Shall the clay say to the potter...

Good morning!

Today I read in 1 Peter, the second half of chapter one, and chapter two. There were actually some really great verses that reflected yesterday's sermon/discussion.

For those of you who weren't there, we had more of a discussion time (kind of like a Bible Study) rather than an actual sermon. There were a list of questions, only two of which we covered, but it was still a great sharing time. The passage was in Romans 9, and the discussion centered around God's Sovereignty and Man's Will. Though many ideas were discussed, the main conclusion the men came to is that, ultimately, we most likely will never fully understand how it all works out, but God is God. One of the men shared this, and I paraphrase... "All receive justice. Some receive mercy. None receive injustice."

So the verse that reflected these ideas in 1 Peter is:

"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. 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." (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Like I mentioned above-- "All receive justice. Some receive mercy. None receive injustice."

So for those of us who have received this glorious mercy, instead of complaining to the Potter (in words like, "it's unfair, why doesn't everyone get mercy!?"), we should accept that He is the Potter--the Maker of all--and He knows what He's doing, and what He's doing is good! Oh, and by the way, we should be really really really really really thankful in the process, because we have been chosen!

In the next few verses (11-17), Peter talks about how we should live in the light of this great mercy that has been shown us, including to abstain from sinful desires (vs. 11), living good lives to glorify God (vs.12), submitting to authority (vs.13-15), and to "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king." (vs.16-17)

In Christ,
Ellie

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