Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Get Out Of The Milk

Selfish living dominates our life when God isn't allowed to be in control.


1 Peter 1:13-16 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

1 Peter 2:1-3 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 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, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

If you received the good news and became a Christ follower like Peter has talking about in the previous verses of this chapter then there are some things that will naturally change in your life as a result. As followers of Christ we should be having an exciting time looking forward to the day when our salvation will be revealed to the world. Our salvation should be a great source of joy in the midst of this world full of tragedy and injustice.

Here is a word of warning for those that are trying to live to please God, you should beware because the old ways will try and take you back, Peter said that "living to satisfy your own desires" will creep back in the door if you are not careful. It's all about making choices, all day long we are constantly making choices, it is difficult to control ourselves and make the choices that please God, it requires us to take on the mind of Christ. The desire to please ourselves is a battle that we will fight until Jesus takes us out of this world. (Romans 7:15, 1 Corinthians 2:16)

Have you outgrown the milk diet?

Hebrews 5:12-14  You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.  13  For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right.  14  Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
You start out as a baby in God's family, just like you did in your human family, but you shouldn't stay at that stage of your spiritual life forever. You should have a good appetite, one that is anxious for more milk and then progressing to eating cereal and then moving on to solid food.

God wants us to be like him, his number one character trait is his holiness the moral excellence of God, sounds like a tall order that we can't possibly attain. It is an attribute that we are to strive for, God tells us to be holy just like he is, we need to look like a part of God's family. We will not fully achieve our goal but if you are a follower of Christ then you will start to look like him, it can't be any other way, following Christ will always have an outward expression, actions that can't be covered up. 

God has revealed himself, his character and his desires for his children through his word. We need to be students of his book and let him "teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives" so that we will know how to become more like him. (2 Timothy 3:16)