{"id":6426,"date":"2015-10-05T22:05:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T22:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6426"},"modified":"2015-10-19T20:57:44","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T20:57:44","slug":"1-peter-11-2-greetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6426","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 1:1-2\u2014Greetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen<\/em> according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.<\/em> 1 Peter 1:1-2<\/p>\n

I have a confession to make: Whenever I start one of the New Testament letters, I zip right through the opening part, scanning until I land on the \u201cmeat\u201d of the section.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re anything like me, you do the same thing. And, like me, you run the risk of passing over some life-changing, mini-explosions of truth.<\/p>\n

Take Peter\u2019s first letter, for example. His salutation is loaded with power-packed nuggets.<\/p>\n

To those who reside as aliens, scattered\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The very minute these folks opened their hearts to the redemptive touch of Jesus Christ, they became branded as enemies of the state and of traditional religious concerns. As a result, new converts were forced to go underground or to pull up roots, scattering in all directions from the epicenter of anti-Christian persecution. They were now aliens in their own land\u2026and foreigners in the lands to which they escaped.<\/p>\n

Not only were they displaced physically\u2014making them aliens in a natural sense\u2014but as Peter pointed out later in his letter, by their faith in Jesus, they had also become spiritual<\/em> aliens to the entire world system:<\/p>\n

\u201cBeloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul<\/em>\u201d (1 Peter 2:11).<\/p>\n

Like them, you, too, are an alien to this current world system if you have received Jesus as your Lord. As uncomfortable or uncool as that may seem, it is the rock-bottom, sober truth. You have been born from above; never again are you to take your cues or calling from the course of this world\u2014your directives and identity from here on out are from the Father and His Word.<\/p>\n

\u2026 who are chosen<\/em> according to the foreknowledge of God the Father\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

You may have been chosen last on every team; you may have always sat home on prom night, dateless; you may still <\/em>experience being overlooked or dismissed by your peers. But there is One\u2014the only One who really matters when all is said and done\u2014who searched through the annals of time and found you<\/em>\u2026and chose<\/em> you\u2014from among the cream of the crop\u2014to be His own. And now, through faith in His Son, you are <\/em>His. You are chosen<\/em>. You will always<\/em> be His chosen one.<\/p>\n

\u2026 by the sanctifying work of the Spirit\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

There is so much that degrades and defiles on this earth. None of us have remained unaffected by the downward spiral of this world\u2019s fallen system. From gloomy depression to fiery rage; from uncontrollable lust to uncontainable greed; from insatiable violence to inconsolable self-pity\u2014each of us has\u00a0experienced the tyranny of sin. Whether you are stuck in the perpetual role of the defeated underdog,\u00a0or you find yourself groping blindly in unending invisibility,\u00a0or you’ve become\u00a0bloated with the heady hot air of perceived self-importance\u2014none of us have emerged entirely unscathed.<\/p>\n

Enter the Spirit of God upon the cry of a man when he first recognizes his need\u00a0for a Savior. From that very moment the sanctifying work of the Spirit begins\u2014setting the man apart as God\u2019s child and continuing with the man for the rest of his days. Though the man falls a time or two, the Spirit of God will pick him up and dust him off and will continue to guide him and help him throughout life. On the day the man takes his last breath, the Spirit of God will be with him and will usher him to his eternal home.<\/p>\n

\u2026 to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit sets us apart; the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Because of this, we are free agents\u2014no longer bogged down in the quagmire of sin and destruction\u2014liberated to obey Jesus, the Shepherd of our souls, and to be His disciples.<\/p>\n

May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the heart of the New Covenant. Grace has been poured out upon you for the taking. Peace\u2014depth of peace in the midst of the world\u2019s turbulence\u2014has been reserved for you in Christ. Grace and peace are stored up to your account, ready to be accessed, never running out, fully supplied for you in this life and throughout the span of eternity. In the fullest measure, grace and peace are yours\u2026in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[291,295,292,296,290,294,293],"class_list":["post-6426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-peter-1","tag-as-aliens-and-strangers-abstain-from-fleshly-lusts","tag-be-sprinkled-with-his-blood","tag-chosen-according-to-the-foreknowledge-of-god","tag-grace-and-peace-be-yours-in-fullest-measure","tag-greetings-in-epistles","tag-obey-jesus-christ","tag-sanctifying-work-of-the-holy-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6426"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7076,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions\/7076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}