Following Jesus Son of God …

We now have a kitty.

As our life seems to be so often, a mixture of sad and glad.  Glad because “K” and I both really like our new kitty, about 12 weeks old.  Very affectionate and playful.

Sad because Jazz was our son’s cat, but he just didn’t feel he could handle the responsibility.  I know he misses her, but he probably made the best decision considering what he deals with on a daily basis.

I never cease to marvel at God’s creativity and power.

“Sanctification is getting used to being forgiven.”

Martin Luther

(1 Peter 5:5 ESV) Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Clothes do matter. Oh, yes, I said it out loud.

An inside joke around our house: One of my foibles is confusing expressions or words to songs. I once mentioned to my wife something about being a “clothes dog.” She pointed out that possibly I was referring to a “clothes horse.” Oops.

But back to our thought. Sometimes we don’t receive grace because we don’t have the right clothes on.

Peter teaches us that at least at times we need to dress for grace. We need to clothe ourselves with humility.

A distinction: Some people try to put on the clothing of humility but they miss the point.

Which is: Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

We want to be humble before God, but we are so arrogant before our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is like wearing something that really should have been laundered but it doesn’t look too bad so we wear it anyway but it stinks.

Some Christians smell when they try to dress in humility because they are not directing their humility “toward one another.”

But if we put on clothes of humility toward one another, we smell good before God and other people.

And God opposes the proud. I wonder if this means he points out a “stinker” to the group?

One moral of the story: Don’t be a stinky, proud Christian.

(John 14:6 ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

We face disappointment no matter the Way or road we choose in life.

Here is the difference between Christianity and all other ways, the difference, by the way. that many “blessing seekers” and “happiness seekers” in the Christian faith never understand. All other roads end in disappointment. As Christians, we face disappointment in following Jesus Christ, sometimes bitter disappointment, but our way ends in glory, absolute joy.

(1 Peter 4:12-13 ESV) Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. (13) But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

It’s how you end.

All roads or ways don’t lead to heaven. Some will experience disappointment with the “way” they have chosen.

I overheard a conversation a few days ago. A professing Protestant referred to the rosary hanging from the mirror in her car if I heard correctly. Since the rosary is a Catholic thing and she is Protestant, and possibly thinking she had created some dissonance with the person she was talking to, she went on to say something to the effect that “it doesn’t matter, it is all the same, faith is faith.”

I am not saying that having a rosary hanging on her mirror is right or wrong, but faith is not faith as in relation to the context of this conversation.

This is one of those “seems right” statements, a statement that resonates well with many people and we translate those shared feelings and emotions to assurance that we are okay in our beliefs.

And at the risk of sounding too spiritual, I want to make sure that what I believe resonates true with God.  If something doesn’t matter, then nothing matters.  If it is all the same, then basically we end up relying on our own words.  We choose our own way, the one that seems right.

(Proverbs 16:25 ESV) There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Believe me.  Choosing my own way scares me to death.  Trying to find my way around on Earth and then taking the next step to heaven based on what I have chosen is not only a bad option but a deadly one.

On my itsaboutGod.com site I make this statement on an old intro page: “If God doesn’t say it, then we can’t say he did, can we?”

But conversely, if God says it then I can too.

I mention this because I was reading this morning in 1 Peter 4 and 5 and read this:

(1 Peter 4:8 ESV) Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

I remember when I preached through 1 Peter in our Wyoming church and was scolded by a Bible institute teacher for preaching this passage. His “concern”? That people would use this teaching as a license to sin.

Yes, this is a true account. And, yes, maybe you also are flabbergasted if you are like me because God is the one who chose to have it written down in the Book where he tells us the things we need to hear.

Wow! And I am not supposed to teach this?

By the way the emphasis is on the “one another” in the text. We give one another love allowance as we travel together the path of Jesus. It’s called mercy and grace and listening to God.

Duh!

(Psalms 90:10 NKJV)  The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Speaking with a friend of mine today on the phone.  One thing led to another and we discovered why people don’t live for hundreds of years anymore.  We have been all wrong with our theories.  It wasn’t the changing of conditions on Earth after the flood.

Let me explain.  I had asked Mike if he ever wondered aloud: “Why has it taken me fifty years to learn ____________?”  Just fill in the blank.  Why does it take me so long to pick up on some things?  And then I joked:  That must be why Methusaleh and all the boys must have lived so long.  It took that long to “get it.”

But Mike had a better theory:  They never did “get it” so God made the cut-off at seventy years.

We had quite a chuckle.  We could just hear God:  “That’s it.  You could live another four-hundred years and still not get it, so I am setting the general limit to seventy years.  Seventy years and ready or not, you’re out of here.”

So to those of you who have other theories:  Sorry about it, but I think Mike and I pretty much have this one figured out.