Elected, Exiled, Dispersed

Daily Reading: 1 Peter 1

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion… (1 Peter 1.1)

Devotional Thought: In my PO box, I often receive mail intended for prior box holders.  I can tell a little bit about them by what is written on the cover.  Have you ever tried to do that for the letters written to the New Testament churches?  Think about 1 Peter.  We see from the "cover" (salutation) that they were...

·       Elected.  They, like all humanity, had been chosen by God for salvation.  It is not God’s will that anyone should be lost, but that all should be saved (2 Peter 3.9).  For Peter, however, being elect carried with it the added dimension of having said "yes" to that election.  Have you said yes to God?

·       Exiled.  Having said yes to God, they no longer belonged to this world.  The patriarch Abraham was like that.  He didn’t put down roots in this world, for he was looking "forward to the city that has foundations... a better country, that is, a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11.10, 16).  Paul described it like this to the Corinthians: "Those who deal with the world [should live] as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7.31).  I wonder sometimes if I’m not a little too attached to things that are passing away.  Are you?

·       Dispersed.  In Acts, the church had initially grown as a movement within Judaism.  But God used the increasing antagonism of the Jews in Jerusalem to drive Christians into surrounding areas.  We must sometimes be shaken up from our comfortable positions so that we will go out and bear the good news of Jesus to new places and people.  Have you moved out of your comfort zone?

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you have chosen me, and I now belong to a better kingdom.  I'm not really at home in this world.  Help me though, as I live in this present world, to leave my comfort zone and share the good news of Jesus.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 62.1-4

1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

3 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

4 They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah