Renewed to Honor

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1: 3-9 ESV) This week also we will be talking about hope. This is t...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-8 ESV Last week we looked at two key words. 1. Born Again and...

Here is a presentation of what the Bible is.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (ESV) Gelobt sei Gott, der Vater unseres Herrn Jesus Christus! In seinem großen Erbarmen hat er uns neues Leben geschenkt. Wir sind neu geboren, weil Jesus Christus von den Toten auferstanden ist, und jetzt erfüllt uns eine lebendige Hoffnung. (HOF) Gelobt sei der Gott und Vater unseres Herrn Jesus Christus, der uns aufgrund seiner großen Barmherzigkeit wiedergeboren hat zu einer lebendigen Hoffnung durch die Auferstehung Jesu Christi aus den Toten, zu einem unvergänglichen und unbefleckten und unverwelklichen Erbe, das im Himmel aufbewahrt wird für uns, die wir in der Kraft Gottes bewahrt werde...

 …  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:  May grace and peace be multiplied to you Last week we saw that God has elected us and this calling has been purposeful from God's part. He calls his beloved to himself. Amen! We also saw that being Elect meant that we are given a new land, a new nationality, a new identity. This means that there is enmity between us and the world. The world does not want Jesus, we want Him. The world replaces Jesus for their desires, our desires for Jesus only increases further. This is the calling my dear brothers and sisters. We are continuing our reading through the 1st chapter of the first letter of Peter. Today we are going to look at the reason and the promise in the calling. Let's turn to Deuteronomy 7:7, what do we see there? God loves Israel because He loves them. What is the answer why God loves you? Is it because ...

Last week we saw who wrote the letter that we are going to look at. The story of Peter, the sinner, turned disciple, turned denier turned apostle is indeed a great role model for us. We also so how the letter of Peter bears Biblical value and is to be treated as scripture .  This week we will be looking at the next few words in the scripture.  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. What an amazing title to the recipient. Peter says like we discussed in the last one, that he is an emissary, an ambassador, a heralder for the new King and his Kingdom. This is Peter describing the kingdom to the people. Peter is the representative of the King and the Kingdom. For those who do not know, the embassy, say the Indian embassy in Berlin, is not in Germany. The land it is in and the building and the people in it are under the rule of India. Brothers this is what Peter is saying here. He is...

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: Preface: Why are we looking through this book? Unlike the letter of James, this book is written to a Jewish / Gentile Christians who are scattered across various provinces that are outside their ideal world. In the last two weeks we have been looking at what it means to live as people who love God. Today and the weeks to follow, we will look at how this is meant to be worked out as people living among other nations. Written by Silvanus (he is the typist) - probably Silas along with Mark From "babylon" .. well babylon did not exist in that time as an important place. It was a code, a code for what Babylon stood for. Enmity to God - Where was the enemy? in Rome - Who was the enemy -  Introduc...

It is all just Paul or Peter's opinion? Should we jut take Jesus or all of the Bible? In the early second century , Polycarp of Smyrna, one of Christianity’s most famous martyrs, lists three sources of authority for early Christians. He writes, “So, then, let us serve him with fear and all reverence, just as he himself [Jesus] has commanded, as did the apostles, who preached the gospel to us, and the prophets, who announced in advance the coming of our Lord” (Pol. Phil. 6.3). The three sources of authority for the earliest Christians were: (1) the teachings of Jesus passed on orally by the apostles; (2) the instructions of the apostles (cf. Acts 2:42); and (3) the words of the prophets, that is, the Old Testament Scriptures. These three streams of authority were different from each other stream, but each of the three was binding on early Christians. The Scissor Here is a crude example. Robert Funk along with 50ish scholars and over 100 laymen started a group in the USA. They would ...

What Martin Luther and the Reformation have to do with Halloween.  It's so cool that October 31 is a holiday for us (in Germany) - right? The calendar says it's Reformation Day, but why do those two days always come together? Coincidence, I don't think. Let's put on our detective hats and take our magnifying glasses to sift through the evidence. Evidence #1: Luther walked up and down the cobbled streets of Wittenberg. He had spent countless hours writing 95 smart, easy-to-understand, maybe a little too harsh, but much needed theses. He spent hours checking spelling and grammar to make sure those who would read them could understand. His motivation was reason. He wanted people to be reasonable. Only the wise would be reasonable and he wanted everyone to be wise. He found the perfect place for his publication - on the door of the castle church. Notices were often posted there with the church program and at that time a lot of people went there. This would be perfect. The n...