Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over and we begin looking to the new year, it is time for me to reflect and nothing struck me more in my reading recently than this verse:

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad – for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. 1 Peter 4:12-13 (NLT)

I put emphasis on “strange”, because there have been a number for instances this year that were totally weird and timed out with some signifigant spiritual events. Before I share I must disclaim that: 1) I am blessed to have my health and that of the family. We are great. 2) I am not complaining and am joyful in these experiences. 3) We are blessed to have problems like this, but you still need to break out the Maylox bottle anyhow. 4) If this is “sharing in Christ’s suffering”, I am totally getting off easy. Nothing compares to that!

A number of things happened to me over the last year that have been crazy. They include:

• We had a blow out on the freeway coming home from California. Happens all the time, right? We were racing home to serve at church at the time! Funny how that happens! Evil has its ways. The girls still made in time to serve. YAY GOD!
• The day before I was to leave to go to High School Church camp our air conditioning went out. Oh yeah, it was 105 degrees outside. Thank you God for such wonderful parents who could come help out financially and emotionally. They are a true blessing to our family.
• I got laid off from a job that I loved. A blessing in disguise, but still a hard pill to swallow at the time.
• My laptop fried recently. Just as I am getting ready to take this website to a God-sized vision. Again, it’s mysterious timing to me.

I have to reiterate, I am not trying to whine and complain about these things, which is why it took me so long to actually write about them. That is the last thing that I want to do. I just found it interesting how this came about when I am getting ready to read through the entire Bible, from start to finish, for the first time and I am more connected to the Church body than ever before. It has been so exciting to connect with the Living Word online and off and this verse from 1 Peter really kind of summed it up. Like it says, strange…

So there you have it, major spiritual growth. I know there is more on the way and I can’t wait. Thanks for taking the journey with me.

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Remembering as you read this that being a Christian and believing in the resurrection of Jesus is all new to these people, you realize the job that James, Peter, the author of Hebrews and the other Apostles had as they encouraged and educated the people of this new faith. Sure, many flocked to this new belief because they knew about Jesus rising from the grave and the miracles that came from his disciples at this time, but there were still many in the established religion that were not happy about this and making life hard for them. And yet, they still believed. Peter puts it best:

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9 (NLT)

So Peter lays out the ground rules and what you will receive for playing by the rules. It is amazing how this was written for this specific audience in 60 A.D., yet how they apply so much today. But back to what Peter was writing about. As we have learned throughout reading and many visits to church, we receive eternal salvation and many blessing from God since Jesus died for our sins.

But, can we stack the deck in our favor with God? We won’t know that until our day of reckoning with God, but Peter does lay out a pretty good game plan for living a Christ-like life. Love one another (1:22, 2:9, 4:8); live free but show respect to authority (2:18, 22); husbands and wives respecting each other and being partners in God’s gift of new life ( 3:1-7); tell others of your Christian hope (3:15); suffer for what is right (3:14); be generous with your God given gifts (4:10) and don’t boss people around, but lead by good example (5:3). Peter knows this all won’t be easy, but he promises hope even in the worst of situations.

It constantly amazes me how the Word can be used in our lives today. While most of us that can read this do not have the persecution that those of 60 A.D. had, there are plenty of challenges that we face and we can look to the Bible for the answers. Almost 2000 years later! Awesome. Read on…

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