On the Way to Wonder

1 Peter 4

Peter in chapter 4 of 1 Peter brings in a new thought.  Often our actions are questioned. “Why did you do that?”  Verse 5 says, “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”   Our lives are called to account in the court of public opinion but ultimately we will face our creator.  Peter reasons that a “guilty” in the kingdom of this world will be an honor in God’s court.  When we refuse to live by actions that please the crowd so that we can fit in and so that we can satisfy the emotions of the minute whether that be sexual, revenge, greed or covetousness, we are choosing approval by the world but missing the mark with God.  The harder path is to choose God’s standards that calls us to “our better selves.”  The world will find us guilty of being boring and weird but we will in reality be living by higher standards that please God.  We will be guilty as charged by human standards “but live according to God in regard to the spirit.”

         Verse 5 is Peter’s famous quote, “Love covers over a multitude of sins.”  We are charged to love, to offer hospitality, to speak, and to serve as unto God.  We are not to be surprised by these struggles but Peter encourages us that any struggles should come from doing good, not evil.

         So which of the areas Peter lists: love, hospitality, speech, or service challenges you today?  Perhaps set a simple goal of saying kind words to three people today – a friend, a spouse, a child, a neighbor.  Everyone loves to be complimented when it is genuine so think what you might be able to slip into a conversation.  Be genuine. If words fail you then give a smile or a hug.  Blessings as you bless others!    

1 Peter 3: 13-22

Peter advises his friends to do good in the face of evil.  “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? (v. 13)” Well, the definition of “doing good” is often open to debate.  “Nights at Rodanthe,” the movie based on the Nicolas Sparks novel of a doctor who goes to talk to the husband of a patient who died while he operated.  The doctor is convinced he did all that could have been done but the husband is furious about the death of his beloved wife.  Doing good, as we see it, is not always understood as good by the receiver who is looking at the situation from a different perspective.  Peter reasons though that we expect bad people to do bad and retaliate  but when a person returns good for evil, actions speak louder than words.  The doctor in the movie chooses to respond to the husband’s letter requesting a visit and learns through the drama that the husband does not want a visit to blame but to grieve through sharing just how special his wife was.  She was perfect in the husband’s eyes without the operation.

         When we follow Christ’s example and sometimes suffer unjustly as Jesus did, there can be unforeseen benefits that we cannot anticipate.  Christ’s death on the cross resulted in eternal life for all who believe.  Those years of struggle as a college student thinking I would become, well not so certain what I would become, resulted in teaching skills in Kenya that helped young women.  In college I could not foresee that future.  It does not remove the pain but comforts us that God sees a future we cannot.

         Peter draws a parallel with baptism.  We baptize believing and trusting that God claims myself or my child.  We have yet to receive the blessing of heaven but we believe our future holds blessings we do not know now.

         We do good because it calms anger, because it silences slander, because it follows Christ, and because it opens a future that is still unfolding.  Anger and hate poison our souls and our lives so today let us think of a good thing we could do for someone we find difficult to love. Try to be practical.  Perhaps it will be something inexpensive like giving a smile to someone you don’t know but it could be asking God to help you bless someone who has hurt you.  Doing good is not always easy but usually it is the right thing to do.  Blessings as you try!

1 Peter 3: 8-12

Peter continues his discussion of speaking truth to power.  “Finally…” he says, but actually it will take him two more chapters to wind up his advice to these young Christians spread around the Roman empire who are experiencing hard times.  We are listening in for many of us like those people long ago are grieving the impact of Covid, the pinch of inflation, and fear the clouds of war on the horizon.  We feel helpless as the world events seem unsolvable by our individual lives.  Evil is big and we are little.

            A Chinese proverb speaks beautifully to this dynamic:  “The flapping of the wings of a butterfly can be felt on the other side of the world.”  If I considered myself defeated because the task is too big, the proverb reminds me that I can impact the lives of those who touch me and so a ripple effect begins – around the world.  Peter says it this way,

         “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.  On the contrary, repay evil with blessing because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. (v. 8,9)”

As we do good to those who do not deserve it, like a pebble thrown in a lake, we do not know what the final ripple will impact.  Likewise, Peter reasons that because we have all fallen short of perfection and yet are loved by God, we too can pass on that blessing by loving those who are not perfect towards us.  This is not to condone abuse nor to encourage continuing in destructive situations to those touching our lives but as much as is possible we are encouraged to meet evil with good.  Peter says this is the only way to achieve real peace.  Escalating power to meet power, threats to meet threats, and revenge to pay back evil, we will probably achieve little eternal peace.

         I cannot control the world but I can try to discipline my own emotions and actions.  As we think about this today and realize our lives cannot change world dynamics, we must not forget we have a weapon. We can pray.  May I suggest we take time today to pray for those starving in Afghanistan and for the foreboding politics on the borders or Ukraine?  God is listening to you!

1 Peter 3: 1-7

When we went to Kenya, the question, “How many children do you have?” is one of those complicated cross-cultural situations that we learned to avoid.  One answer was 27 as they had 3 wives and all had the same father.  Another answer involved questioning how many children survived which can be a painful conversation.  A third response was that they had as many children as the stars in the sky because to give a specific answer might doubt God’s ability to provide more children and amount to a curse.  It was quickly explained that the question about children was paramount to asking an American how much money they have in the bank.  We don’t do it.  It was also true that all the children of the people in my age set were also my children so “individual” ownership of children was not understandable.  But the most common answer was a number where the speaker numbered his wife as one of his children because he was responsible for her, like a child.  I gained a new insight into passages like the first part of chapter 3 of 1 Peter.

         Peter is addressing a culture where women are counted a bit higher than a slave but certainly not with all the social power and respect as we have in the Western world today.  It is grating on our ears and hard to hear past our cultural lenses to understand the message.  The big picture Peter is talking about deals with the evils and injustices that plague our lives and how we are to look to Jesus as a model.  The word he uses is “submit.”  That is a different word than “agree” nor does it imply “correct.”  We are looking with a microscope at that tension we talked about between injustice and faith.  Another way to say it today is to ask what is the best way to speak truth to power?    Wives are advised to submit, not agree, not endorse or approve.  The reality is they were not in a position of power.  We use idioms like “a tablespoon of sugar makes the medicine go down,” “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” or “a soft answer turns away wrath.”  Jesus is the model.  He did not approve of the cross or slavery but violence spins out more violence and love is the best approach.  I think the clincher is the final sentence, ”If you do what is right and do not give way to fear.”  Fear is the enemy. Evil is the enemy, not the other person.  I do not like to have to submit naturally but I know all of us doing what WE want leads to anarchy.  Keeping my heart focused on a greater picture of a God who is just, impartial and values me, helps me when I have to swallow my pride and work with the system.  “A quiet, gentle spirit” that genuinely loves and cares in a friend is a wonderful gift.

         Ponder how you might show more love and respect to just one person you care about this week. “Pay love forward” in faith that God can multiply your investment.  Blessings.

by Darrell Evans

This week we looked at chapters 1 and 2 of 1 Peter.  Peter, known also as “the big fisherman” was one of the three that often were at Jesus’ side.  It is thought he died in the 60s, possibly under Nero.  He wrote this letter to young Christians spread across five Roman provinces when Christianity was just becoming.  No scriptures had been gathered together yet and Peter is writing to encourage people who are facing hard times.  Maybe it was not Covid or possible war but choosing to follow Jesus meant persecution and struggles.  Peter honestly faces the tension between our dark days and trying to live a faith modeled on the life of Christ.  Christ did not lead rallies, confront the government, or rant and rave.  He lived a life of principles and love, healing, preaching, and making life easier for the masses.  How does one find inner strength to follow him?

         In 2 Corinthians 4:8,9 Paul says, “I am pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.”  Darrell Evans in 1997, while playing background music for people kneeling at the altar, started pondering what he would do with his past, what he wanted to lay down and get rid of.  Interestingly he chose the word “trade.”  He did not deny his mistakes.  He did not cover up his mistakes.  He did not blame others for his mistakes.  He realized that he could help heal those memories of failure and problems by focusing on Christ and turning them over to a just judge.  This song that came out of a spontaneous moment of worship is a popular worship chorus sung in churches now.  Amazingly it upbeat tune lifts the heart after a bad day, bad week, bad year.  I pray you enjoy it.

1 Peter 2:23-25

We finish chapter 2 of 1 Peter today and I feel a tension.  Two truths are presented.  Our lives will experience injustice and wrongs.  Sin is sin and people get hurt.  We cannot deny that.  On the other hand Peter presents Jesus as our model to follow. 

         “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate, when        he suffered, he made no threats, instead, he entrusted himself to him   who judges justly. (v. 23)”

How is Peter understanding the cross and responses by Jesus to trials?  These words encourage us to look inside ourselves and look at the words we use to describe the cross experience.  Was Jesus just passively allowing evil to beat him up to pay the penalty for our sin?  Did God just absorb evil to eliminate it so we can go to heaven?  Should an abused wife continue to submit to beatings of an alcoholic husband because Jesus submitted to the cross?  Often the abuser will use that reasoning to justify abuse but I do not think that is what Peter is saying.  Turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and giving away our coat are words of advice we receive.  I believe there are deeper questions to be pondered.  If what I am doing is pointless, then submission is passive resignation to a situation I am trapped in. Then my suffering serves no purpose.  We call it martyring, deceiving ourselves that we are acting like Jesus.

         Jesus’ suffering was neither passive nor purposeless.  He walked through horrible suffering in his identification with humanity, true man.  In the process he confronted all participants involved with truth – “I am the way, the truth and the life” – even to Pilot.  He offered eternal life to the thief who turned to him on the cross – “today you will be with me in Paradise”.  He restored the ear to the man in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He told Peter that Peter would betray but Jesus would pray for him. Jesus proved that he is stronger than the worse evil that we can experience and rose three days later proving life in God cannot be destroyed – for you and me.  Suffering confronts us with the tension to martyr for our own glory or suffering to benefit others.  It is never easy to see the way forward in these situations and so the help, insight and wisdom of others is often needed.

         As we watch the news and ponder how we will respond to the ethical dilemmas facing our culture today we need God’s wisdom.  Let us pray for judges, lawyers, and law officials who deal with crime and law daily.  Lord have mercy!”T

The Battle of the Bulge was the last major offensive in WW2.  The Axis powers failed to divide the Allies but at a great price.  The USA lost 100,000+ lives.  Peter tells us that faith is a battle not dissimilar to the Battle of the Bulge.  We battle with our own sinful self and the desires that drive us.  We are counseled to choose God’s way with our passions.  Peter tells us to submit to government authorities.  We are to be people who do good.  In our culture today we hear so much about advocating for the oppressed and downtrodden by unjust authorities.  For sure it is a battle to figure out just how to respect government authorities when we are feeling misunderstood.  Peter contends that doing good silences false accusations and is God’s way of waging war with evil.  The frog that is hard to swallow is Peter’s advise to slaves to submit to masters.  We just do not like that language today and we would like to think we are the master’s of our lives.  But in truth we live in community and community only works when we respect each other and we are willing to give up some of our freedom for peace.

         I have always liked the example of a stray dog who has no master and goes around rummaging for food, flea ridden, and unloved verses the owned dog that must submit to the leash and a master but is fed, is groomed and is the family pet.  The happier, healthier dog is the one who submits to an authority.  Likewise as we live in submission to God, our lives will go better, not because we are somehow favored but because God speaks the truth about how to live the good life.  He does not play favorites and he is honest about how life works – don’t kill, don’t covet, don’t slander, don’t steal, and show respect to God and family.

         Peter further reasons that if we do what the crowd does and love those who love us then we have only done what everyone else does.  It is when we, as exiles and strangers, choose to do the good that is unexpected and contrary to human nature that others see God working through us.  Peter says the example for us is Christ who went through severe trials trusting God and without sin. 

         Perhaps you are waging a war today within yourself, within your family, within your friendship group or perhaps even within government.  Let us pray about how we can lead lives in the midst of these battles to God’s glory.  Staying united and continuing to battle at great cost, helps to win the wars of life.  Blessings in the struggle.

My husband attended Rift Valley Academy (RVA) on the edge of the Great Rift Valley outside Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa.  One of the legends that I quickly learned about RVA was that the cornerstone of the main building was laid and engraved by President Theodore Roosevelt on a hunting safari in 1909.  This cornerstone identified the beginning of the school and indicated its importance.  Often time capsules are embedded in a cornerstone so that future generations can see proof of what life was like at the time of the forming of the building.

         Merriam-Webster defines cornerstone as:

1: a stone forming a part of a corner or angle in a wall specifically : such a stone laid at a formal ceremony

2: a basic element: foundation

I have also heard the cornerstone described as the center stone in an arch that keeps the tension and the whole thing together.

         Peter reminds us using the words of the prophet Isaiah that Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith.  He is the foundation and identifies us as his followers.  We are the “living rocks” built around the “cornerstone”.  Peter says not all people want to be part of that building and reject Jesus and then stumble.  Perhaps stumbling is like James talking about Christians who doubt so then become confused, being tossed about like a wave in the ocean.  We stumble when we forget our foundations, when we focus on other things that promise us security or protection or wealth or fame.  Likewise Jesus is foundational to wisdom and so trusting, believing and obeying the cornerstone is crucial.

         Our challenge today is to ponder how Jesus is our cornerstone to build our lives on.  How is he foundational?  Faith is not like saying the Pledge of Allegiance or being able to identify the “day we accepted Jesus.” Faith is a living, growing relationship and so we are “living stones” being built into a building identified and held together by our cornerstone, Jesus.  Spend a moment and pray, thanking God for the foundation he provides in your life and how he holds you together.  Perhaps thank him for the other stones that form the spiritual building.  I love 1 Peter 2:10

“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.”  Thank you Lord for choosing me to be a living stone in the your building!

1 Peter 2: 4,5

True confessions:  I was one of those early Star Trek fans as a teenager or young adult.  One of the episodes that captured my imagination was when our heroes landing on a planet and finding the life form was hostile.  It was a common theme.  They discovered the life form was carbon based, rock people, and the mother rock was protecting her babies.  The laser gun had burned her and she was defensive.  Once they realized, Bones did his healing magic and they lived to see another adventure.  Life based on carbon!  It was an epiphany that opened my imagination.

         Our text today talks of Jesus as a “living stone” and we are to act like living stones and be built into a spiritual house.

            ^“4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵ like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”.

Jesus is al living stone.  He is a different life form with feelings and powers just like the episode.  Stone implies to me a solidness, a firmness upon which I can build my life and trust.  It is not like a wave of the sea that James uses to picture doubt, a wave that tosses and turns and has tides and changes.  Rocks are solid and dependable.  Jesus is like a living stones and gifts us with living hope.  Again there is the sense of growth, of life, of future potential. 

         Peter says Jesus was rejected by those who could not see the potential in the rock, who did not have vision for how to build with it, and perhaps by those who had no one to teach them its value.  But God looks at Jesus and at us and we are precious in his sight. WOW!  We are being built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.  We are not just any ole rock.  We have purpose and meaning.  The priests hold the prayers and sacrifices to God even as the altar built of the rocks does.

         So how are we “living rocks”?  Think of ways that you are solid and reliable.  Then think of ways you are living and giving life to others.  Perhaps you can name someone who has been there for you in ways that have helped you grow.  They were solid and dependable for you during a time of struggle.  That is truly a blessing if you have a friend like that … or you are a friend like that to someone else.  Thank God for that person or people.  Blessings as you stand firm and do your part in the spiritual house God is building!

1 Peter 2:1-3

When a person stops talking to take a breath, I think I think it is my turn to speak but often it is not.  Round 2 is already in the process!  1 Peter 1 ends and chapter 2 starts and I am thinking that we will now shift subjects but we do not.  Peter continues to his friends in exile, scattered and facing rough times.  He blesses them with grace and peace in the midst of trials and persecutions and reminds them that they are not alone. They are chosen by God, being refined, and a wonderful inheritance is being kept for them.  The best is yet to come.  The prophets predicted it and their lifes are the proof.  Sometimes “I told you so” is only so comforting and knowing this will all turn out ok helps to alleviate some pain but it’s still tough.  Lamaz had us breath and focus on a positive thought during childbirth because that helps with contractions.  They tried to convince us it was not pain but infact labor. It was pain but the breathing and focus did help me relax.  I think it is similar with larger life trials.

         Knowing God is impartial and not trying to please someone does encourage.  Knowing that there will eventually be justice and while evil may seem to win, it is only temporary!  Peter now continues his encouragment.

 “2 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 

I think Peter is saying we need to lance the boils festering in our souls.  Malice, guile, insincerity, envy and slander only eat away at my thinking, drain me of energy, and make matters worse.  My husband will ask, “Are you chewing that bone again?”  When injustice occurs, it is easy to argue for hours with the unseen villain in our minds and even allow our tongues to relate the offense to others – and we are the good guys.  Even if there is no offense, envy creates offenses for which we hold God responsible. The other is gifted or talented or whatever and we were not and it’s God’s fault.  Our eyes have gone from focusing on the blessing we have, if only the sunrise, to the problems that only grow larger as we think about them and our resources disappear in our tunnel vision on the problem.  Peter challenges us to rid ourselves of the poison that drains our spiritual energy. 

         We call this spiritual warfare.  We are practicing spiritual discipline and developing spiritual muscles.  Our challenge today is to identify our weak point where temptation tries to draw us away from focusing on God and his desire for our good.

I do not think these temptations truly disappear but my prayer is that as I recognize them more quickly and choose to focus on God the struggle becomes more bearable. I love James 1  “Count it pure joy when you encounter trials…” Name your weak spot and think of a Biblical promise to strength yourself!  It does make spiritual birth easier. Blessings.