I Pet. 1:1-7 Living Hope Living Hope Dwells in Our Hearts When We ‘See’ God in His Word. God’s Word is a ‘picture of hope’ that has been given to us by people through whom God worked by the power of the Holy Spirit. As I read this passage I think of the many people who are in the military or having to travel for business reason or other reasons. They are away from home. I remember a time when I was around 9 years old. My grandmother had cancer. She came to MD Anderson for treatment. She had to stay in Houston for a couple of months. My mother and my aunt took turns staying with her. When it was my mother’s turn, I went with her. We stayed in a little 1 bedroom duplex because a hotel was too expensive. We had no television or radio. My mother cried during the night because she missed my two sisters and brother. My brother was not yet a year old. This was a difficult and lonely time. My dad visited us and brought a picture of my two sisters and brother. My mother held the picture and hugged it. It was a very touching moment. When my mother held this picture it was a special moment that gave us hope in the future as well as hope that my grandmother would recover. She did recover. God’s children were strangers in the world of the diaspora. from Ilumina: The Diaspora: DIASPORA OF THE JEWS The Diaspora refers to the spreading out of the Jewish people from Israel to foreign lands. This occurred as the Jews were forced to leave their homeland due to war, captivity, or other persecution. It is also known as the Dispersion. The word means a “sowing” or “scattering.” It can also mean “exile.” The word occurs twice in the New Testament (James 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1). Both times it refers to Christian Jews living outside Palestine as a result of the several dispersions in Israel’s history. Diaspora sometimes refers to the exiled people, sometimes to the place of exile. The Lord provided help for His people. These helpers were prophets and apostles. Today’s passage is a letter that Peter wrote to encourage the people who were living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. This letter encouraged these people who were away from home. He gave them hope because the letter included a prayer that acknowledged Jesus as the giver of a new birth and a living hope in Jesus the Christ. When Peter called the man, Jesus, the Christ, he gave these people hope. Hope is built on faith in the work of God within and for man. Jesus the man called Christ is a powerful name: Christ, the official title given to Jesus in the New Testament, describes Jesus’ job-to be the anointed Savior. The word comes from the Greek Christos, a translation of the Hebrew Messiah (John 1:41). Both terms come from verbs meaning “to anoint with sacred oil”; hence, as titles they mean “the Anointed One.” These names for Jesus express the idea that God anointed him to save his people (from Ilumina) The one gift of God through Jesus Christ to all of us is hope. In Jesus we have a new goal. The goal is healing of our body, mind and spirit. Jesus Christ is our salvation out of the mire of sin. We have hope in the midst of whatever trials we face. The trials of this world are only momentary in God’s time. We have an eternity ahead of us in the loving arms of our Father, God, Son and Holy Spirit. We are never alone. We have a ‘picture’ of His love in the scriptures. God holds a ‘picture’ of each of us in His heart. We hold a picture of Him in our hearts through His Word. I Peter 1:1-7 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s chosen strangers in the world of the diaspora, who live in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father chose you because of what he knew beforehand. He chose you through the Holy Spirit’s work of making you holy and because of the faithful obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. May God’s grace and peace be multiplied to you. Thanksgiving 3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4 You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. 5 Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time. 6 You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. 7 This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. 9 You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation. My Prayer for You Today is that You Know that Jesus is the Lover of Your Soul. JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL Charles Wesley (1707–1788) WRITTEN ONLY A YEAR after his conversion, this is one of the most famous of Charles Wesley’s six thousand hymns. As he wrote it, he may have been remembering his turbulent transatlantic crossing three years earlier. He wrote in his journal, “The sea streamed in at the sides . . . it was as much as four men could do by continual pumping to keep her above water. I rose and lay down by turns, but could remain in no posture long; strove vehemently to pray, but in vain.” Later in the afternoon as the storm reached its peak, he said, “In this dreadful moment, I bless God, I found the comfort of hope.” Wesley talked to another passenger about trusting God, and the passenger replied that he had no refuge in times of danger. Even though Wesley was ill and frightened, he had the awareness, as he later wrote, that he “abode under the shadow of the Almighty.” youtube/watch?v=nYadCyVsXFo Jesus, Lover of My Soul Love in Christ, Pat
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 12:18:33 +0000
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