Salty Zebra

I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.   2 Peter 1: 3 This seems strangely personal, but it’s what is on my heart so I’m going to go with it. Our relationship with God and the relationship of the Church to Christ has been likened to marriage in so very many places in the Bible. Hit me up if you need help finding them, but I’m way too wiped out to look them up and put them here right now. What keeps coming up for me this morning is how different my life and our marriage is now that I deeply and personally know my husband as compared to earlier in our relationship. In the early years, let’s face it even in the middle years of marriage we tended to bicker over little things. I took everything personally when most things weren’t even about me. Sometimes he was just hungry! I foolishly felt the need to “control” or “manage” him, as I did w

Through Silvanus, whom I know to be a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.   1 Peter 5: 12 I took a moment to look back over what God has shown me through the book of 1 Peter the last four weeks and I am even more impressed by Peter’s brevity as he summarizes his message in this verse. I have no idea how I would bring it all together to share with someone, so let’s go with his esteemed thoughts! First, he wrote in order to encourage. So many of these messages were encouraging to me! I was amazed and excited to learn that having a living hope means to have an active, powerful and efficacious joyful expectation of eternal salvation. I’m still in awe of how God knew all that would happen through the course of history, all the ways we would mess up the gift of His creation and sacrifice, and He did it anyways . And in the midst of struggling with so many changes in my physical body,

And, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him belongs the power forever, Amen. 1 Peter 5: 10-11 Someday I will look back on this and smile. I will see with restored vision, with eyes of grace, all that God has done in and through my life. I will be amazed at what I thought was tragedy that really was triumph. I will be restored to vitality and life beyond what I could ever hope for on earth. I will be the person He designed me to be, for the first time, and forever. God will confirm all the promises of His scripture, every last one, and show me how they were true for me. My heart will be fixed on Him once and for all, no longer distracted by the things of this world. I will be settled in the truth of His love, knowing without a doubt, never again hearing the whispers of deceit. One day I will no longer be plagued by weakness, for He will strengt

  Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering.   1 Peter 5: 8-9 Allow me to present you with a challenging truth. God created Satan (Eph 3:9, Col 1:16, Rev 4:11, John 1:1-3). Did He make a mistake? No. God doesn’t make mistakes. In fact, before God created Satan, He knew all that Satan would do. He knew about the coup that he would lead in heaven. He knew about all the trouble Satan would cause in creation and in the whole of human history. And God made him anyways. Why do you think He would do that? For our good, because God loves us so much. It's a bit confusing isn’t it? But, you see, we need an enemy. We need someone to poke and prod us or we will fall into complacency. We need someone to fight against, to watch out for, or we will fall asleep. In our modern, humanist

And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.   1 Peter 5: 6 - 7 One of the hardest things to admit in this life is that you need help. We want to think we can do it all ourselves. I’d be horribly embarrassed but would probably fall over laughing if a blooper reel was played of all the poorly thought-out ways of doing things myself was played. The chairs I perched on tip toe to reach something up high. The cardboard I inched under heavy objects so I could slide them across the floor. The one more job I did because it was right in front of me when my energy was gone two jobs ago. The most extreme example of this in my life was when my first child was born. I literally did not let go of that baby for three months. I was convinced that if I was not watching him at every moment he might not breathe. To be honest, I don’t know what I would have done had he stopped breathing, but thankfully th

  Somehow we always seem to think that we are the main character in our story, that it’s all about us. So when tragedy strikes, the question arises, “Why me?” What have I done to cause or deserve this? We are taught in God’s Word that when we are following Christ, the enemy will come against us. So, the questions take a different bent, what am I doing for God that the enemy is coming against? Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad.   1 Peter 4: 12-13 When it came to the landslide of health issues I had beginning in 2019, I initially thought it was all about me. Surely it had to do with the ministry I was running at my church, and maybe, initially, it did. But late that year my husband began working with the local homeless rescue mission. He found a p