Thoughts on 1 Peter - Day 4

                                        1 Peter 1:13-20
 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake


         You and me, prior to becoming a Christian, are run by the flesh. The Spirit inside us is dead so we are basically two dimensional whereas God made us to be three dimensional. We are run by the flesh which consists of the body and soul. The body is on the outside and this craves pleasure - sexual, comfort, food, possessions, power, security, importance, shelter, safety, attention, ease, lack of pain, immortality, influence, etc. Basically it is about me, me, me. The inner part of the flesh, the second dimension is the soul. This is the mind, emotions, will, intellect. I would suppose the Bible calls it the heart. This part of us is trying to fulfill all the messages sent to it by the body in a wise way. For example, it is figuring out how to get sex without negative reprecussions. It is trying to gain influence and importance over people without them feeling like that is happening and dump you as a friend. It is trying to gain immortality without giving up living for itself. How does Peter describe this? "Empty way of life handed down to us by our ancestors" and "conforming to the evil desires we had when we lived in ignorance". Even though all unbelievers live this way and deceive themselves into thinking that they are happy, if they would self reflect, they would see that their life is empty, going nowhere, and living for self does not satisfy.

        From Heaven someone completely different steps into our two dimensional world and offers to remove all the guilt of that old life and give us a brand new start at life with His Spirit living inside of us.He desires to make us 3D in a 2D world. He offers us new life with the Spirit desiring pleasing God, not ourselves and even though our flesh resists because we think that living for someone besides ourselves will not make us happy, the more we surrender to Him, the more we are obedient to Him, the better life gets. This way of thinking is so foreign to how the rest of the world thinks and lives, we are viewed as strange. This is why Peter describes us a aliens here - as citizens of another country and indeed we have become citizens of Heaven. The writer of Hebrews says,
         " they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

        Do you want God to be ashamed of you when the accuser of the brethren points you out and says "What about Jim Koerten, looks like he is living for himself". Would God be ashamed of me? Or would He be able to say that my life is focused on glorifying God with my mind and goals firmly fixed on eternity and the Kingdom of Heaven. My Dad would say, "Life is short, will soon be past; Only what's done for Christ will last." To live like this takes an alert and sober mind.

     Lord, help me to live with Heaven in mind today. Help me to live like an alien - like an ambassador sent from Heaven to represent Heaven to the people on Earth. Help me to view everything here as a temporary residence and that soon I will be returning back to my country hoping to hear from my king, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Amen