If you’re searching for peace, follow the light of the Star like the Magi of old, and find the Lord Jesus, compassionate, loving, meek and mild. He said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I love that Peter ties growth into spiritual maturity into the building of the Church upon the bedrock of the Lord Jesus Christ. He points out that we are becoming a part of what Father is building. We are in effect living stones. Each of us has a place and a part in the integrity of the entire structure.

It is tremendously important that we not gloss over this verse because it helps us to correctly understand another passage. We will see more clearly in the next verse, but let’s pause here for a moment to address a passage that has cause great misunderstanding for many.

The result of this change in citizenship is akin to that experienced by immigrants permanently relocating from one country to another. While some vestiges of their lifestyle from “the old country” may remain, their entire way of living changes. They have a new life in a new place with new and different ways.

There’s a lot of noise out there. There’s teaching that leaves us confused, even fearful. There’s teaching that seems to call us to divide ourselves from those who understand things differently. This doesn’t sit well with the Spirit within us.

It can be easy to say all this, but our human brains are trained from birth to look for the how-to of everything. The short answer is an old cliché. Let go and let God. "Let" is a verb that means: “not prevent or forbid”; “allow.”

Earlier we read that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through Love. We also saw that the Love being referred to here is self-giving agape’ Love. We humans find that challenging. Truth be told, we find it impossible.

If it’s from Father, it will not produce fear, doubt, guilt, or shame. Every good and perfect gift is from Him. (James 1:17) What He says will always be consistent with scripture and it will always be consistent with His character.

Clearly there are things we are designed to do. Apparently, these things are to characterize our lives. That’s what walking in them means. Our lives are to be characterized by good works.

One way is through worship. To worship is to glorify God. We glorify God when we make Him known in a relatable and understandable way. When we “manifest” Him, or make Him tangible to others.

What is eternal has no beginning and no end, and therefore eternal Life is the kind of Life only God has. This is the Life in which we find ourselves living and moving and existing, as Acts 17:28 points out.

The news that Christ is in us is great. However, just as some TV ads from a few decades ago exclaimed, “but wait, there’s more!” Not only is Christ in us, but we are also in Christ. We are baptized into Him. We are immersed in Christ.

When Christ resides in a person, that person has eternal Life. In John 4:13–14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (NIV)

The human person of Jesus "the son of man" is inseparable from the Lord Jesus, "the Son of God." Absent one of these we would be either unforgiven, or dead to God.

Father has graciously provided us with armor, and we certainly want to take advantage of it. Some say that Jesus is that armor. I have no problem with that because Jesus is the source, the beginning, the end, our very Life. Everything is summed up in Jesus.

The idea of Jesus coming at any moment used to fill me with fear. I was worried that He would show up right after I had done some terrible thing or thought some terrible thought or had some terrible motive in my heart and that I would be lost. Those fears were completely unfounded.

When you fall back into navigating life like the world and its systems think you should, you're walking according to the flesh. That never ends well. It results in life on a performance treadmill trying to get closer to God while in truth, you’re getting nowhere.

God’s plan for Joseph included him being sold into slavery and spending a few years in prison before God’s ultimate plan to save Israel from the famine came to light.

Deception seems to be everywhere. Escaping it requires wisdom and knowledge. Jesus offers both.

What if all this were true?