Be Strong In Obedience

I Peter 2: 13-17

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, 

We are to recognize the order of authority that God designed this race of Mankind to operate by, giving order to our relationships. This honors our Lord who decreed it so because He loves us, and doesn't want us to suffer in chaos.

whether to a king as the one in authority, 

Whoever is at the top, whether a king, a president, a premier, a chief; whatever title your society gives to the one who has highest authority. We are to respect the office, even if we don't happen to like the person who holds the title. 

or to governors as sent by him 

These are all the other governmental entities who answer to their higher authority; the legislators, the governors, the judges, the law enforcement officers; everyone else who has authority to tell us what to do or not do, according to the laws of the land. 

for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 

Their duties are two-fold, both negative and positive. We incarcerate criminals and we fine transgressors. We also give medals and awards to exceptional individuals who have given of themselves to benefit others. 

For such is the will of God 

We often ask, "What is God's will?" Well, we have it right here for this. 

that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 

Good always wins over evil, and whatever is going on around us, whether the people in our little worlds are supporting us or working against us, we must still focus on the right, to do what is good and morally right and beneficial for us all. We must shine our light, which is the Light of the Holy Spirit in us, because light always overpowers darkness, chasing it away.  

Act as free men, 

We must not be co-dependent with others, but make the right decision to do what is right, independent of all the evil that is still rising all around us.

and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, 

This is a temptation, knowing we're not like everyone else, to think we're better or not subject to the same rules they are because of our position in Christ. We were just told to submit to all the same laws and rules and precepts that everyone else is to obey, so even if we don't agree, we are still to comply with every rule that doesn't actually go against God's laws. Even if it's inconvenient. 

but use it as bondslaves of God. 

We are to act as servants of the highest righteousness. In the society this letter was written to, the position of a "bondslave" was the lowest rung of the ladder. Bondslaves had no will of their own, but were bound to the will of their master. 

We are bound to the will of our good Father in Heaven, and are to conform our wills to what He wants for us, trusting that His Love will permit only what is good for us, and to our benefit.  

Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. 

This sums up this whole paragraph. We are to honor all people, because we are all made in the image of God. It doesn't matter that some people have twisted and marred that image, God still loves them as He has loved us, and wants them to be saved.

We are to love the brotherhood, to want what will benefit our brothers and sisters in the Lord the most, regardless of what it will cost us. 

We are to fear God, be sure to give God the reverential respect He deserves as our Master and Lord, our Owner and our Teacher. And remember He is also our Father and Brother and Bridegroom. 

And honor the king, who represents the whole structure of human governmental authority over us, that gives order to our society and makes it possible for us to live our lives in quietness and peace, honestly expressing the godliness God is building in us, because that is how He wants us to live our lives (I Timothy 2:2-3). 

O my Father, Your plans are so good! Your design of this Universe, and the Earth You made for us, are all so beautiful and runs so smoothly, like a well-oiled machine. And Your Spirit is the oil! 

But we humans have gathered into our communities and formed our societies, vulnerable to the schemes of the enemy who only wants to kill, steal, and destroy. So many of the parts of our living together here have become twisted and turned upside-down, so much so that many think that it is "normal." And the pressure on Your children can be very great to conform to the World's ways.

But, Father, You want us to be the salt in our society. You want us to be the Light, revealing and curing and healing the rotten places that harm us as a society. This takes Your strength, when the World pushes against us. 

Father, when we feel like we're storming the very gates of Hell, may we be wearing Your armor, wielding Your weapons, faithfully, in the strength and courage of Your Spirit. And when all is done, we will be standing!

O Father, keep us standing, though we are battle-scarred. Our Lord, our Commander-in Chief, bears the scars of His victory! My we also bear our scars proudly, in the confidence of Your victory through us! 

O Father, my Father, hold us in Your hand! Strengthen all of Your children, find all Your lost sheep, gather us all into Your One Fold with One Shepherd. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

We Live In Glass Houses!

I Peter 2: 11-12

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers 

We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, so we are not to consider ourselves as "at home" here any more.

to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 

All the stuff we want here in this life. When we make it a priority to accumulate possessions or notoriety in this World, that goes against our quest of spiritual benefits. It's a constant tug-of-war, or all out war we must wage against everything that pulls us away from loving the Lord and following in His ways.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, 

As Christians we live in glass houses; every detail of our lives is examined by those around us in the World, so we must be careful to not give them any ammunition to shoot us.

so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, 

For example, these days whenever we speak the Truth we are accused of being hateful.

they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, 

We must continue to live our lives righteously, doing the good things we do as children of God, and they see these things, even though they don't acknowledge them now.

glorify God in the Day of Visitation.  

The Day of Visitation is the Day that Jesus returns to set up His Kingdom here. Then the Truth of our lives will be known to all. And God will receive the credit.

No matter what the World is doing around us, we must remain focused on our Lord and take care to walk in His path every moment of every day. 

Because the World is watching. And we gain the victory through the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our own testimony of what Jesus has done for us (Revelation 12:11). 

O my Father, please help us remember that others are always watching us, because we are Your children, and our enemy wants to discredit us in any way he can. Keep us mindful, Father, that we are to reflect Your character, in what we do and say. 

So let us continually be thinking Your thoughts, Father. Let us see others as You see them, so that we will have Your compassion for them, and Your patience with them. Let us not take their insults personally, but remember how much You love them. 

O Father, You don't want even one to perish, but you want everyone to come to You in repentance and faith. Even though most won't. But every person who wants You, You will draw to Yourself and grant them the gift of faith. 

Father, send out Your workers to gather Your lost sheep. Let every one of them be found and carried into the safety and comfort of the fold; and there will be One Fold and One Shepherd! 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Stone And Stones

I Peter 2: 4-10

And coming to Him as to a living Stone 

Jesus Christ is the Living Stone that gave Moses water in the Desert for the Israelites; it followed them in their wanderings (I Corinthians 10:4).

which has been rejected by men, 

Most people in the World will not turn to Him, but rather turn to the World and themselves instead; His own people turned Him over to execution as a criminal.

but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 

He is God's own Son, greatly beloved and treasured. 

you also, as living stones,

As Christians, "little Christs," we are His sisters and brothers, also living stones.

are being built up as a spiritual house 

God is building us as His own Heavenly Temple.

for a holy priesthood, 

We are living, so we are not only the Temple, but also the Priests of the Temple.

to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

Spiritual sacrifices are sacrifices of praise and the good works we do in the power of the Spirit, and to tell of the goodness of the Lord (Hebrews 13:15-16).

For this is contained in Scripture:

Behold, I lay in Zion a choice Stone, a precious Corner Stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed (Isaiah 28:16). 

Jesus is the anchoring Corner Stone of the Heavenly Temple, the Rock upon which our Father has placed our feet out of the miry clay, the Stone from which the stature of the whole Heavenly Building takes its shape and form.

This precious value, then, is for you who believe; 

We who have put our trust in Christ as our Sacrifice for sin and rose from the dead. We now partake of His riches in Heaven, the glory He left to come to Earth. But our real Prize is Jesus, Himself, not what He will give us to enjoy.

but for those who disbelieve, 

Those who refuse to humble themselves before His majesty and authority.

The Stone which the builders rejected, this became the very Corner Stone (Isaiah 28:16),

The One they refused to believe, has become the very basis and pinnacle of existence and Life. 

and, 

A Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense (Isaiah 8:14).

 This One is offensive to them, they trip over Him in their rush after things that will never satisfy. 
 
For they stumble because they are disobedient to the Word, 

They refuse to obey His rules or think reasonably, or cooperate with the Love principle upon which God set this Universe to run and work and operate. 

and to this doom they were also appointed. 

God decided before Creation that those who chose their own will would be given their own will; when they choose to reject Light, He will grant them darkness; when they decide to hate, God will give them the hatred they want; when they refuse order, He will allow them chaos.

But you are a chosen race, 

Born into His family, we are a people who belong to Him.

a royal priesthood, 

His princes and princesses who offer Him spiritual sacrifices. 

a holy nation, 

God made Abraham into the Nation Israel, and He is making us into His own Nation. 

a people for God's own possession, 

We are a people-group that God takes particular ownership over.

so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him 

It is up to us to lead the worship of our Lord God Almighty.

who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light; 

We were trapped in the darkness of sin, then He released the trap and led us out into the Sunshine of His Grace.

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; 

We come from many different and varied nations, but we have become the Nation of God.

you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

Before we were saved, we had no hope. There was nothing we could do to help ourselves; everything we did, even the best most altruistic things, were still polluted by the sin that we were born in, that we inherit from Adam--that damaged DNA.

But now we have experienced the great mercy of God that put His wrath that we deserve on Jesus instead, on His Cross. Now that Jesus has cleared our debt, God can now extend His grace to give us the wonderful bounty of His riches in Christ. 

O my Father, You have taken us out of the slave-market of sin and elevated us into positions of authority and leadership in Your own Kingdom! From one extreme to the other! And in between, You have washed us clean, pristine, as though we'd never sinned at all! And You are leading us along the narrow path for each of us, keeping us on the path, hedging us in; that we will not wander or veer off to the right or to the left. We will not miss the right way, because You have laid it out for us before us.

And Your Word is the lamp for our feet that shows us each step to take, so that we can confidently proceed in Your footsteps, not running ahead or lagging behind; right on Your schedule. 

Father, You are never too early, nor are You ever late. When it seems to us that You are taking too much time to answer our prayers, we know that Your answer will be just in time. 

You are taking the time we need to grow, to learn, to accomplish all the good works that You planned ahead of time for us to do. And everything will be ready for the Glorious Appearing of our King, Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

O Father, find the rest of Your sheep. Locate and send Your under-shepherds out to find and rescue every one of Your little lost lambs, that not one will be lost, but that all will be gathered into the comfort and safety of Your fold. And there will be one Fold and one Shepherd. 

O how grand, how magnificent, how glorious You are my Father! That You have planned such honor and such respect would be given Your children by Your holy Angels, and the fallen angels, and every created being. 

We who could never deserve anything but Your wrath. Instead we who were the tail will be the head. Your ways, Father, are so beyond our ways! You are good, much better than we can ever imagine. 

And every eye will see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, is the Lord God Almighty over the Universe, and our Magnificent, Sovereign King over all the World; to the glory of God the Father!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!




 

The Pure, Nourishing Milk Of The Word

I Peter 2: 1-3

Therefore 

Taking note of the teachings of the whole first chapter.

putting aside all malice 

"Malice" is desiring to inflict injury, harm or suffering on another; meanness. Let's not do this any more. 

and all deceit 

This is concealing the Truth in order to mislead; fraud; cheating. This is never appropriate for a child of the King. 

and hypocrisy

This word comes from "actor" and has come to mean a pretender, one who gives a pretense of being what he is not; of having good character when he does not possess the virtue he is pretending to have.

and envy 

"Envy" is wanting what someone else has. People confuse it with "jealousy," which is a fear of losing what one has. God is a jealous God, and will not give His glory to another to be replaced by any other god. 

We are to be content with what we have, and rejoice with others in what they have, not envy them. 

and all slander, 

This is to spread malicious untrue stories about someone, to tear down their character with lies.  

As newborn babies, 

One may be advanced in years, yet still a babe in spiritual matters.

long for the pure milk of the Word, 

Milk is the "first food" of a newborn child, after the colostrum. This is the "perfect food" that provides all the nourishment the baby needs in order to grow. The pure milk of the Word would be the basic, fundamental Truths of who God is, what Jesus accomplished, and who we are in Him. 

When we have an adequate understanding of these concepts, then we can go on to other things. But these are basic, and all the other teachings depend on these. 

that by it you may grow in respect to Salvation,

We need to learn these first things so that we will be able to grow up spiritually into adults in God's family and in His Kingdom. We must prepare in order to eventually rule.

If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. 

If you have experienced the kindness, the graciousness of the Lord, in His having taken Your death upon Himself in your place, so that you could live with Him.

Peter says, "if." Because if you have not taken that first step, to realize that you deserve execution as a criminal because of your own sins, and that Jesus died for you; then you might as well just close the book, because you won't be able to understand the rest. 

These smallest words may be the heaviest. "If." A tiny word. But with so much importance. It conveys doubt. "Since" would be "because of," assuming the salvation of the readers. But "if" conveys a wondering whether the hearers of this letter really do know the Lord. 

So we must examine our own hearts and motives and understandings. Peter doesn't accuse here, he just throws out that "if" to encourage each one to examine himself. God only knows another person's heart. We are all responsible for our own thinking processes and desires, which result in what we do.

So if anyone has a problem with malice, or deceit, or hypocrisy, or envy, or slanderous gossip; then, by all means, get this settled with the Lord, in the privacy of your own heart, and ask for forgiveness and strength to do better. And if anyone else was harmed or hurt, then make amends. Get it right. Make it right. 

O my Father, please help us to know ourselves. Our own hearts lie to us, and we are vulnerable to the attacks of the World and our enemy and his minions. Keep us aware of our own weaknesses, and rely on You for Your strength. Enable us to help one another, in a positive mode to build up, and not negatively blaming or accusing. 

Give us eyes to see one another as You see us, Father. So that we will recognize Your image stamped upon each other, and encourage one another in our knowledge of You and our walk with You in our individual paths.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

A Fervent Love

I Peter 1: 22-25

Since you have in obedience to the Truth 

When they responded to God's calling to faith in believing the Gospel.

purified your souls 

The Truth here is Jesus' fulfillment of the Law, in sacrificing Himself so that His Blood would wash away our sins. Now our souls, our hearts, are free from the shackles (sins) that bound our thinking processes.

for a sincere love of the brethren, 

Now that our minds are clear, our affections for one another (fileo, brotherly love) are not clouded with the residue of the past, and we can consider one another with a fresh view.

fervently love one another from a clean heart, 

Now we can love one another (agapeo, unconditional, as God loves us) without any filters, or barriers, to limit our care. From a clean heart, pure, not having any kind of dirt to interfere in our relationships with one another.

for you have been born again 

Born a second time, the spiritual birth being compared to the physical birth.

not of seed which is perishable 

Mortal, what will one day die; flesh. 

but imperishable, 

What will never die, spirit; that will continue to live on forever. 

that is, through the living and enduring Word of God. 

The Word of God is spirit, as Jesus told His disciples in John 6:63, It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the Words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are Life. Our bodies are flesh. 

When what is spiritual in us is gone, our bodies are dead. Our minds, our emotions, are spiritual, they have no substance. We are born with dead spirits, our life is only physical. Then when we are born spiritually the Holy Spirit comes in and makes our spirit alive. That is why it is referred to as a birth.  

For:

All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. (See Psalm 103:15-16.)

This is our physical life. We have a very brief time here, our bodies will not last very long, even if we live a long life, it is but a moment compared to Eternity.

But God's Word is Life. Eternal Life, because He is eternal. His Word is Spirit, it is Life, it is Jesus, it is His Holy Spirit. It is God's breath, He spoke and we are.

And this is the Word which was preached to you. 

This Living, eternal Life was given to us when we heard the Word and it penetrated our psyche into our very heart and soul, and caused us to be born spiritually with a real, vibrant, lasting Life. 

This is the power of God's Word. And it now lives in us. We have no excuse, we need never go back to thinking like we used to think, or doing the things we used to do, before we were saved. 

We are now transferred into a whole new realm. 

I used to live in the world, with worldly thoughts, doing worldly things. 

Now that God has found me and made me Alive, I see with new eyes, and can see what I was blind to before. I have understanding of things I never could have imagined before. Everything changed for me that day, though nothing around me changed, because I was born again.

O my Father, thank You so much for choosing me! Thank You for knowing me, and loving me anyway! Thank You for opening my eyes to Your Truth, and giving me understanding of what I could not conceptualize before. 

Father, continue to teach me how to love others with Your Love. Show me how to demonstrate to others how much You Love them. Give me opportunities to give to others the same Love with which You have Loved me. 

O Father, help us all to live together with one another in the fellowship and care for one another to build the society that You have designed us to be in. 

Father, give us Your strength in our weaknesses, Your compassion in our apathy, Your provision in our lack, and Your joy in our misery. 

You are our Source, my Father, of Life and Light and Love and everything else that we need, that comes of these. 

Hold our hands as we walk through this vale of tears; keep our feet in the path You have placed them on, let us not wander or fall off the course, but step each step in Your footsteps, until we reach the end our our course. And may we look back to see how You have cause everything to work out for our benefit and Your glory!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!




 

How To Live Royal Lives Here And Now

I Peter 1: 13-21

Therefore, 

When we see a "therefore," we need to see what it's there for. This means we are to keep in mind what we just covered in the previous verses: the Salvation we have, that even the Angels long to investigate. 

This is to be our response: 

prepare your minds for action, 

Everything starts with our minds, how we think. We are to be transformed by the renewing our minds (Romans 12:2), because how we think determines our attitudes and our hearts, our feelings about things. This is where our actions come from. 

keep sober in spirit, 

Our thinking needs to be characterized by seriousness, realizing the gravity of the situation, keeping our emotions in control; not frivolous or upset. 

fix your hope completely 

Focus and concentrate on:

on the grace 

On the free gift that God grants to us in His gracious generosity.

to be brought to you 

Not only what we have enjoyed so far in this life, but what is still waiting for us to experience.

at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. 

When Jesus returns to this Earth and everyone will see Him. Then we will receive our spiritual bodies, participating in His Resurrection, and follow Him down on our own "white horses," to set up His Kingdom here. 

As obedient children, 

We are born into His family, we are sons and daughters of the King; we need to learn His royal ways and act like the princes and princesses we are. 

do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,

Don't go back to wanting what you want when you want it, right now (lust); like you used to do, before you learned better. 

but be like the Holy One who called you, 

Take after your Father, as demonstrated by the Son, and separate yourself from all the things, places, and people that draw you back into Worldly ways.

be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;

All our behavior, everything we do, all the time. We are different, we're not like how we used to be, we're changed into a whole new realm, the Kingdom of God. So we need to act like it. 

because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44). 

God wants His children to be like He is, and He is completely separate from everything He made (holy); so we need to separate ourselves (be holy) from all the worldly thinking and attitudes and opinions that surround us. Then our lives will look different from how they used to be, and from others around us who don't yet know the Lord. We should stick out.

If you address as Father 

If you consider that God is your Father, and pray to Him as such. 

The One who impartially judges 

His judgment is totally impartial, not considering persons, but just comparing to His Law that He set for the Universe to run by. 

according to each one's work, 

All the stuff we end up doing with our lives: what we think, what we say, what we do, how we treat one another, our priorities, and our accomplishments. 

conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on Earth; 

This doesn't mean for us to be afraid, but to have a healthy respect for the authority God has over us, and the importance of aligning with His ways. 

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold 

Even the most valuable things in this World are only temporary. 

from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 

The way we were raised, the traditions we learned from our parents, that were handed down from our ancestors, were most likely Worldly; either no religion, or legalistic religion, or even non-Christian religion. Any way of living that is not according to God's ways is futile, ineffective, and incapable of producing any lasting result.

but with precious Blood, as of a Lamb unblemished and spotless, the Blood of Christ. 

The Son of God was born as a Man, named Jesus, who came to be our Lamb of God, the Lamb God told Abraham that He would provide (Genesis 22:8). He sacrificed Himself on His altar, the Cross, and the precious Blood of God that He sprinkled on the sides of His altar was the full payment (propitiation) of our whole, eternal debt we each owe. He was the unblemished and spotless Lamb that the Law required (Leviticus 1:3, and others). 

He alone could die without having to pay his own debt, as the Old Testament High Priest needed to have an animal die in his place for his own sins first, before he offered for the people. Jesus, tempted in His flesh, but never sinned, was the only One who could die for us.  

For He was foreknown before the foundation of the World, 

I can imagine that before anything was created, how the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were enjoying fellowship and conversation, deciding that they would create, and what they would create, and how it would work, and all the contingency plans. And the Son agreed to take responsibility for this Mankind that they would make. All before They (He) did anything to create. 

but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 

The "Last Times" began when Jesus rose and went back through the clouds into Heaven. He came for your sake, and for mine. That's how much He values us, and Loves us, each one of us. 

who through Him are believers in God, 

We who are believers, are given the faith to believe God through the Sacrifice Jesus offered for each of us. 

who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, 

God the Father raised Jesus the Son from the dead, right out of His grave, to prove that He accepted the Payment He paid for us. 

And because Jesus was willing to suffer, and went through all the agony and pain and grief; now He has been given this whole Universe, and our Earth, and everyone as His own possession. That makes Him our Sovereign King and Judge. 

so that your faith and hope are in God. 

Our loyalty and allegiance is to the ultimate highest Authority, God the Father. We believe Him, we trust His Word, we know He has already finished everything He told us He is doing, and has included us in His great Plan of the Ages. 

So our hope for the future is confidence that what is ahead is already there, we just haven't seen it yet. What we do in the power of the Spirit who lives in us, God will reward us for; and we will be His kings and queens, ruling His New Heaven and New Earth in King Jesus' authority forever. 

And every created being in Heaven and in Earth and under the Earth will worship and adore the Lord God of the Universe, Jesus of Nazareth, the Sovereign King over all; to the glory of Almighty God the Father. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!




 

The Curiosity Of Angels

I Peter 1: 10-12

As to this salvation, 

The Salvation we just went over yesterday, in the verses just preceding these.

the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 

Those ancient writers who penned the prophesies so long ago. They wanted to know what they were writing about.

seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating 

The Spirit of Christ was telling them what He would do when He came. The Son is our Christ, who is the Lord God of the Old Testament, and the High Priest and Sacrifice of the New Covenant.

as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 

He told them in advance of His coming, so that they would recognize Him when He came and fulfilled all these laws and prophesies. He laid it all out for them.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, 

They knew that they would not live to see the fulfillment of what they were writing, so they weren't doing it for themselves or the people of their time, but their future time, when we would be living. 

in these things which now have been announced to you 

Now all these things that were written so long ago have been presented to us.

through those who preached the gospel to you 

Our pastors and missionaries and teachers today are preaching and teaching us how Jesus came the first time and fulfilled what He had told the ancient prophets to write. 

That He was our Personal Sacrifice given in the Law who suffered the execution death of a criminal to pay our debt. That's the first part of the prophesies. 

The second part is that He rose from the dead, and received the Kingdom from His Father: the glory that follows the suffering.  

by the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven--

The same Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Prophesy, is the same Spirit of Truth who taught the Prophets of Old, and who lives in us today to teach us these Truths. 

--things into which Angels long to look. 

Even God's holy Angels in Heaven are curious about how God's love for us planned out all these things and is carrying out His plans in accomplishing all the things that must be done to redeem this fallen race of Man. 

The Angels are watching us, too. Watching how God is redeeming us from the foreclosure our enemy tried to pull over on us, buying us out of the eternal debt we owe for sin, paying off our mortgage in full. This is amazing. 

That this sorry race of Mankind would get itself into such a pickle, to rebel against our very Source of Life, and get caught in a trap that snares us so hopelessly that there is nothing we can do no matter what we try. 

Then our Hero steps in "at the last minute" and pays off our debt for us, breaks the chains that hold us fast, releases the trap that holds us securely, and washes us from the mud and grime and filth we are mired in. 

Then He sends His Spirit to actually live inside our spirits, to keep us, and hold us accountable, and strengthen us, and change us. He is molding us, day by day, moment by moment, into the very image of the Son of God--His character of holiness and honor and glory! 

This is incredible! No wonder the Angels are interested in seeing how this is all working out. We who had no hope at all, now have the hope--the certainty--of what we don't even see yet, all done for us! All we need to do is cooperate with Him! 

That's the rub. If we don't even want to come to God, He won't force us. If we don't want His will, He lets us have our will. 

But when we realize we can't do it, we're weak and need help; when we search for Him and seek Him honestly, then He will be found of us. He is searching for us, we're the ones who are lost! We are the lost lambs, caught in the thicket, and He comes and finds us and untangles our lives. 

O my Father, You are Amazing! You are Incredible! You are so far beyond all the superlatives I can think of! 

Your wisdom and discernment and cleverness has planned out this whole route. Your imagination is fabulous! All You need to do is to Say it, and it is! 

And the Word You Said is Your Son, the Living Word (John 1:1-5). And You gave Him the authority, the Lordship over all You have made. 

He was born as a Man, and given the Name Jesus. Now we have a face to put to our God. And He is our example, to show us who You are, and teach us Your order that You put into this Creation. First He suffered, then He receives the glory. 

And we also, walking in His steps, accept (not welcome or desire [Gethsemane]) the problems, hardships, disappointments, and sorrows this World throws at us. We lean on You, Father, for the strength and perseverance to wade through all the stuff of life. And we learn the lessons they all teach us ("Well, I know not to do THAT again!" "Oh, THAT'S how I can get it done!").

And when we are finished with our course, and have matured to the degree You intend for each of us, then You will take us Home. And our Graduation will be when Jesus returns to this Earth to receive and set up His Kingdom here. 

We will be raised, our mortal bodies taking on immortality, our flesh bodies being changed into spiritual bodies, and we will receive our rewards.

Rewards! For what You have done for us and in us and through us. You, Father, have done it all, yet You will reward us! Wow! You are so generous, Father, so gracious, so stupendous! Marvelous are Your works!

Father, I am eagerly anticipating what You have promised us! Please find all of Your little lost lambs who are still out there, on mountain crags, caught in thickets. 

Send Your workers into Your missionary fields to find them, having compassion, ... and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh (Jude 22-23). Give us the courage and boldness to do this, so that all the lost sheep will be found and brought into the safety of the Fold.

That there be One Fold and One Shepherd, that Your House will be full, every place at Your Banquet Table filled. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim in every language, that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord God Almighty, our Sovereign King over all Creation, to the glory of God the Father!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!