“To the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (KJV) 1 Peter 1:2
We have been chosen to live today, in this time, for this day. Some did not wake up this morning to see today. It’s not something to take for granted. It is an unpleasant reality, but a reality nonetheless. There is providential purpose in your life, which only you have been elected for.
The evidence of sin becomes more visible as we age. These bodies get a wrinkle here, a blemish there, and before we know it – what happened to me? This evidence tells us that there is a date set for “mission complete.” And that mission is beyond us. My pastor says that a woman should be so lost in God that a potential husband has to seek God to find her. Our mission is that: it is in the hands of God. To both receive it and to work it requires seeking God.
It’s not a complicated mission, but rather so simple that we have complicated it. God has chosen us to come to him amidst our struggles, imperfections, and he loved us as we were still in our sin. Does he not take that approach to those who are still lost? The consequences for our hard-headed actions are all too real. However, he is not like man. He cares deeply enough that he took the fall for our actions. How many would lay down their life for a friend, let alone a stranger and enemy – which we were without Christ.
Have you ever taken the blame for something you didn’t do for the betterment of those around? I read a story about some POWs who were held at gunpoint because the guards were missing a tool that could easily be used by the prisoners for escape. They said they would execute the lot of them unless someone confessed to taking it. No one confessed. They started shooting. Finally, one prisoner confessed and he was beaten to death. A bullet would have been better. A short time afterwards, the guards found the missing tool.
From the beginning, God’s thoughts have been actively pursuing our souls, and also the souls of those who do not believe all around us. He has not drawn us to him for our own individual or personal fulfillment. There are no lone members in his body. He has elected us to set captives free, help the blind to see, to plead the cause of the voiceless, and has given us his Spirit to separate us from the demise of the world.
He will lead us into intimacy with him and into the full meaning of the power of the cross. It is not what we think. It is not according to our previous understanding. We must let go of those things that a new understanding may come afresh. Oh, that he may bring us into grace that loves the souls enough to tell the truth of the gospel while taking some heat in pulling them out of the fire. May your peace be multiplied!
