God is not your co-pilot!!!

We will get to my title in a little bit, but I just want to talk about life for a little while. Over the past couple of days I have met several new people at SBTS, a lot of them live near me on my dorm hallway. It is always good to meet and hang out with new people. Last night I visited a church in town called Ninth and O Baptist Church. They were VERY welcoming. I got to meet a couple of professors from SBTS who are at that church, one is the pastor (Dr. Cook) and the other is I believe one of the teaching pastors there (Dr. Betts). They are doing a bible study on Wednesday nights through Genesis and Dr. Betts taught last night on Genesis 4 and it was very encouraging/insightful. Some people from the singles class invited me to hang out with them at Dairy Queen after church, once again very nice and welcoming people. I think a Ben (a guy who lives a few doors down) and myself are going to check them out again this Sunday morning.

On a more serious note, my family and I found out today that my dad's mom (Maw Maw) has an advanced form of lung cancer. She has 5 spots on her lungs and from what I have been told it is inoperable cancer. The only option, unless something changes, is either chemo or just letting it go....either way, not very good. So if you are reading this please pray to God that He would heal her (Kathryn Goodwin).

In continuing with my study through 1 Peter, I focused on the suffering of Jesus in (1 Pet. 2:21-25). Just as the house servant is "called" to submit and even suffer at the hands of his master so that God's glory may be made known. Jesus did the same thing. We are told that he, "committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten." And here is the main reason, "but continued entrusting himself to Him who judges justly" (1 Pet. 2:22-23). This should remind us of the disgusting yet beautiful suffering that he endured during the passion week; where he was spit upon, called names, hit, kicked, and beaten beyond recognition. This lead ultimately to the cross where it says in verse 24 that "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree!" What for??? What was the reason??? "That we might die to sin and live to righteousness! By his wounds we are healed" (1 Pet. 2:24). I love being reminded of the Gospel of Christ and oh how much I constantly need to be reminded of the wrath of men that he endured, but more importantly the wrath of God that he bore on that tree! There is no hope outside of this event in history! The entire Old Testament points to this event: Adam and Eve's Sin and God covering their nakedness (Genesis 3:1-21), Abraham's willingness to offer up his son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-22), The slaughtering of the lambs without blemish during the Passover (Exodus 12), The Tabernacle, the altar, the priests, the ark, the sacrifices (Exodus-Leviticus), etc...I can continue but the point is made. This is the pinnacle of all history, the Spotless Lamb of God was slain for the sins of the world!!! Servant of Christ, we are called to be like him and that involves suffering like him. That does not mean for the sins of the world, but if they hate him they will hate us (1 John 3:13). But let me say this, we are NOT supposed to seek suffering as some of the early Christian's got wrong. We are to pursue Christ and be faithful to him in what he has called us to do and by doing that suffering will come, but do not go seeking out suffering...

To wrap it up there are a few things about this section that I feel I need to address, 1) "By his wounds you have been healed" is not referring to a name it claim it physical healing. It is talking about a spiritual healing. It is a healing of one who has been dead and sick in sin and Christ righteousness has been applied to the one that has faith in his death and resurrection. 2) Pointing to the title of my blog..."God is not your co-pilot!" We have all seen those stupid bumper stickers/car tags that say that
God is my co-pilot". First off some of us give ourselves WAY too much credit and verse 25 along with, in my opinion, the rest of Scripture clear up this ridiculous statement. While we "were straying like sheep" we returned to the "Shepherd and Overseer" of our souls. He is both the creator and the pilot of our souls. Trust in the truth that Christ is both the Shepherd and Overseer over your souls if you are a believer in Christ today!!!

Joke of the Day: I can't stand cheap people. It makes me real mad when someone says something like, "Hey when are you going to pay me that $100 you owe me?" or "Do you have that $50 you borrowed?"  Man, quit being so cheap!