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Word from Scotland
by Sandy Shaw
Spiritually hungry disciples of Jesus Christ will find that I Peter Chapter 1 is packed with spiritual nourishment for those persecuted, hunted, and scattered men and women. It was a difficult day, as it is for many today.
Persecution can divert you from Christ – and cool your love for Jesus and the Gospel – and baffle your thinking.
You are chosen - you are different - you have been set apart so that you can obey - you have been sprinkled (or sealed) with the blood of Jesus.
Verse 3 - Peter refers to this essential fact - to that day when we were born again. Let that fact encourage you to praise the living God Who has saved us and who loves us. We can count it a joy that we have this privilege of suffering to some degree for the Name of Jesus Christ.
We thank God and bless God. Peter has found the reality of salvation.
This is not our lasting home. We are pilgrims, on a journey – passing through.
This is the man who stood up on the Day of Pentecost and spoke so clearly and powerfully under that anointing of the Holy Spirit. Some people laughed and ridiculed and mocked, as they did not know what God was doing.
Peter explained and proclaimed the truth courageously and boldly.
With an uncertain future before us in the world - we need this living hope - this real assurance which is so vital and vibrant - and which breathes certainty into our lives. All this is possible because of GOD’S GREAT MERCY!
Death has lost its sting. It nips a little and the memory of that nip can remain for some time - but death has lost its sting.
A hope that is divorced from the new birth is a forlorn hope. Disillusionment can set in when man sees he cannot change the world!
The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart!
The Middle East – only God through Jesus Christ can resolve this.
Your inheritance will be kept for you, and you will be kept for your inheritance. This reward can never perish - or spoil - or fade away - nor vanish.
Whatever bankers may have done over these past years with interest rates – investments – or inheritances – nobody can touch this one!
It is indestructible – non perishable – non spoilable – unfading.
It is reserved for you. It cannot be given to someone else.
Peter’s writing is saturated with the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
To be alive physically you have to be physically born – to be alive spiritually you have to be born again.
Paul speaks about this experience as resurrection – God came to us when we were dead in trespasses and sin and raised us up from all that – raised from the dead!
This is the essence of our Christian Faith and Christian Life.
The essential element of our new birth is a human impossibility – it is all of God – by His Grace and Mercy. God had done this for them!
Verse 5 - You are shielded - protected - by the power of God. This inheritance is being kept in heaven for you, and this will always be the situation until Jesus Christ returns - He is coming back.
We have an imperishable inheritance. No catastrophe can touch this inheritance – no sin can defile it – no decay can change it.
This is kept by God in heaven for you – shielded means, ‘being kept’.
These truths need frequent repetition today, because so very few people know anything about what the Scriptures teach.
It is a great advantage to preach and teach the whole of the Bible, and to do so systematically, because it presents people with the whole counsel of God, over a period, and prevents the preacher or teacher from riding his personal hobbyhorse, or taking his favourite passages over and over again.
“Almighty God, we thank You for the Bible – the whole of it – for every part of it. We thank You for Your Word through which You speak to men and women – and to boys and girls. In a day when many hardly know anything at all about the Bible, break through again, and raise up preachers and teachers who will open up Your Holy Word – we pray in Jesus Name. Amen”
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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