"According to the Will of God"

1 Peter 4:2,8 …..live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God….Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.




The letter of 1 Peter was possibly written somewhere between 60-80 years after Jesus. It seems to be the work of a student of the Apostle Peter – which was normal practice, especially when one realizes that Peter was an uneducated Galilean fisherman.
It was written at a time when the world seemed to be going mad:

This was a time of great terror:
• The Roman general Titus attacked Jerusalem, and burned the temple to the ground.
• The Emperor Nero set fire to a slum area to build his new palace - and blamed the Christians for the fire.
• The volcano Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii.

At the same time the morals of the Empire were disintegrating:
• The Emperor tried to protect his power by killing his brother and his mother.
• And when his wife could not produce an heir, he threw her out and took his best friend’s wife and made her pregnant instead.
• The crowds of Rome had become bored: and demanded ever more violent entertainment. It is at this time that the Colosseum was built where gladiators fought anything that could be killed.

It is in this context that Peter dictates a letter to those who followed Jesus: a letter that has one recurring thread: we are to live in such a way that we set an example to the world we live in:

1Peter 1:14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;

1Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing.
1Peter 4:2: live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. .

Do you hear it?
We are to be separated from the standards of this world:
We are to live to a different standard.
Then Peter sums it all up - he sets out the difference:
1Pe 4:8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

The essential dividing line between the ways of God and human ways lies in this one key concept: “love”.
It is here that our faith becomes difficult – because we are asked to practice a value that is not part of our culture….
You see I am OK with the idea that God loves me : but it is far harder to hear that I am to love other people in the same way!
1Pe 4:8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

Be prepared to cover the sins of others with love.
Not a chance!!!!
Those who show me great love will get much love in return
And those who show me little love will get little love in return.
This is the stuff Peter is speaking about:
1Pe 4:2: live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God.
We are not to reflect the standards of our world – we are to challenge them!
We are not to mirror our culture - we are to transform it.
It is this that sets the followers of Jesus apart – we dare to be different.
When our culture tells us to hate – we will choose to love.
 When our business environment says to step on people to get ahead – we will choose to serve people.
 When our side of the family wants to ignore the other side of the family – we will choose to go to build bridges.
 When some people of our religion curse the religion of another person – we will bless them.
 And when I see the sin in the life of another person – I will cover that person with love.

An Impossible dream? of course…. If I try to do this in my own strength! But I do not do this alone – I do it in the strength of God:
1Pe 4:10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.
1Pe 4:11 Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever.
 Amen.
 

Being Sure

Sometimes I feel sure I am loved by God, and other times I have doubt. There are moments when I am sure that God loves me, and there are moments when tiredness, frustration, financial worry, and stress crowd out the peace and joy of the presence of God.

I do not doubt that Jesus came to live amongst us and offered his life as a “fragrant sacrifice” (Ephesians 5:2). But I do not always “feel” close to God. Scientists have shown that human feelings have to do with chemistry in our brains, and shows how useless it is for us to trust our feelings as a sign of the presence of God.

It is for this reason that Jesus points beyond feelings to the fruit of our lives. Jesus says that if we want to be sure of God’s presence in our lives we must look for signs of God activity (John 15:8). Our relationship with God is based on God’s goodness within us that transcends both our ups and downs. This is a goodness that is shown in the way we care for those who struggle with life; in the way we encourage those who have lost faith; in the way we practice generosity with people around us; and in the way we refuse to repay anger with anger, pain with pain and hate with hate.

This has nothing to do with me “feeling good”. This has to do with surrender: I surrender my tiredness, my irritability, my scepticism, to God – and God’s Spirit uses me to bless someone else. It is in these moments that I m sure of my faith: because in spite of my weaknesses, God’s blessing has been given to another person (1 Corinthians 1:23-31).

celebrating 300

So this is my 300th Blog posting. What began as a place for my thoughts to be stored has morphed into a place to express frustration, share joy, offer opinions, and generally get stuff out of my system. I am also amazed at how many people have popped in for a visit. And I am blessed with the many friendships that have come via the blogosphere.

I am grateful to people like Denise for her wonderfully rich writing; to Wessel and Dion for their inquiring minds; to two student ministers: Jenny H and Jen T for their enthusiams for the Gospel of Jesus; and to David and Steve for their skill in asking the difficult questions of life.

There are many more wonderful places out there. I found the following comment on the greed embedded in our market driven economy at asbojesus. This site is worth a visit:

I believe in Greed, the Market Almighty,
the creator of Money,
and in the Profiteer,
His only Son our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Capitalist,
born of the free market economy,
suffered under His own pompous piracy,
crucified himself, died and was buried.

We descended into Recession.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended into profit
and sits at the right hand of Greed the Market Almighty,
whence he shall come to fleece the living and the dead.
I believe in the holy catholic bank, the communion
of bankers, the covering of their sins, the resurrection
of the economy, and riches everlasting.

found at asbojesus.

I write to thank friends for their caring.

Joe Lightowler and Steven Richardson are colleagues who, with their spouses, visited Cape Town earlier this year. They have just completed their studies at the York Insititute of Theology and spent time with my church and circuit as a field work assignment. They were great in April – and have been wonderful now: they sent us a financial donation towards the cost of housing the refugees. This generosity has meant that we could pay our water and electricity bills for the past four weeks. This might sound trivial, but our church runs on very limited income, derived from what old people on pension can afford. We cannot afford extra expenses, and the arrival of the refugees was financially stressful.... until Joe and friends stepped in with unsolicited generosity.

Dinsy has often visited my blog, but I did not have a clue who she was until this past week. I discovered that she lives in Scotland with her husband when she placed a donation into our church account. As a consequence of this I have been able to do the following:
• We helped Chris buy a welding machine and a grinder to replace the machinery that was stolen from his workshop when he was chased out of his home at Philippi. He is now able to support himself again.
• We paid a deposit on a month’s accommodation for Tonderai, and also for the family of baby Blessing.
• We gave Simba a donation towards a Tefel course he wants to do so that he can qualify as a teacher for 2nd language English students.
Dinsy – your unexpected gift has given a second chance at life to some very needy people.

And I am grateful for people who live generously without any expectation of reward or personal gain.

An Uncommon Generosity

Today I was reminded that the very poor can also be very generous.

I accompanied my colleague Kamogelo Monoametsi to Vrygrond (“Freeground”), an informal settlement of wood and corrugated iron shacks, lots of white sand, and some tarred roads. Kamogelo has been their pastor for this year, and now leaves to complete his academic studies.

The congregation:
Working class people colourfully dressed for the occasion: the black suited church stewards, red, black and white clad members of the mens’ and womens’ organizations, the blue and white of the youth, and many members of the church who do not belong to an organization – but who literally put on their “Sunday best”. They had come to say thank you to their pastor. They did so with speeches and gifts. Each speaker earned the right to speak on production of a gift of money placed on the table in front of Kamogelo. I watched the work worn hands as one by one they laid R10 on the table and expressed their thanks. These poor people, who needed this money to get through the month, gave gladly to express their love for a good pastor.

And then there was the stranger:
A poor man dressed in ragged clothes. He wandered in looking for someone to say a prayer with him. The Stewards shifted up and found him a place; my Colleague invited him to Holy Communion and prayed for him; and at the farewell event after the service he was given a plate of food and a cool drink. I knew that each member of the congregation had paid for their meal in advance – which meant that this man was eating someone’s plate of food: I discovered later that the catering team had shared their lunches to create an extra plate....given gladly to express the love of Jesus to a stranger.

An Uncommon Generosity.