Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

“[Jesus] has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father” Rev. 1:6 (NLT) Way back in Exodus 19:6 God tells the Jews that they “shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (ESV). I Peter 2:9 says believers are “a royal priesthood.” This is an incredible dignity. One of the key principles of the Reformation was that all believers were priests, as these Scriptures state. As priests we are all directly serving God in Christ, we have no need of human intermediaries for a direct relationship with God. We are elevated to a high position of dignity, higher than any earthly office, higher than any President or Prime Minister. We are also God’s kingdom, his nation, we belong to him which is a greater honor than belonging to any other nation or group of people. God wants to give us glory that is greater than Continue Reading →

“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” I Peter 2:5 (NIV) It is hard to picture what a living stone would look like but you are a living spiritual brick and God is carving all of us into perfect pieces of a magnificent spiritual temple of God’s presence. And, we have the Spirit of God dwelling inside us, as in the holy of holies in Solomon’s temple. So we are the higher fulfillment of the concept of God’s temple. God dwells in us and our whole lives are sacrifices, offerings, to God; this is all in the realm of living spiritual realities instead of a physical temple and physical sacrifices. Moreover, just as the Garden of Eden was a temple of God’s presence so now the collective of all believers is the Continue Reading →

“You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith . . . may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I Pet 1:6b-7 (ESV) This passage encourages us with three closely-related blessings believers will have if they pass the tests of faith in their life. Some of us have difficult external trials, some of us have difficult internal trials and some of us have both, but I have never known anyone who didn’t have some trials. We all have the opportunity to grow our faith through trials. When we are in a trial it is important to keep in mind that we will have a blessing when it is over. First, our character will be more Christlike if we kept our focus on Jesus. Second, God will give us some surprising rewards. When Jesus returns Continue Reading →

“Your faith [is] more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire.” I Pet 1:7 (ESV) Consider how joyful many of us would be if we discovered a stash of gold in our yard. We could get pay off our mortgage, help the needy, do whatever we want in ministry and not need any income from it, give donations to other ministries we value and put our kids into the best schools. But as valuable as gold is, it will perish. People treasure their gold and use it to make jewelry or to decorate their belongings. And someone has to go to a lot of trouble to purify the gold with fire. Living things – like people, animals, plants – can not survive a fire. Gold can. And yet, as valuable and strong as gold is, our faith is more precious than that. In fact, gold will Continue Reading →

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” Heb 12:22-23 (ESV) This idea of coming to the heavenly Jerusalem and Mt. Zion (the mountain on which Jerusalem is built) is a contrast to the previous verses in Hebrews 12 about the fear of the destructive power of God that the Jews experienced when God descended on Mt. Sinai. There is a great contrast between the two mountains, Mt. Zion is fearful but Mt. Zion is blessed. God transports followers of Jesus to the joyful mountain in heaven, the heavenly Mt. Zion. And this is not just a future experience; it is something that has already Continue Reading →