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If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. (! Peter 1:17-23)
It was John Wesley, whom we credit with starting the Methodist movement that wrote these words: "I want to know one thing,—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to heaven." (Man of One Book, Preface to the Sermons). It comes from a much longer passage of his writings, but the joy and intense pleasure that he exudes from his having and using a Bible should speak to us; we the privileged who own more than one Bible, who can access the Word of God through our phones now, or tablets, or computers, who neglect it and search it only during times of need. Wesley spoke of his need to read it constantly, to learn about God and God's love, and how it should motivate us and our living. And the passage from 1 Peter is the scripture that inspired that writing and life of Wesley.
We should invoke as our Father, God, who ultimately will judge all, but our reverence and desire for God should guide our living as those called by God to love all people, and to have that faith that is obedient to God because of God's work in and among us. We are truly "born again" people, true to the spiritual, rejecting the carnal, all because of the living and enduring word of God. If we truly live this way, we will be contagious people, sharing the love and hope of God with all. May it be so!
PRAYER: Living God, speak to my heart and grant me that hope. Fill my heart with love for all people. Let me put all other things aside, let nothing divide us, but be that which unites us all; for the good of Your work here on the earth, I pray in Christ Jesus' precious name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
