January 17, 2023

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

What it means

Lots of great promises from the apostle Paul in this one verse of scripture…where to start? It’s overwhelming to consider that little ol’ us are royalty in the eyes of God. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and the special possession of the Creator of the universe…not bad indeed! But the one thing that continues to amaze and overwhelm me is the fact that God chose me…He literally chose me to be a part of His family, and to accomplish great things for The Kingdom. I guess the jury’s still out as to whether I’ve actually done that yet, but He’s hopefully not done with me yet!

What it means to me

We’ve shared with some of you about our friends from Alcoa who have two biological sons, and “chose” to adopt another one. When the parents were trying to explain this to their children, the fear was undoubtedly that the adopted son would somehow feel like he’s not as much a part of the family as the other children who were physically born into it. I love how the parents presented it to them…they told their adopted son that they had to go and select him, that they “chose” him among several other children…that’s how much they truly wanted him! This actually backfired somewhat with one of their biological children, who began to cry and lamented the fact that he wasn’t chosen like his adopted brother 😊 Folks, the same is true with us…God scanned through numerous other human beings before gazing upon us, and saying “Yep, I believe I’ll take him/her.” He has a big family, I get that…but there was still an act of Him selecting each one of us to be a part of the family – and for that, let us give thanks!

Love you guys, talk to you on Thursday!

In Christ,

Brian