Good morning... sometimes I wonder how much of the meaning of words, phrases and sayings we misinterpret, misunderstand and completely loose in translation...
This morning I went back to 1 Peter 2:3 and the Lord said to me, "look up the meaning of the word 'if'."
Well, like me, I'm sure your understanding of words as well, may make you feel underwhelmed by this as I was, but let's put it into perspective of the big picture, not only this verse, but the entire Bible has conditional if's throughout and if we overlook them, what are we missing, does it matter in the long run if a 2 letter word in the Bible is present, goes missing or replaced... (don't get me started on this one)
Firstly, I looked up the Biblical meaning of the word 'if' thinking I'd find nothing... huh, how wrong I was... turns out our whole Bible is pivotally positioned on the knife point of the fundamental 'if' starting at Cain and Abel and coming right the way down to you and me today! WOW! I was blown away by this, which made me realise, this one little word if must have some significance in my everyday life and certainly pivots the way I view my verse now. (my source for this info was very informative, look at this site https://www.ogchurchofchrist.org/Sermons/the-biblical-word-if/)
The status of this tiny word is so huge that our entire relationship with God is dependant on it... I was wrong above, it started even in the perfect Garden of Eden, if Adam and Eve had not eaten the apple, all life would have been in the perfect garden and never disrupted, but, they ate from it and here we are now...
Then, Cain killed Abel, if he hadn't he wouldn't have been banished. There are so many if's that I can only choose a few to list here, but think about the overall condition of mankind... there are the good conditions, if Abraham goes to where the Lord shows him, the Lord rewards him with the children as plentiful as the stars in the sky and sand in the sea... WOW! Beautiful condition... then there's Israel, if they will obey the Lord, they will live with Him in His promised land and as their King for as long as they obey... what did they do, just like Adam and Eve, us too, if we're honest with ourselves... they break their promise of obedience and boom the punishment attacks and they're removed from the promised land...
On and on throughout the Bible we see people like Ananias and Sapphira, if they had been honest, they wouldn't have died, that money was theirs, they didn't owe it to the apostles, they didn't need to die, but they chose to be dishonest... God removed them, we don't really know why, perhaps a little leaven destroys the whole batch, but we still really don't know...
Back to today's point, I went back to my current text and put this new perspective, this new paradigm into what I was reading here 1 Peter 2:3 - the if is conditional, not based on God, it's based on us "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."
What does this mean for us:
(I don't like writing in bullet points, but feel it's necessary this time, to sink home what and how we can get this... I always think of mine as a thick skull, how will I get this into my thick skull, it's either not seeing the picture or it's stubborn and won't listen until the Lord breaks it down and pin-points my involvement in no uncertain terms... I'm not as innocent as I thought I was after He breaks things down for me... anyway I know no one else has this issue, but let's break it down anyway, in case it helps you)
- Is the invitation - "if indeed you" This brings the onus onto us to say that there is something we need to do here, if we have tasted that the Lord is gracious - we need to go and find out for ourselves if He is gracious! Now I can tell you He is, because I have gone and found out, but I can't taste the carrot cake my daughter makes (which is exquisite) and download flavours for you and transmit them via the ether - there are still somethings we can't do virtually, for all the Star Trekkers out there we still don't have replicators for food hahaha) This you will have to do in faith, in trust, the Lord's promise is if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you, He won't leave you hanging... He will meet you there... will you come...
- The acceptance of the invitation - When you come will you stay and find out what it feels like in your inner being when He comes and touches it? I remember the first few times I came into the Lord's presence when I was a new born Christian, wow, it was so intimidating. It was so confusing, I simultaneously felt the most amazing love and a certain type of pain, I wasn't sure what it was or where it came from. I learnt later, after pressing through that strange feeling that I had the pain all along, only now the Lord was taking me from that place of pain, carrying me and loving me back to wholeness. The reason I didn't understand it was that I knew I was looking at the pain I already had, which was awkward and difficult, but I couldn't feel the pain as badly as usual. I could let that pain be there, look at it and it wasn't hurting as much as it usually did and that was because I was looking at it from a stand point of being with Jesus, He was holding my heart, protecting me from extra pain, showing me what had happened and how He was healing me, while shielding me from the intensity of the pain... This isn't because I knew something someone else didn't, this isn't because I have a special phone line to God, a fibre installation no one else had, no, this is because I took time, worshipped, came into the presence of God and sat with Him... I took the time for the invitation, I accepted, and He met me... He's waiting for each of us daily, let's allow Him in, unfettered access to our inner most being... after a while when I came into the Lord's presence, the pain was gone and there was a treasured place of meeting between Him and me where He downloads spectacular things to me, daily, if I accept the invitation...
- The Promise "the Lord is gracious" - His promise is when you accept the invitation, He will meet you with grace! He is so gracious, even when I've messed up... boy oh boy I'm good at that! I've messed up in my life, I've messed up in my family's lives, I've messed up in work, I've messed up in life, in general... but the word says love keeps no record of wrong (1 Corinthians 13:5) - His name is LOVE (1 John 4:8). The word is so full of promises and they are all easily and readily available to each of us, the question today is for us if indeed we will taste that the Lord is gracious? All the rewards, promises, plans and purposes that we can never imagine or dream of to prosper us and not to harm us, to bless us to 1000 generations, think about that, that could be to the end of time... if... can we afford to avoid or miss that if... can our children and their children's children afford for us to miss a 2 letter word... today the invitation is out there, the promise is clear the choice is yours... if... you'll take Him up on the offer, He has 4000 years of faithful promises met, I think you can trust Him... try it out and let me know how it goes... baie liefde mense... loads of love people!
