THURSDAY, February 5th, 2009

Hey Teens! I hope you were in youth group last night! It was a great night! We have begun our series on love. Make sure you come each week as we focus on "February: The Month of Love" It will be an exciting time to learn all about Gods plan for dating, love, sex and more... See you next Wednesday Night!!

I Peter 1

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,
11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

There is a lot of great substance in these 12 verses. Lets start at verse 1. Peter, an apostle: remember when letters or books were written during this time they would sign the letter with a signature at the beginning instead of the end. (it kind of makes sense, then at least you know who it is from the whole time you are reading it) Well, Peter, signs his name, an apostle. This means "One who is sent"... today it would be defined as a missionary. We are all apostles, because God has sent us all to share the truth about His salvation with the lost. Are you sharing the truth? Are you a good apostle or not?

Verse 2 we see that Peter is making it clear that he was elected by God, in God's foreknowledge... that basically means, God chose to save Peter, because God knew before time that Peter would accept Him. Think about it like this... If I have 100 tickets to the superbowl, and I am giving them out to whoever wants them... Do you think that I am just going to set a stack of them in the bathroom or something? I dont think so... I am going to pass them out carefully, only to the people that I KNOW WILL ACTUALLY GO!!!

Well, God knows exactly who will accept Him and receive His salvation and He knows who will not... therefore God elects... or chooses to save those that He knows will accept Him. I am so thankful that God created me with a willing heart to receive His salvation and I am thankful that He elected me!

The passage goes on and talks about greta things... our incorruptible gifts!! How we are kept by the power of God... (we cannot lose our salvtion... Gods power is what keeps me saved... not my own power)

Then I must talk about verses 6 and 7. It explains that we will face various trials, to show the genuiness of our faith... When tough times come, do you find yourself turning toward God or running away? Well, God sometimes allows those trials to come to prove how much we love Him... just like we talked about in youth group last night! He allows those tough times so that we may take part in praise honor and Glory! What a great God! I am thankful that even when he allows me to go through the valley, he is watching over me, and only allowing me to struggle with what He knows I can handle!!

What did you get out of this passage?