Today starts the second month of the Tattoo Church Reading Plan. This reading plan is something we offer to help you in your journey with God. You don’t have to be the religious type to join us. Honestly, we’re pretty far from that ourselves. Today’s reading is 1 Peter 1.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Is this the same Peter I read about before?” Yes, the author is none other than Peter, Jesus’ closest apprentice. You might also be thinking, “But wait, didn’t this Peter deny even knowing Jesus three times?” You would be correct here as well. Now you are most certainly thinking this just doesn’t add up. Truthfully, by our system it doesn’t but in God’s economy of grace it does. We naturally think that if Peter denied even knowing Jesus on the day of his trial, the day Jesus most needed someone to speak up on his behalf, that Jesus would be done with him. However, that is the opposite of what happened. Instead Jesus forgave Peter and put him in charge of telling everyone about God’s love. If we think about it this makes perfect sense, there is no one better to tell people about the love Jesus has for them than the person who has personally felt the impact of the grace of God?
Here are some things to think about from today’s reading:
- Ok, verses 3-9 get very deep and honestly really weird sounding but let me try to briefly explain it. Essentially, Peter is saying that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we can now stand blameless before God if we choose to accept God’s gift of grace and follow Jesus.
- Verses 10 -12 talks to us about “the prophets,” these are the guys who wrote most of the Old Testament (the first half of the Bible that was written before Jesus was born). Peter says they wrote it knowing it was for us to know that God was going to come down to earth to provide a way to have a relationship with him. It’s kind of crazy but it shows how God has been active throughout all of history to restore what had been broken.
- Beginning in verse 13 we are urged to live pure lives but not just by trying. Peter says to “prepare you minds for action” and “be self controlled.” To “be holy because [God] is holy.” This is a quote from Leviticus (the third book in the Bible). We are to be holy because we are to conduct our lives in such a way that honors God. When we decide to follow Jesus we are called his children and so we are to live as such.
Today’s reading, the life of Peter and certainly my life can be summed up in three words, “God’s unending grace.” An author named Philip Yancey wrote that God’s grace is scandalous. That is why we have such a difficult time comprehending it. To think that a perfect God would sacrifice himself to restore a path for imperfect people to have a relationship with him is nothing if not scandalous. God wants nothing more than a relationship with each of us, not a relationship with “humanity” but a relationship with you and me!
So how about you, how has your life been affected by God’s grace? Do you try to live your life in a way that brings honor to God? That would make others ask why you love people so much? Why you give so much of yourself away? In what way could you start to love other people more? Maybe you think you’ve gone too far for too long for God to forgive you but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Start taking steps closer to God and you’ll find him waiting for you. He’s been waiting all along.
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