How Should We Live?
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| One Hundred Pennies = One Dollar |
Our Bible Study at Open Door
Church began by our teacher illustrating a dollars worth of pennies. I took notes and digested her lesson here.
If you have 100 pennies and
slowly take away one, then another; at first you don’t realize the
depreciation. There are things happening
in our world that we often turn away a blind eye refusing to look. Our freedoms are being slowly removed.
Protestors winning their right to blaze sin
openly, to remove God's Word from Schools, and Government buildings; and now the
President by executive order is removing the words, “Under God,” from the
pledge of allegiance and elsewhere.
Our Bible Study lessons have been about
persecution in the Bible and also in our day.
Christian’s under heavy
persecution are calling out to the Father God, as the pressure is too much, and
hard to deal with. We must be cautious
not to judge those who suffer.
Peter was a working man, a
fisherman. He spent three years of his
life, following, listening, and carefully observing Jesus.
When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane
What did Peter do? Yes, he went to sleep instead of praying.
Jesus was under physical
threat of being taken prisoner, and Peter’s good idea was to draw his sword and
cut off an ear of one of the soldiers.
Jesus picked up the ear and put it back, healing the man.
Peter bragged, “I will die
with you.” Then reality set in, and
shortly Peter is cursing and denying that he even knew Jesus.
In 1 Peter, he is familiar
with the “Crush of persecution.” He
knows what he is talking about.
1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, be like minded, be
sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
We are reminded how Jesus
lived and ministered. John 12:49; 14:31
He spoke only what the Father told him.
Jesus acknowledged that the Father gave Him commandments to follow. (He was commissioned an assignment – to be
the sacrifice for you and me.)
Saying something and living
it is another thing. Peter tells us how
to deal with family, government, and employers.
Yes they tell us, “Watch out, don’t do that, do this, Stop that, do it
this way.”
As we listen to the Holy
Spirit He will show us how to live an abundant life.
If we sin, and disobey, we
will pay the consequences.
Peter’s letter is to
encourage and instruct both the old and new believer.
If you are told to do
something and it does not line up with the Word, you have the responsibility to
seek the truth.
Treat non-Christians with
grace, not rendering evil for evil.
Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness
and forbearance, and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God is
leading you to repentance?
1 Peter 3:9 Peter is urging not to retaliate evil for
evil and to watch our mouth.
We should not cut off others
in mid sentence, or push out of the way and be disrespectful
Let us return to look again
at Jesus. How did He live? He did not curse at people who were rude.
We can be critically minded
not critical but critique the situation.
Day by day we should ask,
“How should I live?” Let us remember: We are accountable to the Father God.
Early on we see Peter as a
wishy washy person, but he learned obedience to his calling.
We are called to be different
than those in the world.
Tolerate those bad things
that happen to us, to become a learning experience allowing us to grow, to
mature and to learn obedience.
1 comment:
Thank you. Peter's life changed significantly from the time he met Jesus until he wrote a piece for the Bible. And then sacrificed to Heaven. He's been an interesting person - even doing go or bad things -- to see and understand for years. Thanks for sharing.
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