Is Peter your uncle?

As of late, I've been hearing a lot of humdrum concerning reading the Bible.

Some people just don't know where to start.
Others do it out of obligation to a sense of duty.
Still a few others, read the Bible because it brings life.

How does reading an ancient book of letters, poems, history, stories, and crazy dreams bring life?

Well, it starts with understanding what it is you're reading and who it is that wrote it.

The Bible is not a text book, reference book, or an almanac filled with answers.

Sure it contains answers to some of life's tough questions, but it is so much more.

The Bible is the narrative of God, His creation, and the world as we know it. It is the account of His people, their rebellion, His endless loving pursuit, their rejection, His grace, their refusal, His redemption, their bull-headedness, His constancy, their quitting, His staying, their leaving, an on and on and on. The Bible informs us of how God interacts with humanity throughout eternity.

So, sometimes reading the Bible is a strange thing.

For example, consider the Epistles in the New Testament.

When you open up 1 Peter, it's like you found a letter on  the ground written by someone you've never met and then you read it and it seems like it was written to you. The wisdom shared, concern shown, passion passed on, and truth told hits you in a way that must prove you and the author have some kind of relationship. But do you?

Is Peter your uncle?

Kinda.

As beloved sons and daughters of God - the creator of us all - we've got a unique familial bond with every recipient of grace who has walked this earth. Therefore, the one Jesus referred to as "the rock on which I will build my church" is a little closer to us than we me think.

So this morning, it was like I read a letter from my Uncle Pete and he had some life-giving words for me.

"Use whatever gift you've been given for the good of of one another so that you can show yourselves to be good stewards of God's grace in all its varieties. If you're called upon to talk, speak as though God put the words in your mouth; if you're called upon to serve others, serve as though you had the strength of God behind you. In these ways, God may be glorified in all you do through Jesus the Anointed, to whom belongs glory and power, now and forever. Amen."