Friday 15 February 2019

Freedom and Glory

'as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed'
1 Peter 5:1.

I like this verse because it shows the confidence of Peter in the eternal hope that he has. Peter is one of the well-known characters in the New Testament, he often seems to put his foot in his mouth - doing and saying the wrong things at times and occasionally missing the point. He was one of Jesus closest friends, they shared their lives together, prayed together, ate together, world together. Peter had a real good look at who Jesus is and how He lived. Peter was even a, ‘Witness of the sufferings of Christ’. That to me stands out somewhat, we often consider Jesus as fully God, which of course he is, but we tend to gloss over the fact that he's also fully human - He has human emotions, he gets disappointed, disheartened, degraded. Jesus also suffers. Peter knows, he's seen it. Sometimes even, Peter was a cause of some of Jesus suffering, as are we all.
Peter witnessed the pain, discomfort and betrayal of Jesus. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine seeing pain, discomfort and disappointment on the holy face of Jesus? We don't probably have to look far those it in the face of others, but have you ever considered thatJesus also had those feelings?
It's not just others, not just Peter who has caused Jesus to feel this way, we have all caused Jesus to suffer. We have inflicted trouble and hurt upon Jesus. How you may ask - well have we not all argued with God? disowned him? Forgotten him? Let Him down? I know I have.

However, this verse and this blog are not to cause us to feel desperate, downhearted or depressed- it should give us hope.

The fabulous thing this verse reveals, its that although Peter knows he has messed up, he does not dwell on his mistakes. Peter grows through them. You can too Peter does not consider himself the foolish man of old - you aren't either. He does not make the same mistakes again - you don't have to either. Peter knows any mistakes he still makes he can be forgiven for through Jesus. He knows the free gift of forgiveness that was bought at such a cost to Jesus.
This gift is given to us through Jesus death and resurrection. He died that we may live free from the guilt, shame and suffering our mistakes cost us. You and I do not need to dwell on our insufficiencies, we can dwell in the forgiveness of Christ. We can have hope, as Peter did, that we too will partake, 'in the glory that is going to be revealed'. 
Here Peter shows that there is more to life than living with our mistakes. Peter knows that he is completely forgiven and free and he lives it - do you? Peter knows that he will be a part of the great glory that is coming - do you?

The same is available for you too.

The restoration of relationship between you and God is complete. God does not even hold onto the memory of your mistakes - your record is clean, your sin is forgiven and you get to be a part of the glory to come! So are you living like that? are you living free? or do you hold onto, in your own mind, the wrongs you have done? Do you live with regret? shame? You don't need to, you are allowed to let it go. Peter, we read, made mistakes, yet he goes on to be an incredible man, free from shame because of the wholeness of the grace poured out to him. You are allowed to live a life of freedom too, you have no record of wrongs before God. You are forgiven and free. You don't need to hold onto the guilt or shame, you can live free of them. That's what Peter realised and that's what he did. Peter took hold of the fact that he was restored to full relationship with Christ. You can too. Focus not on what you get wrong, but see who Jesus is. He didn't die for you to feel bad about yourself, He died so that you don't have to even remember what you've done wrong because He made up for all of it! Now you can live an abundant life free from the chains of your mistakes. You can live a life full of the glory that is to come. what a great promise!

Thursday 7 February 2019

Unity

'Finally, all of you, have unity of mind'
 1 Peter 3:8.

Unity of mind, now that’s something that’s hard to come by! We often recognise our differences with other people but not our commonality let alone our unity. This is true even within the christian community.
For example, our churches are often identified by which denomination they are in, and that in our minds demonstrates difference. It tells us something of how another church may demonstrate faith differently, how worship may be different, styles different and services different.

How about focussing on unity instead?

That’s what this verse encourages us to do - to realise that actually, we have a lot more that unifies us than that which makes us different. 

One of the questions I HATE being asked is, “well, what KIND of christian are you?” I hate that!

*There is only one type of christian.*

A christian is someone who models themselves on Christ - who believes in his death and resurrection for the purpose of uniting us again with God. That’s what a christian is. Why do we get caught up in what ‘kind’ of christian we are? If the fundamental fact is that we are all desiring to honour and worship our creator through the grace of God shown through Jesus, equipped by the Holy Spirit, what else matters?

We are on the same team.
We are in the same army.
We are family.
We are united.

Firstly, I just want to say that this 'unity of mind' is not about us all being some kind of spiritual robots who all have the same types of lives and routines, or who all like the same things. We are different and have been created so, but in this day and age when are all very keen to show off our uniqueness, to flaunt our differences, we need know and accept that we are really one and the same. We are all sinners saved by grace. We were once far from God, and each other, but now we are connected, united, joined together by blood. The very blood of Jesus has made us family. We have been adopted and combined together in the worldwide family of God.

This connection is not about us acting the same way, but recognising that we have been given this 'unity of mind' that instils in us the same mission. We are all disciples of Jesus, entrusted with the task of making more disciples.

The enemy would love for us to flaunt our factions. He loves it when we see the difference in the denominations because it means we are focussed on difference not unity. This then causes us to  disconnect with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Whereas unity between christians and churches is incredibly powerful, not just in the christian community, but far beyond it.

Unity is evident in the incredible success of; Foodbank, Street Pastors, CAP, churches together marching through the streets at special events like Easter. This unity has power. I’ve seen it. The unity of different people with different lives from different churches working together produces a different community.

Through the unity of churches together lives are saved. Salvation comes, communities are changed.

Don’t you want to be a part of that?