Good News

Meditations in the Season of Lent 

March 23, 2022

Good News

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

1 Peter 1:23

Read: 1 Peter 1:22-2:3

I love the way Peter ties our promised eternal life with the eternal word of God. Following verse 23, Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6-8, which ends, “The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” He then proclaimed, “And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.” Remember the Kerygma from March 21, 2022? That is the Good News Peter was preaching. My Takeaway Monday was, “As we continue our journey through the Season of Lent, I think it will be helpful to reflect on how consistent our life in Christ is with the six points of the Kerygma.” I reaffirm this. Our eternal life is rooted in the eternal word of God, which Peter says is the Good News, the Kerygma. We need often to plumb our beliefs and insure they are staying moored to God’s eternal Good News.

Peter again affirms our need to examine our lives to insure we are living in a manner consistent with the Good News we have received. He then urges us to go on to perfection: “Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.” (2:2-3) Here Peter reminds me of the first three of Covey’s Seven Habits: be proactive, with the end in sight, and don’t let the urgent trump the important. (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey)

My Takeaway: Cry out for nourishment! Cheryl and I experienced this in the first months of the pandemic lockdown in 2020. The lack of pure spiritual milk – solid Biblical preaching and teaching as churches were closed, and especially the lack of the sacrament of Holy Communion was withering to our souls. Thank God, He heard our cry and led us to an oasis where we receive the sacrament, and the word of God with reverence and awe.

Also, Peter quoted Isaiah 40 to affirm the word of the Lord remains forever. So did James – see my meditation for March 4, 2022. How does Peter and James’ reliance on the word of God inform your faith?

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.