1st Peter chapters 1 and 2

Last night at Matthias Lot we finished 1st Peter chapter 2. I'm not going to go into detail about everything I've learned so far or anything, all I'm going to do is post the first two chapters for you to read. It's really amazing everything Peter writes. If you havent done a study on 1st Peter you should. Or you can go onto iTunes and listen to Marc at Matthias' Lot preach about it. There is so much wisdom in this book that we should all study. Later when I have more time I am going to go back and look at all my notes from this study so far and try to write something on here about it, but for now here's 1st Peter 1, 2

1 Peter 1

Greeting

 ¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,  
   To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
  
   May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Born Again to a Living Hope

 ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Called to Be Holy

 ¹³Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." ¹⁷And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you ²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. ²²Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³ since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; ²⁴for

    "All flesh is like grass
   and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
   and the flower falls,
²⁵ but the word of the Lord remains forever."
  
   And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

1 Peter 2

A Living Stone and a Holy People

 ¹ So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. ⁴As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in Scripture:

    "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
   a cornerstone chosen and precious,
 and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
 ⁷So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

   "The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone,"
 ⁸and

    "A stone of stumbling,
   and a rock of offense."
  
   They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
 ⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
 ¹¹Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Submission to Authority

 ¹³ Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. ¹⁸ Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. ¹⁹For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. ²⁰For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.










In Christ,
Hannah

It's been a while since I last posted to something. Life has been CRAZY!!
We got the house on the market now and have had a lot of people looking which makes for life to be crazy. I've been really busy with school, choir, work, and babysitting, there's not much time to rest other than at night when I'm about to completely crash.

God's been doing a lot in my life lately. He's been teaching me to love everyone, to trust him, to dig into his word everyday, to submit to authority and government even if I dont agree with it, as long as it lines up with the bible that is, and to witness/be a witness to everyone I meet. This week has been especially crazy, I feel like I make excuses about not being able to spend time with God because of being busy. When in reality, there is no excuse. I can take 15 minutes out of my day to talk to God and to dig into his word. Everyone has 15 minutes. Whether you'd like to admit it or not. If you dont, then make 15 minutes. Whether it's waking up early, or staying up late, do it! It'll make your days so much better. Which is what I've learned.
This week I've been going nonstop it seems like. I'm either doing school work, dealing with a problem, straightening up my room, doing stuff for choir, hanging out with friends, going to church, or out of the house to kill time while someone comes to look at the house; I've been doing a lot. But to say I wouldnt have time for 15 minutes with God is just ridiculous (ridiculous is a word I've been saying a lot lately...start counting how many times I use it in this one blog).

God's really been laying on my heart lately to start to really dig into His word, and to really get serious about Him. It's time I start to get ready for what he wants me to do in life, which is be a missionary. Something God revealed to me a few weeks ago is that He wants me to go to churches, and help better equip them to reach out to their communities. Which this church I've been visiting, they are doing SO much of it! We Love St Charles (http://www.welovestcharles.com/) is an organization this church has started. WOW! They just love on this community and do everything they can to reach out to people in the community. That's what we as Christians need to be doing! We need to go out into the community and help anyone we come across with anything, whether it's prayer, buying a family coats, or bringing someone a meal. We need to do that, we need to build relationships with out communities.
Another thing we need to do is we need to have events OUTSIDE of the church building, you cant bribe people to come into the building, yes you might get them to come into the building for whatever event you are having, whether it's a Halloween type event, or a car show, or anything else. Yes you might get them to come to the event, but the probability of them coming back is very slim. Especially if no one takes the initiative to talk to them which will most likely happen to a lot of the people. What we need to do instead is we need to go out into the community like WLSC is doing. We need to build relationships with people, we need to show them that us christians arent all that bad after all, we need to show them that we love them and care for them and WANT that relationship with them. We need that before they will come into the building and stay in the building.

I'm so excited to see where God takes me with all of this!! I want to see what he'll be having me doing once I'm graduated from college! Man, God is SO good! He closes some doors, and opens others. Thank you Lord!!

My best friend in the entire world Erin was hoping to come visit me for part of her spring break. It would cost her one plane ticket here, and her sister was going to pay for her ticket from here, to Oklahoma, back to South Carolina. But it didnt work out. I was so bummed out because I love this girl to death! Sidenote: check out her blog she's amazing! http://erinmcgreevey.blogspot.com/
Anyways, so that didnt work out, and I was talking to my other best friend Kelsey about how she should come in on her spring break, because she lives only 4 hours away. So that worked out, and she's coming in on the 1st and staying until the 4th. Even tho one door closed, another is open. I wish both of them were able to come, but at least I get one of them. Thank you God for that!

Wednesday night at Matthias Lot (the church I've been visiting) God really met me in worship. I had never had the experience before when it was just you and God. I had heard so many other people describe their experiences with that, but I had never had that before. Well I did on Wednesday. When you have that experience wow, it's really life changing. It's so humbling, and mind bloggling how amazing God is. It's so hard to explain. If I were talking to you face to face right now, I'd be stumbling over my words like crazy trying to describe to you this experience.
During one of their last songs I think it was Grace Like Rain but I'm not sure. I had the most amazing time of worship I had ever had. I have this way of worship where I close my eyes and i have my arms close to my body and my hands up infront of my chest either clapping, or my hands open in worship towards God. It helps me feel closer to God. I'll sway a bit during worship, and tap my foot or something as well, Wednesday night was not the case lol. My arms were extended towards God eyes closed, and I was almost dancing where I was standing, but I didnt care what people throught around me. I wasnt even thinking about the people around me. I was just thinking about me and God together in that moment. Me worshiping Him. Him being so happy that I am worshiping him and him wrapping his arms around me telling me it will all be alright, he is here, and he always will be. Absolutely amazing experience!

As I believe you know, I've been trying to go to this churches Sunday Lot Families. How this church does things is they have their worship service on Wednesday nights, and they have what they call Lot Families on Sunday mornings. Lot families are where you go to someone's house and have a small group bible study and fellowship. Awesome time pretty much! Well I went to Marc's (the pastor) Lot Family this evening. They had their Lot Families in the evenings tonight because Matthias Lot was having a church plant launch this morning out in Wentzville and wanted as many people to go as possible so they moved Lot Families to the evening. So for the first time I was able to go. Got the car, put gas in it, and left. I was so excited to see if this is really where God wanted me to be. And sure enough, this is where God wants me to be. They are such a fun/loving/Christ-like group of christians, you cant help but enjoy their company and want to come back. We had an awesome time of food, and getting to know each other, playing catch phrase, and an awesome Bible study and discussion led by Marc. I am praying that God will allow me to go back very soon. I've felt like this is where God wants me to be for a long time, but I hadnt found the right time yet. God is slowly taking me away from the church I am a member at now, and bringing me closer to this new church family that is amazing!

I am so blessed! Yes my parents are getting a divorce, yes we are selling the house I've lived in since I was three years old, yes my life is stressful, BUT God is good. He has given me friends that love me, family that loves me, a church family I can go to about anything. He's taking me in a direction I never saw myself going, but I am so excited about going in that direction!

Remember, God is good, he knows what he's doing. Follow his will, it's so much better than what we want! I'm praying for you all.

In Christ,
Hannah