Bible Studies

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The Letters
1 Peter 2:2-10 - A Priesthood of Believers
Key Verses: (MSG)

• 2: “Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God." - Our spiritual appetite to fully know God increases as we drink from His love.
  
  
• 4: "Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor." - The ways of man cannot be trusted. What men have rejected God will honor.
  
  
• 5: "Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God." - The community of faith; the Church; a priesthood of believers; we are brought together by God, built on the foundation of Christ, and destined to live holy lives.
  
  
• 6: "The Scriptures provide precedent: Look! I'm setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor. Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it." - Christ is the foundation and from that point all things are possible.
  
  
• 9-10: "But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do His work and speak out for Him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference He made for you-- ¹⁰from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted." - Selected from the pits of hopelessness and despair, hand-picked from lives heading no where to lives filled with purpose, God has chosen each of us for priestly work - work destined to bring the world to His door.
  

Points to Contemplate:

• Are you growing in faith? Have you tasted the sweet milk of truth and crave more its succulent rewards? Do you crave to learn more from God with each step you take in life? Have you experienced the unlimited joy of His bounty? Have you learned that you have so much more to learn? And yet, have you seen how far you have come? Do you accept that God has created within you a spiritual appetite that will never be fully satiated?
  
  
• Are you a holy priest? As a Christian you have been brought by God into a community of faith - the Church. Do you accept your role within that community, a priesthood of believers? Do you see that we are all called to serve God in priestly ways, giving of our selves so that others might be served? Do you offer your life as a living sacrifice so that others might live?
  
  
• How are things changed in your life? Have you experienced the "night-and-day difference He (has) made for you?" Can you remember how things once were? Were there aspects of your life over which you had no control? Were their cravings or temperaments that defined and managed your life? Were you frustrated and filled with hopelessness? Were you alone and in despair? When you awakened to the love of Christ was it as though a light switch of hope and love was suddenly turned on? Have you turned from what was and walked into what could be?
  

Promises of the Gospel:

Christ is the foundation of our lives. As we are grow from the nurturing love of God we come to realize that everything is built upon this cornerstone that God has put in place. With Him as the foundation, our lives are changed; dramatically changed. We have moved from the dark and into the light. There is no regret. But once there, we are not to simply bask in the warmth of His love as a sunbather on a beach. We have tasks before us. We are His priests, each called "to do His work and (to) speak out for Him." We are a priesthood of believers drawn together as one to become holy and to serve God in everything we do.

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