Ministering reconciliation...

  1-2 I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours! ( 1 Peter 1:1-2 , The Message ) So in this verse, I was immediately drawn to the part where Peter says, "God the Father has his eye on each of you..." It instantaneously stirs an image of a suspicious father watching a would be suitor for his daughter. Most often, you'll here something to the effect of "I've got my eye on you." While that statement is meant to inspire fear, Peter is using it to inspire a confidence... He says that God has "determined" to keep us. That word in the King James is "Sanctification." That process is not just a cleansing process, but a keeping. It would be like if you got a cut as...

19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. 22-24Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. 25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. 26-27Anyone who sets himself up as ...

11-14I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. Hebrews 5:11-14 I made it through 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus, now onto Hebrews. As I was reading through Hebrews the last two days, I noted a recurring theme. The writer telling people to LISTEN! Because this was a letter, I am almost positive that he was referring spiritually paying attention, listening to the Holy Spirit's guidance. Yet We find the pockets of Hebrews throughout the Roman empire are STILL not listening. The writer chastises them here in this portion of scrip...

4-8But friends, you're not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You're sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we're creatures of Day, let's act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 Some of you may read the title and wonder what in the world I am talking about. In my journey through the message bible this year, I am in 1 Thessalonians. I read this scripture and God quickened it to my heart and I thought I should share. While I don't have any experience with sleepwalking personally, I do like to sleep. I am a fairly "active" person and have been since birth. My mom would tell you freely that when I was little, My feet would hit the gro...

3-5God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message. Be assured that when we speak to you we're not after crowd approval—only God approval. Since we've been put through that battery of tests, you're guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas. We never used words to butter you up. No one knows that better than you. And God knows we never used words as a smoke screen to take advantage of you. 6-8Even though we had some standing as Christ's apostles, we never threw our weight around or tried to come across as important, with you or anyone else. We weren't aloof with you. We took you just as you were. We were never patronizing, never condescending, but we cared for you the way a mother cares for her children. We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message, we wanted to give you our hearts. And we did. 1 Thessalonians 2:3-8 I want to clarify what I am talking about ...

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. 13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. Colossians 1:9-14...