing what her close friends have said about her has been a great humbling experience and a challenge to pursue God further.

Also, it has taught most of us to appreciate the people in our lives and not take them for granted. It has shown us the reality that life really is short and you have no idea how much longer you have on this earth. I think it is a challenge as well to pursue God more wholeheartedly and to seek his will for our lives because we are here for his purpose. It really is an encouraging thing to know that at 29 she had already fulfilled all that God had for her to do.

She touched so many lives because she loved God and sought to be like him. I hope now that I could pursue God so that I could, like her, speak with wisdom, seek to serve and encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ and also be a light as she was. She will be missed by many and greatly missed by those who were close to her. We are all mourning the loss of our sister in Christ, but rejoicing in the fact that we are all assured she is now in the presence of our God.

May we all seek to be salt and light in the world more fervently, so that we can fulfil his purpose for us on this earth and bring his name honour, praise and glory.

Trusting God

I may have already posted something similar a while ago. I'm not sure...

This is one of those things that I guess many people struggle with. I am not sure why since intellectually we all know that God is someone we can trust more than any one in our lives. Still, when there's something we want or need, it is always easier just to worry and try and figure things out by ourselves.

Over the last couple of years, God has really transformed my heart. The grace that he has poured out in my life has really been evident to all those who know me here and I've grown so much in my relationship with him and my knowledge of him, yet every time something difficult comes up, though I know in my head God's got it all sorted and that it's no surprise to him, my tendency is still to worry. I also try to figure all things out myself and see how I can sort it out. If all else fails, I pray.

Surely the thing to do is pray first? But why on earth don't we do it? Is it a form of pride - that somehow we are better than God? Or is it that we don't really believe he loves us as much as the Bible says he does? I suspect it's probably a bit of both...

It's always the same things as well, right? Money worries, a desire for stability and a desire for a spouse. It doesn't matter how many times I come to resolve in my mind that God knows I want and need some of these things, I still end up taking my eyes off him and have to bring it back to him after a period of despair. I still look at the mountain before me instead of looking at my God who is so much bigger than that mountain.

I don't have any words of wisdom here. I just have to keep repeating time and time again:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge him,

And he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

If you've found yourself to be at that place, I hope this encourages you today.

I want a friend

I guess reading the title you might think that I am really lonely or don't consider the people in my life friends. I'm not lonely and I do consider the people in my life friends, but I want something that my vocabulary seems to lack the word for. I suppose 'companion' comes close...

Um... Before I go any further, I just want to say that this is not an advert and this is by no means something that I expect any of you to respond to!

Well, anyway, I have decided to pray for this 'friend'. I want someone who is at a similar stage in their walk with Jesus and a similar stage in life. I have so many people in my life who are 'teenagers' in their faith or who are really mature Christians, which is great for learning and growing closer to God, but no one who's really where I am. Maybe that's normal, but it doesn't seem like it from where I'm sitting - or the grass is greener?

I want someone I can walk through life with. For a long time I wanted a husband and I still do, but that just seems a little unrealistic at the moment. Maybe I need more faith? I have an amazing woman in my life who is my unofficial mentor and she's seen me grow in the last couple of years and has been a great source of encouragement and support, but she's married with 2 kids and 1 very soon on the way... I'm single. Different stages of life.

I also want someone I can laugh with. I have a friend at the moment who loves me and I'm her person and I'm one of her best friends. I do love her and I do feel called to be in her life to be a support to her, but I know I don't feel for her what she feels for me. I guess I look around and most people have a BFF, but I don't think I've ever had one. Just that one person who gets you and who just 'knows'. It doesn't have to be a man. So, that's why I say, I want a 'friend'.

I know I have Jesus and he's always been my friend. No doubt. He's always been there for me and he gets me because he made me. He knows me better than I know myself. He knows what makes me tick and believe me, I am REALLY looking forward to the day he comes back and I can spend eternity with him, but I would like someone that is equally as excited about it here so we can spur one another along. My friends - most of them - just seem to tolerate me when I get excited about Jesus and I've learned about him. The only ones who seem to feel the same are already married or about to in another country. They have their spouses...

Goodness, that sounds sad. Anyway, I want someone who will be just as excited as I am about Jesus coming back, about what I learn in the Bible, to encourage me when I've sinned or taken my eyes off him, to laugh with and just to walk with on this road, side by side at a similar pace. But I do know that if I'm supposed to have it, I will.

This is just the place I can say things I feel I can't say to people here because they won't understand or they won't take the time to listen. They do always mean well and they do pray, but sometimes, you just need to get it out there, whether it makes sense or not. :)

dizzistef = lilstef

In case there is any confusion... Basically, when I started the blog, there was no gmail and I used my hotmail account. Or there was gmail, but it wasn't as popular as it is today. Anyway, it's annoying to have to sign out of my gmail just to update my blog, so I decided to merge it. I don't really want to lose the info on my lilstef account, so there you have it... Two contributors, but they are both me.

If anyone knows of an easier way, well, let me know. I'm not all that technically minded.

Grateful

So, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, I had to move again. Two weeks ago I moved into this flat near Giesing Bahnhof, Munich. The room is 3 square metres smaller, but it just makes it cosier. I have now completely unpacked and now am waiting to see if I can get a new computer. It all depends on whether I can get a German bank to approve the financing, since I am a freelancer here. Funny, the monthly payments are only €67, but still, they're making a fuss... Well, we'll see.

Last Saturday, I went to Ikea and got some things for my flat - one thing being a desk - and now it's just like I wanted it to be. Yes, it's a little messy, but I would like to think that that makes it look 'lived in'. :)

Well, I have to say that this room is something that I am really grateful for. Also, since the rent here is almost half what I was paying before, this is the first time in four years that my shelf in the fridge is full. I have been able to eat fresh fruit and veg every day since I moved in. It really is great and I really am grateful for it.

Maybe this all seems so simple and basic, but I guess that's what I am. I really think that if you're happy at the simple, basic level, then you can always be content. I am especially content because I know that, though it was a very unpleasant circumstance that brought me here, I can say with Joseph in Gen 50:20 that God meant it for good. And not just my good, but also the good of my flatmate Birgit, who goes to church and believes in God, but isn't really sure about it all. After just two weeks, she is already asking me a lot of questions about what I think, what I believe and why. So, I was meant to be here. It's good all around. :)

So, I've had problems with my computer, then I was away in Malaysia for a month, and then I had to move out of my flat really quickly, so the whole 1 Peter thing I was trying to do kind of failed... sorry. It's not that I didn't want to. I really just couldn't. And I'm not going to continue it.

Why? Well, mainly because there was a time I was listening to like 4 sermons a day, reading my Bible and trying to do like 3 Bible studies (not all in one day) and it was really hard to keep up with. I love the Bible and I love it every time I learn more about it and study it, but trying to study all these books at the same time was just nuts. I realised what should have been obvious all along, I have time to learn. Ok, yes, I don't know how much time I have, but I can use the time I have to concentrate on certain things without necessarily trying to do everything in one breath. So, I've put the 1 Peter thing on hold for now. At the moment, I am concentrating on the book for the women's Bible study and trying to do my best on Philippians. I am slowly - painfully slowly - trying to memorise it.

I would really like to do something with this blog. I don't just want it to be months without nothing and then blasts for a couple of days and then nothing for ages. When this started, I used it as a way to talk about my relationship with God and put devotion stuff or maybe song lyrics on it. I hope to do the same again on a regular basis. The other thing, I guess, is to make it a type of spiritual journal. I don't know. That could work though.

In any case, I don't know if this is still being read and who it's being read by. I do hope though that this will be an encouragement to you and you will learn to love God more. I so want to be a light and in this form it's easier because it's anonymous. Well, I hope I will become more emboldened. I really do love Jesus more now than this time last year and I don't understand how you couldn't love him, but yes, that is something else...

Well, here's the blast from today. I hope it won't be too long till the next one.

Trial: Temptation from Worldliness

"As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

"See, I lay a stone in Zion,

a chosen and precious cornerstone,

and the one who trusts in him

will never be put to shame."

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

"The stone the builders rejected

has become the capstone,"

and

"A stone that causes men to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall."

They stumble because they disobey the message - which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."

(1 Peter 2:4-12 NIV)

As we have seen so far, the people Peter was writing to were under a lot of trial. In the last post, we saw that they were tempted to hypocrisy; to live one way, but believe another thing. In this post, we'll see that they were also being tempted to worldliness.

Worldliness is basically the evil desires inside of us warring against our souls and forming a belief system. It is elevating culture over Scripture. In the Church today, we have two directions of worldliness that we are tempted to - progressive (following the culture of today) and traditional (rejecting the culture of today and trying to go back to the 1950s).

Culture in itself is not the problem, but it is what we choose to do with it. We are work in it, but not follow it. The traditionals think that because culture is so against Scripture, we should go back to the 50s when things were a lot more wholesome, but this is also worldliness, as it still elevates culture over Scripture, though a much older one. The progressives think that the views of the Bible are outdated and too strict for today. But whether progressive or traditional, any belief that puts culture over Scripture is wrong. Our goal should not be to say what values in culture are right or wrong, but to point people to Jesus and we will be made holy through faith in him.

Before we can point people to Jesus, we should be clear on the following five things:

1. Our Jesus (1 Peter 2:4-8)

- From the perspective of the world, Jesus is offensive, which is why Peter refers to him as a stone they stumble on.

- Some people will always find Jesus and the Gospel offensive, since he often speaks of hell and therefore people see him as intolerant and exclusive.

- People tend to like some aspects of Christianity like turning the other cheek and helping widows and orphans, but they don't like the fact that we say that Jesus is God and is the only way to heaven.

- We know, as Christians, that Jesus is God, Lord, Saviour, King and Christ and that to God, he is precious and priceless.

- Jesus is our cornerstone.

- In construction, picking a good cornerstone is vital because it determines the durability of the whole building. The builders would choose the best, most dependable stone to rest everything else on.

- Just like builders, we should build our whole lives on Jesus as our cornerstone - not anything else. If we based our lives on anything else - money, status, race, etc. - our lives will crumble because only Jesus and carry the whole load.

- People are happy for us to compromise and have a Jesus merely as one of the 'bricks' that make up the whole structure, but they don't like it when we base our lives on him.

- Everything will collapse if we don't have Jesus as our cornerstone.

- Peter also reminds us that Jesus is a 'living' stone.

- We have to ask ourselves if Jesus really is our cornerstone.

2. Our Identity (1 Peter 2:9)

- If we based our identity on our performance, we will either end up proud or in despair.

- We should instead base our identity on who it is that loves us - namely, God.

- Sometimes we are so focussed on comparing ourselves to others that we forget that God loves us.

- The people Peter wrote to were 'nobodies' who lived in an insignificant part of the world, but Peter calls them a 'chosen people' and a 'royal priesthood'.

- In Jesus, we are all royal priests and since he is our mediator, not one person is closer to God than anyone else because through Jesus, we are all equally God's children and have equal access to him.

- We tend to underestimate our significance and not realise that we are all in ministry. Yes, some people are in vocational ministry, but even if we are just in an 'ordinary' job, we are in ministry when we work as if we are working unto God because in doing that, we have the opportunity to change the world by what we do.

3. Our Worship (1 Peter 2:5; 2:9)

- We worship God in three main ways - with or words, our works and out wealth.

- We worship him in our words when we speak of him, in our works when we serve and help people and in our wealth in our tithes and offerings.

- If Jesus is really everything in our lives, he will show up in it.

- We should make sure that we are in fact regenerate and not just religious.

4. Our Community (1 Peter 2:10)

- You can't love Jesus and hate the church because Jesus loves the church and is building it.

- We were not a people before, but in Jesus we have all been brought together to be a people and that is why it is important to seek out and live in a community of believers.

- We can't 'do' Christianity on our own because we only get information on Sunday, but transformation comes from living that out in community.

5. Our Mission (1 Peter 2:11-12)

- The purpose of community is not only for our individual lives to change, but we are also to be missionaries in the world around us.

- Fundamentalists tend to leave the cities and hide in the suburbs and liberals tend to live in the cities and compromise, but Peter says we are to live counter-cultural lives and so do things like money, sex, gender, food, sex and job differently from how the rest of the world does it.

- We should abstain from worldly passions, but we should do good deeds.

- In living our lives counter-culturally, we will be ridiculed and people will speak evil of us, but we should continue because living in this way brings honour to God.

- Sticking to the Gospel means we will always feel homeless because our home is not on earth, it is in heaven.

- For liberals, the cornerstone is tolerance and diversity. Conservatives have self-righteousness, pride and intolerance as their cornerstone. But we should have Jesus and the Gospel as ours.

Finally, our response to opposition is not to return evil for evil, but to 'out love' those who oppose us. We should call those around us to repentance, but at the same time, we should humble ourselves and also repent. We shouldn't become proud and self-righteous. In living our lives in this way with Jesus as our cornerstone, some people will come to know Christ.

Trial:Temptation from Hypocrisy

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love another deeply from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For

"All men are like grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field

but the word of the Lord stands forever."

And this is the word that was preached to you.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."

(1 Peter 1:22 - 2:3 NIV)

The people Peter wrote to were going through a lot of trials and were tempted to hypocrisy. They believed one thing, but were tempted to act another way to make things easier for themselves.

In these verses, there are three points:

1. Revelation - 1 Peter 1:23-25

2. Regeneration - 1 Peter 1:23; 2:2-3

3. Response - 1 Peter 1:22; 2:1

The Bible is important because through it God speaks to us, so we don't need to speculate. Though Peter is talking about the Word of God, which is the Bible, he also means the preached word. Unlike other books, the Bible is the living word of God and our spirit is made alive through it. Just like the Bible is abiding and has persevered through time, we too can persevere, so Peter says, "All men are like grass", but the word of the Lord will stand forever. It has so far!

The Bible has been translated into 3,000 languages and has been read by many different people and has not been without opposition. Over the course of history, people have been persecuted in violent ways, but they have not put down their Bible. The Roman Empire banned the Bible, but though it has disappeared, the Bible is still with us.

Our view of the Bible is inextricably related to our view of preaching, so that if we have a low view of the Bible, we have a low view of preaching. On the other hand, if we have a high view of the Bible, we will also have a high view of preaching. It is God's word and so we must put ourselves under its authority and also the authority of preaching, even though it is counter-cultural to submit to any kind of authority.

There are many examples of preaching in the Scriptures. It starts with God preaching the world into existence. In Genesis 3, we have the first false sermon preached by the serpent, who tempted Eve, but later in the chapter, God brought Adam and Eve together again and preached once more, and this time about Jesus. Throughout the Bible we will see that Satan has a succession of false preachers to lead God's people astray and at the same time, God raises up prophets to reveal the truth to the people. This culminates in the last of the Old Testament prophets, namely John the Baptist, and after this we have Jesus. He states in Mark that he came to preach and once he was baptised by John, he was taken to the desert where Satan tried to preach false sermons to him, but Jesus resisted by preaching the truth.

Just like in the past, there are many false teachers as well as teachers of the truth, so we have to be careful who we listen to and who we follow. Paul speaks often of wolves coming in to the church to lead the sheep astray. We know who wolves are because they don't tend to lead people into repentance. They accommodate and excuse sin. Jesus, however, preached repentance, which is turning our backs on sin and turning our faces toward God. Jesus preached repentance so much, that the only way to get him to stop was to kill him, but even that didn't stop him because he rose three days later and continued preaching.

When the Holy Spirit came on the disciples in Acts 2, they also preached. The disciples continued to preach all throughout Acts and the only time Acts doesn't speak about the preaching of the apostles is when they were put into prison. The apostles were totally committed to preaching and they did not let imprisonment or persecution stop them. Preaching is to continue until Jesus returns where the last sermon will be preached by an angel (Revelation 14:6).

Revelation contributes to regeneration. First, the word must be preached to us and then we will change. Once we put our faith in Jesus, we will get a new heart, be born again, become a new creation, have union with Christ and in the end, be raised with Jesus from the dead. The only way we can know more about God and be passionate about him is to go to his word.

In the Bible, there is only perishable or imperishable seed. We are either sons of Adam or sons of God. All of us are born into sin and the only way out is by salvation from God.

- Psalm 51:5 - we are born in sin

- Psalm 58:3 - all fell through Adam

- Ephesians 2:3 - by nature, we are children of wrath

Regeneration is a gift to make us completely new, whereas religion is all about sinners trying to do better and earning their way into heaven. We can't do anything to regenerate ourselves because we have as much control of our new birth as we had of our old birth. Just like we had no say about us being born into the world, we have no say about being born as a new creation in God.

Since repenting and trusting in God are both signs that we have been born again, we have nothing to boast about. We were saved because God chose us and not that we chose God. After our re-birth, our desires change too. Before regeneration, sin seems good and we desire to do what we want, but after regeneration, we desire to please God and turn from sin and be like Jesus.

Finally, we come to response. We respond by obeying the word and so the last thing we would want to be as new creations is hypocritical. Religion tries to get us to change as a result of guilt and fear and we have to try change ourselves into a new person, but regeneration gives us a new heart and so our desires change (Psalm 37:4).

We will still be tempted, but we shouldn't pursue it. We should instead pursue the deep passion of our hearts and go after God. Sin and sinful desires are shallow desires next to our deep desire to please God. We shouldn't listen to Satan and we need to listen to God. We overcome sin with worship. We overcome lies with the word of truth. We overcome Satan with the Spirit. We overcome temptation with our passion for the things of God.

In pursuing our deepest desires, we can overcome the enemy.

Trial: Temptation from Sin

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your hope and faith are in God."

(1 Peter 1:13-21 NIV)

We are tempted to sin in two ways:

1. To go back to our old way of life

2. To stop believing that God will help and will be there for us in our future.

Peter writes this section to give those under trial some hope and to encourage them to persevere. To understand what he is trying to say, it is necessary to define what Peter means by 'hope'. He defines hope as a "confident certainty in God", therefore our hope should have Jesus as it's foundation since:

- (1 Peter 1:3) Jesus is alive and so our hope is alive

- (1 Peter 1:13) Jesus is coming back and will give us grace

- (1 Peter 1:21) Our hope should only be in Jesus and all the he is

The problem is, once we lose hope in God, we stop changing, learning, growing and repenting. In other words, once we stop hoping in God, we stop trying and so we start dying.

Listed below are 6 ways we can hope:

1. I can be a wise learner (1 Peter 1:13)

- Hear God's word: listen to sermons, download an audio Bible, listen to good, sound teaching on God, download theology seminars from websites (Reformed Theological seminary allows free downloads of it's courses)

- Read God's word: don't just rely on other people to tell you what God's word says. Read it for yourself, so that you can be informed of the truth and know how to recognise sound or false teaching. Be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11).

- Memorise God's word: this can be individual verses or whole books of the Bible. Start small and work up to it.

- Study God's word: don't just read the Bible. There are different ways to study it like inductive Bible studies, reading around in history, looking at the context of the book and getting a good study Bible.

- Discuss God's word: share what you've learned with others and learn from their insights.

2. I can be a sober thinker (1 Peter 1:13)

- This is a result of studying the word of God and being absorbed in it. The more you study, the more you will be able to make sound, biblical decisions.

3. I can be a grace seeker (1 Peter 1:13)

- When we are focussed on what we lack, we are unable to see God's grace in our lives. The idea here is to make a conscious decision to look for God's hand in our lives, even the small things of each day. Another way is to listen to the stories of others, how God is helping someone get through cancer, how God is helping a couple to restore their marriage; God's grace is all around us and we need to open our eyes to see it, so that our hope can be strengthened and we will persevere because the same God who's been faithful to them will also be faithful to you.

4. I can be a holy worshipper (1 Peter 1:14-16)

- Holiness is the attribute most mentioned in the Bible when describing God. Holiness means to be set apart and to be completely other from anything else. Striving to be holy in everything we do is an act of worship. Being holy is not something we have to be to get God to love us. He already does! In loving us, he enables us to obey him and it is by his love that we are transformed into someone more like him - someone holy!

5. I can be a ransomed sinner (1 Peter 1:17-19)

- Just like the Israelites were exiles in Egypt under the cruel taskmaster, Pharoah, though their home was the promised land, we were exiles in the world under the sin as a cruel taskmaster. Our 'promised land' is heaven. Jesus came, died and rose again to free us from sin and one day we will be in heaven with him.

- However, just like the Israelites complained once they had been freed from slavery and longed for the 'good old days' in Egypt, we too lose sight of what we have in Jesus and look back on our life before Christ and sometimes long for it. We romanticise our sin and think of ourselves freer than we are now, forgetting that we were slaves to sin.

- We have to realise that our slavery to sin is voluntary. Nobody else puts us into that position. Unfortunately, we only realise that we are once again a slave to sin once it's 'shackles' are on us.

- But just like God sent Moses to rescue his people from slavery in Egypt, he sent Jesus to free us from our slavery to sin. With Jesus we can overcome sin and not just manage it. He can release us from our addictions.

6. I can be a legacy leaver (1 Peter 1:19)

- In Jesus, we are freed from the legacy given to us by our family. We do not have to continue in the same way our families did before. With Jesus's help, we can change and leave a new legacy for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We can change and transform our family history.

The last point is why we should have our hope in Jesus . This is what is covered in 1 Peter 1:20-21. Before we can put our hope in Jesus, we have to see him as he really is. The view we tend to have of him is a weak, passive person, but that is not how Isaiah saw him in Isaiah 6 or as John saw him in Revelation. He is strong, powerful, he has been glorified and now sits at the right hand of God. This is the Jesus we have our hope in. He will never fail us and he will see us through to the very end.

Trial and Scripture

So we come to sermon number 3.

"Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things."

(1 Peter 1:10-12 NIV)

The Bible is a history book, which tells us of our need of salvation and a Saviour. It is full of prophecy that culminates in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. No other religion has the amount of prophecy that our Scriptures have. The writers and prophets in the Bible did not write just their own ideas, but they were divinely inspired by God through the Spirit and so essentially, it is God who wrote the Bible. The Bible, therefore, is not speculation and it's main theme is grace - the story of us, ill-deserving sinners, pursued and saved by God. This also makes the most perfect thing on this earth the Bible.

There are only three things that the Bible is about:

1. Salvation

2. by Grace

3. through the suffering and glory of Jesus

This is where the doctrine of Verbal Plenary Inerrancy comes in. This is the doctrine that means that you have to take the whole Bible, all it says and all the words and ideas, at it's word. There is not one part of the Bible that can be left out or thought to be useless. Some might think that the Old Testament is obsolete and useless, but we have to remember that when Jesus preached to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the only Bible there was was the Old Testament and he showed them how it all spoke about his birth, death, resurrection and how God would save his people. Moreover, in this passage, Peter is referring to the Old Testament and saying that it was written by God because no-one other than God could know the future and bring it to pass.

Following is the summary of some of the prophecies about Jesus:

700 BC: Isaiah 7:14

The Lord will give you a sign - a pregnant virgin, who will give birth to a son.

700 BC: Micah 5:2

God will be born in Bethlehem, an inconsequential town, as a baby.

400 BC: Malachi 3:1

Before he comes, he will send a messenger - this we now know was John the Baptist. Also, God is coming to his temple, therefore, it had to have been before 70 AD when the temple was destroyed, which implies he has already come.

700 BC: Isaiah 35:5-6

God on earth would perform many miracles including healing the blind, deaf and lame.

500 BC: Zechariah 11:12-13

Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and this betrayer would throw the money back into a specific part of the temple, namely where the potter was.

1000 BC: Psalm 22:16

A band of men would surround Jesus and crucify him by piercing his hand is feet. This is one of the more astounding prophecies because crucifixion was not invented until a few hundred years later.

700 BC: Isaiah 53:6-11

The end of Isaiah 52 and the whole of Isaiah 53 is packed full of messianic prophecies. The suffering servant would come, be sinless, he will bear all our sins, we have all wandered away from God, he would be buried in a rich man's tomb, and then he would be resurrected and give salvation to his people. If this isn't talking about Jesus, who does it describe?

Religious people tend to moralise the Bible, looking at it as a book full of inspiring stories that will enlighten us, but this takes us away from the hero of the Bible - Jesus! The Bible is not just information, it is about transformation. Informing ourselves and being intelligent is good, but the whole point of the Bible is telling us about Jesus and enabling us to love him. The Bible is all about Jesus and it is only about Jesus.

To believe in the Bible requires faith and this comes from God. A by-product of faith is holiness. So by faith, we will love him more and by loving him more, we will become more like him, therefore, we will be holy.

Another point is that the Old Testament was written by prophets, but the New Testament was written by eye-witnesses. The prophets were told about what the apostles saw and experienced. The New Testament is all about eye-witness accounts and so it was not made up. Peter says in 2 Peter 1:16-18 that what they wrote was not "cleverly invented stories". Along with this verse, there are other verses in the New Testament which back up the fact that the Bible was not made up - 2 Timothy 3:16 (scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, training and correcting), 2 Peter 1:20-21 (the prophet's were inspired and didn't make it up) and in 2 Peter 3:15-16 (Peter refers to Paul's letters as Scripture). Not accepting the truth of the Bible reveals a hardness of heart.

Finally, there are two ways to view Scripture:

1. You have authority over it and so you can pick and choose what you believe.

2. You are under the authority of Scripture and so you change your mind, repent and submit to it in humility.

Peter ends this section by saying that all this is so wonderful that even the angels long to look into it. Fallen angels have no chance of repentance, but we fallen humans have a chance to repent and be saved because of Jesus. They have no hope, but we have hope in Jesus. He has given us a way out of this life of sin and a way into an eternity in heaven with him. :)

Trial and Jesus

Trial and Jesus

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

(1 Peter 1:3-9 NIV)

The main focus of this sermon was on verse 6 - grieved by various trials, but greatly rejoicing. Trials are what all of us go through at various stages of our lives and this causes many of us to be grieved. There is no sin in grieving because Jesus was also grieved by his suffering. As Christians, we should not hide behind the lie that we should be smiley, happy, positive people all the time.

Grieving takes many forms. It can be a heaviness that hangs over us, anxiety about the future leading to difficulty in getting to sleep, dread, fear, malignant sadness, deep sorrow, weeping, despair and depression. In these times, our friends will try to counsel us and sometimes this causes us more pain. They may be like Job's friends asking us to confess sin believing that God sent the trial to punish us. They may also be painful friends in that they don't seek to understand and grieve you, but tell you instead to 'be positive' or that 'you're a winner'. This is because many of us fail to realise that sorrow and trial are a very real part of being a Christian that the Bible talks about sorrows as well as joys. What we have to remember is that Jesus was described in Isaiah as the 'man of sorrows' and that Jesus was not immune to sorrow and suffering.

Another lie is that in grief, Jesus will fix everything. The Bible does not say this. Of course, in the midst of trial, it is not wrong to pray that God will deliver us from it, but it may not be his will to do so. False teachers claim that God will fix it if you pray hard enough or have enough faith, but this will only lead to more pain because what if it doesn't happen? What will you do then? The Bible does promise, however, that God will get us through our trial and that he will be there with us. The purpose of trial is to purify us so that we can be more like Jesus.

The correct response to suffering and trial is to rejoice. This is not a feeling that you can muster up, but an action that we should will ourselves to perform. Later I'll list the 10 reasons in the text for us to rejoice, but for now, these are some more natural responses to trial:

- You judge God - just because the trial may obscure God, does not mean that he ceases to be God or that he ceases to be good.

- You envy people - you want what they have because they are not suffering like you, but envy is a sin.

- Fall into self-pity - not only is this a form of pride, but it causes you to focus on yourself and takes your focus off God.

- You run to a 'functional saviour' - you go to alcohol, a boyfriend/girlfriend, sex, food or anything else other than God, but instead of relieving the trial, it only exacerbates it.

Once again, the correct response, though it doesn't come naturally to us, is to rejoice. It is not wrong to feel grief, but we should respond in rejoicing. We should give God the glory and focus on the weightiness and importance of God instead of the weightiness and importance of the trial.

Here are 10 reasons and ways that Peter gives to rejoice:

1. Verse 3: "In his great mercy" - a lot of our trials are a result of sin, but God is present, loving and affectionate. The world is not full of mercy, but God is.
2. Verse 3: "he has given us new birth" - he has caused us to be born again. He has given us salvation and therefore, a complete re-orientation of who we are.
3. Verse 3: "living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" - because Jesus has conquered death and is alive, the source of our hope is also alive.
4. Verse 4: "into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade" - the treasure in heaven that we store up instead of here on earth will never be destroyed.
5. Verse 4: "kept in heaven for you" - this is a reminder that the earth is not ultimately our home, but heaven is. One day, this will all get better because we will be with our saviour for eternity.
6. Verse 5: "shielded by God's power" - our salvation is secure. When you don't feel like you can hold on to God, he will hold on to you. When you feel like you can't walk with him, he will carry you.
7. Verse 6: "though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief" - a little while refers to our life here on earth, which is long, but looks like a day in comparison to eternity.
8. Verse 7: " These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine" - trial really purifies our faith just like fire purifies gold. For this reason, many of the godliest people we know are the ones who have suffered the most. Don't rejoice in the trial, rejoice in the result of the trial. To God, your faith is much more precious than gold.
9. Verse 8: "Though you have not seen him, you love him" - and though we do not see him, he loves us.
10. Verse 8: "though you do not see him now, you believe in him" - it is in trial that we see if we really believe in him.

And finally in verse 9 we have the whole reason of the trial which will give us yet another reason to rejoice - "for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls". We shouldn't forget that the sanctifying work of the Spirit in our lives is not instantaneous. We are a work in progress and trial is one way God uses to sanctify us and make us more like him.

I hope in this you don't misunderstand. Mark Driscoll does not want us to sing and dance because we are suffering in a masochistic way. He merely means that we should rejoice in anticipation of where the trial will bring us - closer to God, deeper into our knowledge of him and ultimately, we will be more like Jesus and because of these things, we should rejoice.

Trial and Sin

Going to try a new thing. See what you think. I am basically going to write what I've learned from Mark Driscoll's sermons on Trial (1 and 2 Peter). I might also intersperse it with things I've noted from John Piper's book "Battling Unbelief". I don't know. I hope it encourages your walk.

Trial and Sin

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, stranger in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance."

(1 Peter 1:1-2 NIV)

Though these are just 2 verses, in these two verses we get all the truth of our salvation - namely that we are elect, we have been chosen by God, we are sanctified by the Spirit and therefore we can obey Jesus.

I don't know what your viewpoint is on election and predestination. I don't mean to cause a stir, but in these verses we are told that we are elect and God foreknew us. We know from Romans 3:10-18 that we didn't seek God because we were lost and we all sought our own way. Despite our unwillingness to follow God, God chose us and enabled us to have a relationship with him. We didn't do anything to deserve his grace and yet he pours it out on us anyway.

We know from the outpouring of his grace that God is never going to fail us and we are never going to surprise him with our sin. On the cross, Jesus died for our sins - past, present and future. We are no longer condemned, but have been given the right as sons and daughters to approach the throne of grace which we can approach in prayer.

Once we believe by faith in the truth of our salvation, we are given the Holy Spirit, who works in us to sanctify us, which means he is transforming us from the inside out so that we may one day be like Jesus. Phillipians 1:6 reminds us that we are a work in progress, but that God will finish what he started. The Spirit also transforms our desires, so that the closer we are brought to God, the more we desire to get closer.

Peter also refers to us as 'strangers'. The ESV uses the word 'exiles' instead, which makes his idea a lot clearer. The world is not our home, but heaven is. To make the world home is to make yourself depressed. It can't satisfy because we are being made for an eternity with our Saviour. This doesn't mean that life on earth is easy. To be a Christian means to be at war and we will be persecuted.

Persecution comes in two forms. In the West, what we experience may be verbal persecution - snide remarks by friends and colleagues, people maligning Christians, people calling us all stupid and misguided, etc. This gradually eats away at us and takes away our joy. The persecution that our brothers and sisters in the East face is physical. They put us to shame because they face up to it, but we merely try to be politically correct and sometimes say nothing at all.

There are 5 ways to respond to our form of persecution:

- Be liberal - take what seems palatable from the Bible and leave behind the things that make us uncomfortable

- Privatise your faith - keep silent and keep your faith to yourself without sharing it with anyone

- Quit - life as a Christian is too hard, so we give up under pressure

- Be fundamental - instead of loving our enemies and showing them gentleness, we fight against them

Or

- Live as an exile - this means living as a missionary and living differently, not for our glory, but for God's glory.

I don't know what this looks like, but the early Christians loved their enemies in such a way that they too became fellow followers of Christ. We are to do this too. It is easy to retaliate and not love, but we are to love and forgive others as Jesus has loved and forgiven us. This is really scary, but we have to look at Peter as an example. He was, at the beginning of his faith, like us - someone who was afraid and affected by what people thought of him. The New Testament gives us two examples of when Peter caved in to the fear of man - when he denied Jesus three times and when he followed the Judaisers, who expected the Gentile Christians to live as Jews. However, church history records that Peter was so transformed later in his life that he was willing to die crucified upside-down instead of denying Jesus.

Like Peter, we should keep our eyes on Jesus and trust in the sanctifying work of the Spirit. If we persevere in our faith, we too will be transformed so that we will pay more attention to what God thinks of us and not what people think of us. By God's grace, I hope we will all become people who will be bold for Jesus and will be vessels God uses to bring people to Him and to disciple them.

Update

Just a quick update, my boss has offered to pay €160 of the total cost, which is €560. I am still waiting to hear from the landlord and I'm hoping I can pay it in €50 installments. Thanks for praying.