Gideon and Peter

Ian bought a book about Gideon. The sub-title has made me inquisitive! "Power from Weakness". I'll read the book when Ian has finished, but to start this morning I decided to read the story of Gideon.

The first thing that hit me was those moaning and complaining Israelites! They were once again the victims of superior powers, constantly under attack, losing their land and their harvest and their livestock! They complained to God, "Why have you deserted us? Where are you when we need you?"

Yet they were unable to see the link between God's "desertion" and their own! They were no longer acting like God's people! They were once again worshipping Baal, building alters to other gods, yet expecting the one true God, whom they no longer worshipped, to rescue them when things turned bad.

I didn't study the story, just read it through. I then turned to the New Testament and skimmed through the end of James. Following James are the letters of Peter. Peter, the loud, out-spoken desciple is now writing as a mature man of God.

In 1Peter, Peter talks about living our lives in God's kingdom. 1 Peter 1 - 2 Peter 11 tells us about how we should be living. Not as worshippers of other gods in our busy world, not as citizens of this world, but as citizens of the kingdom of God, worshipping him and him alone.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Peter begins his letter with an amazing declaration. He writes to just about anyone who is a believer with the following opening lines...

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

I feel I should spend quite some time reading and meditating on the truths of this letter.

Expect more thoughts to follow!