NOT having Builders Men’s Bible Study Until Fall, 2022. April 26 was the last of this Winter/Spring BUILDERS 2022 Bible study.
BUT, we are planning a Men’s Camp Out for June 3-5 at Lake Lackawanna near Scranton, PA. This is for men in our area who want to get out into the beauty of God’s creation with some other men and just be….no agenda. For $20 we’ll provide meals, camp site, and water/coffee. More details to come. Bring your own tent/sleeping roll/sons/grandsons! Love to have you join us. Room for 40 on the campsite. Sign up May 8 – 29. Come along! More details to follow;
Also planning a Men’s “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to see the Iron Pigs in August/Sept. More details to follow.
And here is a continued look into 1 Peter for this week if you would like to read it. Also, you can receive a weekly email from Pastor Dave each Saturday morning. Simply unsubscribe if you don’t want it to come to your inbox, or text “Unsubscribe” to 770-235-0753, and I will make sure you don’t receive Saturday morning emails from me.
See you around MBC! Pastor Dave
ARE YOU READY NOT TO RUMMMBBBBBLLLLLLE?
Hold Jesus Christ in reverential respect and live accordingly, even when (especially when) treated unfairly.
Consider this 6-letter word: “submit” and another: “suffer”. Know that I am not going to beat us up with guilt about submission or suffering. I want to point to Jesus Christ, and perhaps we can take a closer look at His responses to both of these six-letter-S-words. The truth is we are to be ready to “give an answer for the hope that lies with us”. Right? I Peter 3: 15 reveals that we are to be ready, and when we do give an answer to people about the hope that lies within us, we are to do so with “gentleness and respect”.
Well, of course that makes sense, and so does verse 16: “keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” In other words our life and lips need to say the same things about Jesus. Did you see that? Both six-letter words are introduced in just two verses. Submit tells us to be gentle and respectful in our answer. Suffer reveals itself in the way others may treat us when we stand or stand up for Jesus in some overt way.
Consider our Savior Jesus Christ. Be still for the next few moments and allow them to turn into as many moments as you can afford to focus on the submission and suffering or our Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine if you can what it was like for Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. (These accounts will help us – Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46; John 18:1-11)
I will add one more six-letter word for our consideration and experience: ” sorrow”. Do you feel sorrow for Jesus? Do you feel some of the sorrow He must have felt as He agonized in prayer, alone with disciples near but asleep, realizing the death He was about to die and the suffering He was bound to feel – physical, emotional, and spiritual? What did He say to His Father in prayer, “Not my will but your will be done”? Submission in the face of sorrow and suffering…..
We may never be asked to suffer this way, but we will suffer forms of rejection and persecution as we follow Jesus Christ. We may never experience the depth of the sorrow He felt as “a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief”, but you already know sorrow in your life, don’t you? The question remains: Will we submit to our Father? Will we live for Him, stand up for Him, and even be willing to stand alone – loving others who don’t love back, in being humble and respectful to those who are neither humble nor respectful.
No better offering can we bring to Jesus than to live our life in humble submission yielding to His Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth and loves others through us when we are powerless to do so on our own. Suffer? Probably. Sorrow? Probably Submit? You decide.
1 Peter 3:15-22
New International Version
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive,[a]he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.[b] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Lean In: What questions do you hear people asking during your week at work, at home, at school? Do any of those questions have to do with time, food, calendar events, accompanying someone to an event….? When people ask, “How are you doing?”, what answers are usually given? Is the answer “I’m doing great!” as honest an answer as we hope it is?
Look Down: This passage 1 Peter 3:15-22 can be studied from several angles. Did you notice when you read it? What are some questions that might be interesting to have answered during our study? A couple of verses open some deep theology into baptism and to Jesus preaching/proclaiming to “imprisoned spirits”. I want to ask another question and leave those topics to the experts or to your study of commentaries. Do you get to have conversations or ask questions about Jesus, God. the Holy Spirit, eternal life, the Bible, creation, etc? What does Peter tell us to be ready to answer? Do you see that first sentence in verse 15 – “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord”?
How important is having that issues settled to the conversations we have, to the way we treat others, our response to being treated unfairly, and the ways we respond to questions about our faith?
Look Out:
Have you heard discussions recently about really important issues? Where did that discussion take place? How was the atmosphere around the conversation? Calm, honest, loud, soft, heated, mature??? What sources do people you know trust for their hope in life – this one and the next? What are questions you think people ought to be asking and of whom?
Look In:
What question(s) would you like to ask others? To whom would you address those questions? What is one question you wish someone would ask you? Have you ever been a part of a conversation about God or eternity? Has anyone ever asked you to explain the hope that is within you? What would you say if they did? Why do you think God included “with gentleness and respect” in verse 15?
Take It Outside:
- Engage someone in your close circle in a conversation by asking this question: Would you tell me something about your last week that was fun or a positive accomplishment?
- Listen to their response using good eye contact and body language that indicates your interest.
- Reply with an appropriate follow up question or response to continue the conversation.
Do this same exercise 3 or 4 times to practice having conversations that are respectful, kind, and that show a deep level of interest.