A Beginning

1 Peter 1:13 " Therefore prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when youlived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do"

- How do we prepare our minds for action? * study note says that readers should be prepared for physical action (Jer 1:17 = get yourselves ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you.(to be taken literally)

- Be Selfcontrolled and do not conform.

- We are to be holy just as Christ was holy.

Holy = Set apart, separated from sin and impurity. *note see exodus 3:5 = holiness involves being consecrated to the Lord's service. Hebrews 12:14 " Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see God."

1 Peter 1:22 "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart" (brothers = fellow believers(Rom1:13))

1 Peter 2:1 " Therefore, rid yourself of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of everykind."

Malice = a desire to inflict injusy, harm or suffering on another because of hostile impule or deep-seated meaness.

Slander= a false, malicious statement or report about someone.

Hypocrisy= a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religous beliefs that one does not really possess

Prayer

"Hear my voice when I call to you

May my prayer be set before you like incense

May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord

Keep watch over the door of my lips

Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,

To take part in wicked deeds,

with men who are evildoers;

Let me not eat of their delecacies

Let a righteous man strike me - it is a kindness;

Let him rebuke me - it is oil on my head

My Head will not refuse it."

- Psalm 141:1-5

How Shall I Live - Intro

So, I've been reading the bible - I started from Genesis and now I am in Ezra... I figured it would be a good idea seeing as I have never actually read the bible in its entirety. Unfortunately it does get a little bit repetitive, so I decided that in keeping with that I would also add to my reading a theme. I have read through lots of the new testament before so I know the just of it... Now I want to go through it looking for "how I should live" and kind of go in depth, sort of like what I did with Proverbs. So instead of people telling me how I should live, and how they think it should be Im going to be 'doing my homework'. Journaling my thoughts and research and such. Of course it won't be like professional or anything but it helps me to keep track.. and for anyone who follows along. I don't know why - but I started in 1st Peter, but I will be going through the whole new testament in chunks and I will also be adding things from the old testament as well when they come up.

Humbling Myself

" This very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people." - C.S. Lewis

Its kind of like do unto others.... but not really. Sort of inverted, or backwards? I am not to sure what I am trying to say. Or maybe it is an addition to the verse itself. Because Really, how ca nwe expect people to do things when we ourselves are not willing to to them. Its like telling a child to eat their vegitables and yet refusing to eat your own. People work better by example. Its like the secular song by John Mayer " Waiting for the world to change"

We keep on waiting, waiting. Instead of getting off our duffs and doing it ourselves. Why is that? We often forget the power of one person - and especially the power of one person with Jesus by his side. If everyone thought that way all the time where would we be today? Now its not necessarily the concept of hypocrisy - saying you shouldn't litter and then going and doing it yourself. Rather it's the idea of seeing a littered sidewalk, walking by and commenting on how awful it looks instead of picking up some of the stuff that is in your path or rallying people to clean up that neighborhood. But it goes deeper than littering and small things like this. When we examine ourselves and our attitudes towards things we see that this is true of most everyone.

I think I am making this more complicated and complex than it really is. but for some reason I feel the need to expand on the above quote. Perhaps it is because deeper down I know that it is an attitude adjustment that I myself need to make. Is it not true that when there is a disagreement that I always want the other person to be the bigger person? I want an apology or a 'yes you were right'? Is it not true that many relationships are ruined because of this. Of course there may be legitimate reasons but does not God himself call us to be humble? That we are to love unconditionally and forgive our trangressors seventy times seven times? What does it mean to love unconditionally.... and who deserves my unconditional love?

Unconditional:

1. not contingent; not determined or influenced by someone or something else
2. not limited by conditions; absolute: an unconditional promise.

I think as Christians we are required to live by this standard. That when we become a christian our emotions and attitudes should not be influeneced by anything or anyone but the one Above. It is absolute.

Before we can expect others to live by the standards we have set we must do two things - we must first ask "where do my standards come from?" when they are coming from God, not taken bit by bit but the whole lot of them, then we can be sure that they are right. They are absolute and do not sway from person to person - there are no exceptions for billy and sue because of their situations. God calls us to standards individually and I think that once we realise that and the idea that what billy and sue do today are not the ultimate cause of my attitude, (does this make sense?) we will start doing what is right (without being swayed or influenced by anything else) What they do might hurt me or it might be their fault, who knows... but we cannot be prideful. Even if they are in the wrong God calls us to live by the same standards he calls Billy and Sue to. So we are not supposed to wait on them to do the right thing. It would be nice - but that is not what is required of us. The second thing is that we must live by these standards ourselves, which I already have mentioned. Our priorities cannot be watching how other people live and do things, we should be focused on doing the right thing ouselves.

Right?

" The Further I'm From you The harder I try to Exist "
A line from a song I was just listening to.... what does it mean? well silly question - I know what it means I don't know why I am asking. Where am i going with this. OK. It just struck me as the course repeated itself. I thought to myself, that there is nothing closer to the truth. When I am close to God - and getting to know him and I am focused on what he wants for me - I don't worry about where I am supposed to be or where I am supposed to go. I don't fret about why I am alive or why bad things happen and I am completely satisfied. But, when I am far away from God, or say farther than I am used to, I feel lost and like I need to find reasons to be where I am, to exist. I try harder to exist. There is a sense of peace that comes with knowing God, and truly follwing him. The peace though, only comes when we are actually following him and close to what He wants for us. Knowing does nothing. I need to strive to be closer. There is no greater purpose than to exist for God.

Just be....

Once Upon a time there was me, who liked to make hasty decisions.... I usually like to think that I think things through and take my time, but I still end up making silly decisions at the spur of a moment. Just because I think I know everything. Or close to it anyways. I think its funny when I look back, I can see what I should have done and I ike to ask myself or reprimand myself for not doing what I should have. I sometimes feel like I am the only one who goes through this thought process. I will sometimes make up my mind not to do something such as, for example, not ordering fries and a drink so as to save money.... but then when I get up to the register and see the menu my mind or my hunger seems to instantly overpower any common sense that I had minutes before. Or when I made up my mind to not date and concentrate on God and Work and Saving for school - as soon as someone came along that I thought would be a good candidate and things started rolling along - I went against my previous judgement and went for what I wanted at the moment. The power of desire always seems to overcome my good sense and my morals. The question now is simply this: not how do we get rid of these desires that overcome us, rather with what do we replace them with? For we simply cannot just get rid of them for either they will not go away or new ones will just surface to take their place. If we attpemt to discard of them we are left with a void and we will never be satisfied. So, what to we replace this desire with? I have come to realise that the only one that will ultimately satisfy is the desire to know and serve God. I need to immerse myself in knowing God and letting him be my friend, father and Lord most of all. When we come to realise that he is everything - we will never thirst again. The only way that God is able to become that desire that is central in our hearts is if one: we let him, two: we earnestly start to get to know him. Once we shift our line of thinking we are on the right track.
C.S. Lewis said " you can be on the right track but you will still get run over if you don't start going in the same direction." So I need to get off my butt and start going with what I already know and have...

Wonderful.