Rejoice, Your Salvation is in Christ

Acknowledging God

The Lord God Almighty

1 Peter 1:3-9 The Message

A New Life

3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to total salvation.

For Reflection

God created us in God's image.  We are not gods. Nor do we possess God's full capacities.  In fact, we can hardly imagine who or what God is or why God exists.  We can only understand God in light of what we know about ourselves. It is this separation from each other and from God that is one of our most defining characteristics.

God, our creator, does not dominate us. On the contrary, God sets us free. We are bound to face choices as God is free to choose.  We are also free, as is God, to enjoy or suffer the consequences of our decisions. God does not interfere.

We are capable of choosing to serve our self-interests in spite of injury we may inflict on others, or we can elect to sacrifice self-interest to enhance the greater good to the benefit of each other and Creation. Perhaps God faces that decision as well and chooses grace.

God has a recorded history with us humans that shows us the extent of God's love. God has bestowed gifts of intellect and emotion, communication through prophets, and revealed God's character through Christ. The promise of maturing into grace and transforming our human condition to reflect our equivalence in form, but not substance, to God so that we can live in harmony with Creation cannot be ignored.

Pray

Pray with your mind and your action. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide and support you. Thank God each day for the life that is you. Serve each other and Creation as God's stewards in a community of love.

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