John 6:16-24, 1 Peter 3:1-7, Song of Songs 4:1-7, Jeremiah 50

Recall:
1 Peter 3:1-7 from The Message
The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes— but your inner disposition.

Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as “my dear husband.” You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.

  The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God’s grace, you’re equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don’t run aground.

Reflect:
I was reading this passage in the NRSV and my eyes were glazing over and my mind clouding because it is such a horribly chauvinistic passage. But then I read it in Peterson's paraphrase and he turns it into something beautiful and touching. I so often get hung up on the words of scripture and either accept or reject it. Peterson, however, takes just a step to the side and is able to entirely reimagine it.

Respond:
I need to constantly, continuously engage the scriptures, sifting to find God's words and God's heart.

John 6:1-15, 1 Peter 2:18-25, Song of Songs 3, Jeremiah 49

Recall:
John 6:11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Song of Songs 3:5
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!

Reflect:
The story of the feeding of the multitude always pops up at the right time for me. I always need to be reminded that God's plan is abundance, God's plan is enough with some leftover. If, for whatever reason, that is not my experience then I need to go back and find out what the issue is.

"Do not stir or awaken love before it is ready." The statement is made in both this chapter and the previous chapter of Song of Songs, so it must be important. It caught my attention but I don't know why yet.

Respond:
Good and gracious God, you are the God of enough. Your plan, your intention is for us to have everything that we need and then some. Help me shift my attitude and my reality. I have enough!

John 5:31-47, 1 Peter 2:9-17, Song of Solomon 2, Jeremiah 47-48

Recall:
John 5:39-40 "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

1 Peter 2:16-17 "As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor."

Reflect:
The passage from John is interesting. Of course, in the context of the story, Jesus is speaking to the Jewish leaders. But I think it applies to us as well. We get obsessed with the words and neglect the relationship. The "words" could be the Bible or tradition or the ins and outs of the organization, and we neglect the relationship. Life, abundant eternal life, comes out of the relationship. Our relationship with Jesus, our relationships with one another. Peter got it. He encourages his readers to employ their freedom for good purposes, to honor everyone, to love the family of believers.

Respond:

Relationship--that is the key, making space for my relationship with God to develop, developing relationships with others.

John 5:16-30, 1 Peter 2:1-8, Song of Solomon 1, Jeremiah 44-46

Recall:
1 Peter 2:1-3:  Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

John 5:16-17, 19-20: Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”...Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.

Reflect:
The words from John are seared into my heart because of the time I have spent working through "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby. They are powerful statements. God will show me whatever I want to see of God. I just have to make the space for it in my life. I wonder how much time and energy could be saved just by pausing and looking for what God is doing and joining in rather than running around and guessing.

Respond:

Gracious God, thank you for revealing yourself to me. Forgive me for so often not taking the time to see how you are at work in my life and in my world.

I continue to make time to see God at work in my life. Like Jesus, I see where God is working and I join God where He is at work.

John 5:1-15, 1 Peter 1:17-25, Ecclesiastes 12, Jeremiah 39-43

Recall:
...he [Jesus] said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way someone steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." John 5:7b-8

Reflect:
I love Marva Dawn's comments regarding this passage in the Renovare study Bible: "This narrative of Jesus' third sigh exhibits another obstacle to Christ's healing and our belief—our excuses. What rationalizations keep us from receiving whatever God wants to do for, in, or through us?"

How true! How true! I always have a reason, I always have an excuse as to why I can't go deeper into the Divine. And God just shakes his head (excuse my masculine anthropomorphism) and says, OK. He loves me the same, he'll keep inviting me, but he isn't ever going to force me.

Respond:
God, thank you for loving me. Thank you for constantly wooing me to yourself. Make me mindful of my excuses, my good reasons for not responding to your call.

John 4:27-42, Ecclesiastes 10, Jeremiah 32-34, 1 Peter 1:1-9

Recall:
John 4:34-35
Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!" (The Message)

Ecclesiastes 10:10
Remember: The duller the ax, the harder the work; Use your head: The more brains, the less muscle.

1 Peter 1:3-5
What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, the Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole. (The Message)

Reflect:
The harvest is here. The time is now. The words resonate through me. Jesus' food, Jesus' life was interacting and sharing life with those around him.

Peter's words to his readers are so encouraging and so vital to our lives. God is good! God is the giver of eternal, abundant LIFE, and that starts now—or it can start now if one were to get plugged in.

Our faith has so much to offer—water that never runs dry and always satisfies. We need to be working hard with a sharp ax to accomplish as much as we can with the time and resources available to us.

Respond:
God, help me focus even further on what your calling on my life is so that I can be about precisely what I am most qualified to join you in.

I no longer want to let a day go by that I don't interact with someone and let them know about all that you have in store for them.