1 Peter 3 and Romans 4

I read 1 Peter 3 and Romans 4 this morning. Here are a couple of ideas that stood out to me.

In 1 Peter 3:2 it says by observing your pure and reverent lives. when it is talking about how a godly woman can help her unbelieving husband come to know God through Jesus. The question that popped into my head right away was, Do we live such pure and reverent lives that others are caused to believe?
Most of us would quickly admit we are not pure. We live soiled lives. We complain that it is because we live in a dirty world. And yet Jesus our Savior and Lord promised things would be even better for us when the Holy Spirit came. And Jesus, while He was on earth, lived a life in a dirty world without getting soiled. He showed us the way and then He empowered us to do it.
But, I think the bigger question on my heart is are we a reverent people? When someone looks at my life do they see reverence or something else. Going through the church planter thing I can tell you that most of my reverence was drained. Unfortunately a loud segment of the church planting population is so focused on being free from the rules and traditions that we fail to be reverent about God or our faith. We become very worldly leaders in an effort to reach the world for Christ. The problem is people need to see our reverence for God and His word and truth and peace and His Church or they will never care that we entered their world to share Christ with them. As my buddy Justin would say, We sold our birthright for pea soup!!! We have traded reverence for relevance only we are not all that relevant and when did God ever say relevance was more important than fruitful reverence anyway?
I wonder what would happen if all of us decided to beg God for develop in us a reverence for Him and His word that would cause us to react like Isaiah in the throne room of God in Isaiah 6. What would happen in our lives and our faith and what would happen to our witness if we had such a deep respect and awe towards God that it came out? According to 1 Peter, we would become better witnesses and help a great many people come to Jesus.

I love Romans 4:18. It says, Even while there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping - . WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what the Bible means when it talks about faith. Even when there is no logical reason to believe we believe and if you keep going you see the reason Abraham believed even though there was no reason for it. God spoke. God had made a promise and since Abraham thought more of God's promise than he did the circumstances around him he held out hope. Where in your life have you quit believing or quit hoping because there is no reason to hang on and yet God has made a promise? Let God be proved true and every man a liar. I love what Paul goes on to say: He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. (Romans 4:21) God, may you help us become the kind of people who are fully convinced because we know you!!!

Love, Michael