The Hope For A Changed Life!

1 Peter 2:4-12

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

8 and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us

Video for this Service can be viewed @ April 10, 2022

Greater love has no one than this:
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13

A wise person once told me that what I spend my time thinking about and focusing on will ultimately shape how I live my life. There is a memory from when I was just a teen that I’ve kept at the forefront of my thoughts for all these years. I was young and impressionable, and it shook me to the core.

I was attending a weekend retreat that focused on how much Jesus loves us. One night, we all went down to the darkened field where there was a bunch of people gathered around a fire. We all sat around the fire and then we heard a ruckus in the distance. We looked over and saw people dressed up as soldiers and a person dragging a cross slung over his soldier. I realized at once they were reenacting Jesus journey to the cross to die for us. What impacted me so greatly were the words the person kept repeating… “I love them so much, Father. Please forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” When the men pushed him down and began to whip him again, he shouted all the more,

“I love you no matter what you do to me. I…LOVE…YOU! I LOVE YOU.
No suffering will ever stop me from caring for you!
Trust me… I give up my life, so you can have life.”

When they stopped and acted like they were nailing his hands and feet, with each blow he shouted out, “I love them! I LOVE THEM!” From that point on when they put the cross in the ground, all he kept repeating was,

“I love them…forgive them…my life for theirs… my life for theirs.”

Everyone sitting around the campfire was overcome by the scene and we weep without concern how others would see us. In the final stages of this reenactment, the person playing Jesus just kept saying,
“I love you…I love you…I love you…”.

Then he shouted, “It is finished!” and he went limp.

My prayer that night was to ask God to never let me forget what Jesus did because he loved me so much. God has kept his promise to do just that. This memory keeps my love alive for the One who loves me more than I deserve. This coming week we will remember and celebrate his great love for us!

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. 1 Peter 2:9-10 (MSG)

Grateful to be on this journey with you,
John