Loving Jesus Style

Scripture: 2 Peter 1-2 (ESV) 1  Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2  May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.   Meditation         Today’s word from 2 Peter is a great encouragement to the church. According to Peter we, through no action of our own, have obtained equal standing with Peter through faith and righteousness. The purpose of this statement was intended to raise up the level of the average believer to that of the Apostle Peter.         So often we get discouraged and think we are of no use to the Lord. The Holy Spirit through the pen of Peter would beg to differ with that assessment. Our faith is just as good as Peter’s because of the action of the Holy Spirit within us when we believed...

Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16 14  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. [1]   Meditation:             Just as our culture has lost the taste of salt that the church should bring to it, so also it has become a very dark place. Christians have taken to the habit of hiding their lights under baskets so that no one will see them. There is a great deal of fear in modern culture of being known as a Christian. Fear that one will be thought to be backward or not culturally “with it” on social issues of the day.             The light of the world was Jesus. He claimed...

Scripture: Matthew 5:13 (ESV) 13  “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. [1]   Meditation:             The culture seems to be rushing by the church in these days. Moving in more and more distasteful directions. Why should this be? I think we need only to look to the words of Jesus above to come up with a hint.             We as Christians and thus the church are really not much like salt at all in our communities and even in our own families. We complain about the ways the culture has changed but feel powerless to do anything about it. When we do try to be salt we come off as grainy and hard making even our saltiness unpalatable. Therefore as Christ has said our saltiness is cast on the ground and ...