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 1 Peter 4:1-12 - Living for God with Great Expectation

God’s standard - The basic law of the eternal temple - is absolute holiness! (Ezekiel 43:12).  The problem is (as our human experience tells us all too plainly) only God is holy.  Jesus, our King, and our eternal High Priest made the only sacrifice that could make us holy, the only sacrifice to bring us safely into God’s presence.

        Because of what Jesus did on the Cross, you and I can look forward with great expectation to Judgement Day.  Yes, we should do so with reverent fear.  But the Bible tells us to be confident because of God’s love and faithfulness.

I’ve been frustrated with myself lately because I take one step forward and two back.  I am not making the spiritual progress living to obey and honor God as I want to.  But God continues to pursue us and to bring us just what we need.  A friend gave me a copy of two books this week.  One is on how to pray and another is called “Recalibrate Your Life” by Kenneth Boa and Jenny Abel.  Thank you Jesus for good friends; it is just what I needed.  I can’t do this spiritual walk on my own.  I want to model for my family how to grow in Christ even as I am now getting older.  And iron indeed sharpens iron.

We have to be willing to do as our Lord did, to sacrifice, and to be willing to suffer (4:1).  Ken Boa points out that many Christians today are much more worried about sickness or losing material things than we are about our eternal meeting with God and our eternal home.  I think Ken’s right.

Men of God, let’s stop chasing our own desires (hard to do) and instead be anxious to do the will of God (easier to do if we have it modeled for us by genuine Christians).

We need to learn to pray.  Or as we said in the old hockey days, ‘you are never too good for the basics.'   That is, recalibrate.  Get back to the basics and recalibrate your life this summer.

        How can we be earnest and disciplined in our prayers if we are not taught how to pray?  Peter, the rock himself, learned for three years from Jesus.  And then he continued to learn through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Through God’s word, Peter encourages us (just as John and the other apostles do), to show deep love for each other.

        Love is our marker.  How we love others and the depth of our love is the gauge of the Christian dad, the Christian spiritual leader.  Are you a brave Christian man, willing to step out and serve your family well?  I pray that you are.

        “Love covers a multitude of sins” (4:8).  Indeed.  God is for us today.  He wants everything we say and do to bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  Let’s trust and obey God today because we are surrendered to God’s will and because we trust Jesus completely.

        God is the supply of all we need.  This is the seeding season in Saskatchewan.  Let’s trust God to fill the seeder to the brim and may we plant with diligence - so that one day soon we may face Jesus with love and great expectation.  Amen.

We can see the richness of God's creation all around us.

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