1 Peter 2

First off, your link for today:
How to Live Through the Really Hard Storms, from Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience. This is profound people!! Wow! 
...and some quotes...
"And yet — is thanking God for everything… thanking Him for evil?"
"To thank God in all is to give God glory in all. Is this not our chief end?"
"Giving thanks is only this: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God."
"But this is the hardest of all: That which I refuse to thank Christ for, I refuse to believe Christ can redeem."
wow. please read it. :)

And now, our continuation of 1 Peter. Last Tuesday I started with 1 Peter 1, which you can read here.

1 Peter 2

v. 1
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
  
guess I've still got a long way to go. Thanks be that we don't need to have it all together on our own, that Jesus paid the price! Through His power, I can indeed do this!

v. 3
 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

amen!

 v. 6 (which is also Isaiah 28:16)
For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

The one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. What a promise!! ...and then, I'm thinking about this now, and ya know, Jesus himself said, you will endure trouble, rejection, hatred, all because of me, the cornerstone... hmmm... I still like this verse, anybody have any idea how to interpret it?? Because, I think, we will be put to shame, but the first time (and probably the second and third too), I felt like saying amen, and it is a promise, and God always keeps His promises so it is true, it's just a question of 'how'. help, anybody??

v. 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.

If you ever have any doubt about your calling, what God wants you to do in your life, here it is: declare the praises of Him [...]. Whatever else you may be, doctor, lawyer, bricklayer, first and foremost your calling is to declare His praises! 

v. 11

 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

when Satan speaks the lie that the sinful thing you desire won't really hurt anybody,  God's word tells you that's a lie. Right here it says that they wage war against your soul. Makes ya think a little.

vs. 16-17
Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

Don't know if any of you have ever heard of the 'license to sin' saying, but it seems to me that v 16 talks about that... v. 17. yep.

vs. 23-24
 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Wow. This is what He did for me. What I am I doing for Him? 

May God bless you and use you today!
love Emma