Category: Scripture

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Stuck on a Thought

OK, I admit it, I believe that I have moved from passionate pondering to obsessive preoccupation with phrase “God’s Will” or “the will of God.” I have been hanging out in 1 Peter and Peter uses both phrases. Where I really got started was 1 Peter 4 where Peter tells his audience to put the things of the the world behind them and live for the will of God. In my last posting I explored the idea of what I see as a corporate understanding of the will of God or God’s will, but as I think about it now the ideas that I expressed in my last posting are the beliefs that move me to action. Other people may key in on other beliefs. That is not to say we can accept some beliefs and reject others, rather I see God putting a passion in our heart to really focus our energy in one or two areas so as not to over extend ourself. We need to do one thing and do it very well.

I think what I was doing was making a connection between God’s will for our life and God’s purpose or plans for our life. I think there is a connection there, but not the way I was thinking. The connection I see is that “God’s will” is the internal calibrating beliefs and values that we live by. Our purpose then is to act on those beliefs and put them into service for God. In James we are told to put our faith into action, not to earn our salvation or rewards, but rather to show others the faith that we proclaim.
My question is what beliefs are you living out? How have you grounded your beliefs, in the Bible or in the world? Do your actions truly reflect what you say you believe?
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Taking Time To Ponder

These last couple of weeks have been a little busy. Writing for my doctoral studies, Oshkosh for the air show (great time with my small group), and preparing for and presenting at a distance ed conference. I’m glad I was on a study break from work, though I was pulled in a lot more than I had planned. Oh well, that will allow me a a little more time to ponder and write at a later date.

All that to say I have not had as much time to ponder or blog as I had hoped. What I have been pondering is the beginning of 1 Peter 4, where we are told to have the same attitude as Christ as He suffered, not live as the world around us lives, but rather live out the will of God. So what does it mean to not “live for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2). I understand the first part. There are things in our life that we need to put to death, borrowing some Pauline wording there. Things we have done or things that we are doing that do not honor God, enhance our relationships with God and others, or that cause other to ask why we don’t do the things the world does. I get this. I don’t always succeed but I get it.
This putting things behind us is a process. When we begin it is easy to peel away the things we don’t want to do, but as we dig deeper it gets tougher. Here I am not really talking about the behavior, rather we need to get to the root, the belief and values that result in an unwanted behavior. Change these or replace these with Biblically ground beliefs and values and desirable behaviors will follow.
What comes next will take a little more pondering. How does one live for the will of God? Is there a universal “will of God” or is this different for each individual? I think that it is a both/and. More thoughts on this in my next posting.
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Setting Christ Apart

I am enjoying the first morning of my month long study break. I am setting aside this time to work on my doctoral studies and recharge my batteries. I don’t know what all will come out of this time but I am looking forward to it.

The tone for my study break was set yesterday in the sermon I listened to and reconfirmed in our small group study last night. Jason Strand (no relation) a teaching pastor at Eagle Brook Church spoke on Jesus as the “Bread of Life” out of the Gospel of John and last night our small group was looking at 1 Peter 3 and how we are to set Christ apart in our hearts. The key to both these messages was the idea of setting Christ apart, making Him the priority in our day to day life. For me this means e-mails and Facebook updates will have to wait a couple of hours. Focusing on Christ first can set the tone for your whole day. In 1 Peter we see that it will help calm our fears and is will tune our heart so that when we are asked about the hope we have we will be prepared to give a defense.
What can you do or perhaps delay doing to set apart Christ each day?