Spirit Reign, Flood Our Hearts Again

Peter Thomas, son of Capernwray-founder Major Ian Thomas came to lecture us for the second time last week, and he was amazing as always. Here are a few key lessons I learned from his lectures on 1 Peter:

1:5-7 ...until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief of all kinds of trials.These have come so that your faith - of greater worth that gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proven genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
We are not immune from suffering/trials nor should we minimize them but these should be tempered with the greater living hope which has no end. Not only should we place our suffering in the context of eternal hope but it has the benefit of refining our faith ensuring that is it genuine.

1:8-9: Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believer in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Our joy must be found in "who I AM today" and not "what I am doing". Earlier this year I learned that we have forgotten how to simply be, in a world of doing. I think it's incredibly comforting and important to remember who we are every time we wake up: God's children who have received His grace, forgiven, cleansed, purified, dead to sin, alive in Christ, joint-heirs of the kingdom come... we have been healed.

Grace is God's presence which is sufficient for ALL situations.
Grace: God has put His righteousness inside of us.

1:13: Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Our hope is not based on our own efforts but on the daily provision of grace and the certainty of complete perfection when Christ comes.

1:14: As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
Obedience is not natural in the flesh but now a command because grace is available - obedience can't be imposed from the outside but should stem from refusing to give in to the old nature in the strength God provies.

4:7 Be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
True prayer takes all of our intentional being, not just a passing acknowledgement - only when we see the big picture "clear-minded" do we have reason to pray.

4:13: But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
There is a positive aspect to suffering - that is draws us closer to Christ. It seems paradoxical that increased suffering increases the believer's joy but (Acts 5:41, 16:25, Romans 5:3, Col 1:24) we may be robbing ourselves of the rich Christian experience if we put personal safety as the highest priority - the promised blessing is future tense.

5:5 "All of you, clothe yourselves with humility" is a requirement! This requires a conscious act and is in the continuous present tense - ie. "God is continually opposing the proud and giving grace to the humble" - that is the nature of grace - God giving us His own Christ-like character as we walk in conscious dependence on Him.

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This past weekend we had a doubles-tennis tournament (arranged by JB). I was paired with Joel H. and we did alright and got to the semi-finals. JB and Angela ended up winning the tournament. Angela had never played tennis before so it was impressive to see how much she improved with JB teaching her along the way as they played. Apparently it looked like she was going to pass out at the end of the final match because it was really hot and the game went really long.

The sun has been out for one week straight which is the first time Geraldine can lay claim to that all summer. (It's been a very odd summer in New Zealand all around.) We've enjoyed the sun by having some outdoor classes, barbeques, doing some cliff-jumping (or cliff-falling ie. me slipping off the cliff/slope into the water) and lots of sports.

Yesterday night was really fun. I was in bed at 10pm trying to get a full nights sleep because I knew this week was going to be full and busy. However, as it always goes when I try to go to bed early, it ended up being a late night. At around 10:30pm Bryan and JB come into the room telling me they can't find Joel. 20 minutes later there are screams coming from the girls room. For three or four minutes straight the girls collectively yelled "HELP!" And Jordan and I both got out of bed to see what was wrong. At the same time JB and Bryan came in from outside (looking for Joel) to see what was up. Turns out they just needed their light to be turned off and they were all too lazy to get out of bed to turn it off. We were obviously not too pleased this was why they were yelling for help. So now that I was out of bed I decided to help JB and Bryan find Joel. Or should I say "The White Man".

Every so often Joel dresses up in nothing but a white bed sheet and runs around outside. Who knows what he actually does. Because it was passed curfew to be outside, Bryan was a bit hesistant to leave, but JB and I gladly went out because we really wanted to find him. JB thought he saw him behind the car and I thought I saw him hiding behind some trees. We chased the ghost for 5 minutes before giving up and going back inside. As we headed back in we saw two faces peeking out the window, dead still. It was Amber and Kelsey. They did The White Man call which sounded like "cuckoo cuckoo" and then they headed downstairs along with Cara to join the search party. After some theories of where Joel was, or where The White Man was I headed outside on my own. I headed down to the lower paddock and heard some rustling in the bushes. I kept whispering loudly "Joel! Joel!" but nothing... and all of a sudden... Michael appears! It was so random, who knew not only Joel, but Michael was missing. Anyways, I ask Michael where Joel was and all of a sudden Joel comes walking up all nonchalent (in normal clothes.) This whole time I thought he had some grand scheme going on, as it was a full moon on the last day of February and he was acting all mysteriously. Anyways, I told Joel that half the school was looking for him and then I told him we should sneak up on them in the house. Michael, Joel and I get back to the house and only Bryan is in the formal lounge. Where'd they go? Well, apparently they started looking for me, thinking I was in on The White Man scheme. Then the fun ended. Joseph heard us (most likely Amber) and came down to tell us to go to bed. He then waited for JB and Robert who tried to get back into the house after they noticed he was re-locking the doors. Then when all four of us room one guys were in our room laughing at how Joel was just hanging out with Michael and not being The White Man, and how it was a huge operation trying to find him, I look out my window and see the three girls going to the back door. After a quick scolding they were sent to their room and the night of mystery and adventure ended. I ended up falling asleep at 2am, four hours later than I was hoping to be asleep.

The next day the eight of us had to work outside for an hour doing yardwork for breaking curfew, but all in all it was a fun night, if not disobedient.

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In many cases, what the world calls liabilities God calls assets.

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