A Little Bit of Random - Part II

Isn't it amazing what a little coffee can do to your life? I love Starbucks. Always have, always will. A good nights sleep and a good cup of coffee. A great combination to start the day!

In keeping with the "random" theme, I thought I would share a verse that has really taught me a lot this week.

If you have your Bible's today, please turn with me to I Peter 3:8-9. HA! I've always wanted to say that! Seriously, if you don't have it with you then just check out the link.

So, verse 8 is pretty self explanatory. I don't have any issues with it. It makes sense.

It's verse 9 that trips me up. Big time. Why? Well, because I'm human. If you cause me pain, then you should have pain too.

Verse 9 says, "Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing." (Honestly, while I was typing this out I thought about the God's Pottery from Last Comic Standing. In one of the episode's they had to square off against another comedian and take turns insulting each other. God's Pottery chose instead to "hurl" love at their opponent. It was funny). But I digress.

Ok...back to being serious. So, when people insult us, we are supposed to give them a blessing. So, as I always do when I have a question, I pulled out my John MacArthur Commentary and looked up the verse. Here is what is says about the word blessing. "Blessing means to speak well of, or to eulogize." As I read that I was thinking, "Ok, I can do that. Not to hard. I just need to speak well of them." And then came the kicker. Let me finish writing the rest of what it says. "The blessing that a Christian is to give to the reviler includes:

• 1) finding ways to serve him
• 2) praying for his salvation or spiritual progress
• 3) expressing thankfulness for him
• 4) speaking well of him
• 5) desiring his well-being"

Whoa.

So needles to say I have A LOT to work on.

Over the last year I have come to learn that holiness simply means set apart. If we are to be holy as God is holy then we are going to have to be set apart from the way the world operates. When we are set apart is when the world has a chance to see something different. This will hopefully bring them closer to God. I'm not saying I have it all together, but maybe we can all think about these simple blessings the next time our feelings are hurt, or we receive hurtful words from a friend.