June 2017

Jottings….

By the time you get this we will have already started our next sermon series called “Odd One Out.” That is one phrase we use in the English language and I grew up with another one that touches on the same idea – “sticking out like a sore thumb.” Nobody likes to be thought of as different or weird. It might be something as serious as some type of physical characteristic we can do nothing about or maybe we are just having a bad hair day, but when people see something that is different from the norm they notice and maybe even respond or point it out or laugh.

When God called Abraham He expected that the covenant made between God and His people would set them apart. Jesus in his sermon on the mount presented values and behaviors quite different from the religious practices of so many Jews at that time. Paul as he travelled through the Roman Empire and wrote letters to churches said the values of the people around them are not the values to which Christ calls us.

We will focus on what Peter has to say on this topic in the New Testament letters of I and II Peter. It will be an exciting ride as Peter talks about our lives as being “peculiar” and our status being that of “temporary residents” [from the God’s Word translation]. Whether it is how money and time are spent or where we stand on moral issues there is more and more of a divide between those who seriously follow Christ and those who don’t.

It is not just a matter of bemoaning the change. It is finding a way to live lives that honor God and still keep the door open to attract others to Christ. Through this series I hope we accomplish some of what Peter says as he closes his second letter:

17 You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. [II Pet. 3: 17-18 NRSV]

- Pastor Brian