We have a men’s event coming up this weekend, and, though we’ve only met once in person, I look at our speaker as a dear brother in Christ. He lives in Sarasota, Florida, and they’ve been hit very hard this hurricane season. He was talking about the shock of it all, how things that have been lost have been dear, and it brought me back to the last tornado I lived through. I am not (intentionally) trying to compare sufferings, but, at least in my experience, hearing of heavy losses in natural disasters tend to draw you back to where you were when you experienced such events.
I was reminded that I have not had a home of my own (one that was not owned by someone else) since at least 2011. I’ve lived in rented spaces, on the kindness of family, and, indeed, the kindness of congregations I’ve served through being allowed to live in their parsonages. God is reminding me, constantly, that HE is my inheritance. I may not have much in this life (in fact, I’m looking to declutter even more), but I do have a Father who loves me and provides me everything I need.
Loved ones, our society tries to get us to focus on happiness, and to find fulfillment in stuff, experiences, and people. We will never truly be fulfilled in those things because some day, even in Christian marriages, we will be separated from them in this life. So, what then? What do we hope in? We look forward to the time to come, not putting much stock in this world, and living, now, as if we’re in His presence. We should seek to be Kingdom-minded, looking at everyone we meet as those who need Jesus, and loving them, even if they be our enemies, as Jesus loved. This world is not our home. We’re sojourners and exiles. Let us, then, leave it better than when we found it.
1 Peter 2
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
And
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
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