To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout the earth, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (8:30 PM EDT Wed., Aug. 29, 2001)
Today's passage, as well as the entire book of first Peter (and the whole bible, too), is written to us. According to the greeting above (at the beginning of this e-mail -- 1 Pet. 1:1,2), we have been chosen according to God's foreknowledge, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. God knew us before he made us and chose us to be purified from all sin through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7), that is through his death on the cross for our sin. He also chose us to be obedient to Jesus.
What do you think about being obedient to Jesus? If you are happy to have eternal life in a perfect, imperishable body, is obedience to Jesus just something you have to put up with because it's part of the package? Concerning this, just as a start, I'll mention a few things for which God has chosen us: We have been chosen to be reconciled with our brothers. We have been chosen to be honest, sincere and unhypocritical. We have been chosen to be generous. We have been chosen to love our enemies so that we may be sons of our Father in heaven. God's Son, Jesus, loved his enemies (us). We have been chosen to be perfect, just as our Father in heaven is perfect. We have been chosen to be pure and holy, beautiful and wonderful, just as Jesus is pure and holy and beautiful and wonderful.
According to today's passage, Christ, himself, through the Holy Spirit, guided the Old Testament prophets to write about what he was going to do -- to suffer and die for us and to be raised to glory at the right hand of God the Father. According to the writer of Hebrews, we see Jesus now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9). All of this is "the grace that was to come."
But the Old Testament prophets did not predict the "glory" (singular) to follow, but rather, the "glories" (plural) that would follow. The writer of Hebrews says that in bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation (Jesus) perfect through suffering (Heb. 2:10).
These are the things that God revealed through the Old Testament prophets. They understood that they were writing them down so that we could read them in this present age. They were written for us. Peter preached these thing through the Holy Spirit and now the same Holy Spirit makes them alive to us as we read them.
Isn't God amazing? He loved us before he formed our bodies -- in fact, before he formed anything. He loved us even knowing that we would rebel against him. The angels long to look into these things. They have never rebelled against God. But we have, and God sacrificed and suffered unimaginably to save us.
Pray that we may understand these things more and more deeply day by day. Pray that we may know God's heart more today than we did yesterday, and more tomorrow than we do today. Pray that we may know and understand the love of Christ more and more and desire with all of our hearts to be like him in every way. These things are God's will for us. God answers our prayers when we pray according to his will.
Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.
Love in Christ, Dean
PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer requests back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for them.