…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. My intention with this Set Free series has been to encourage my sisters in the faith to embrace who God made them to be. This need was driven home to me again this week. I asked the members of my Bible study group (a mixed group) to reflect on a verse, passage, or Bible story that had a signific

If I were superstitious, I’d call this Episode Fourteen. But I’m not. September has arrived, and things are ramping up. One of those things for me is preparing for the annual conference of our churches across Canada. Part of the preparations involves gathering a collection of books by some of the authors from our church communities. These will be displayed and, hopefully, sold at the conference. After a shout-out to our authors this past week, I have received several response

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. We return to the subject of suffering. I remember a conversation with a friend in Colombia who said that one of his colleagues was writing a book on suffering to counter a growing movement among believers in that country that Christians shouldn’t suffer, and that if they did, something was wrong

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Over the last couple of episodes, we have looked at what Peter writes about curbing our freedom as followers of Jesus to advance the mission we are called to and to avoid bringing disrepute to the name of the One we follow. Peter ties up these “ends” with the famous word “Finally…” in 1 Peter 3:

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. We know that the original manuscripts of the Scriptures did not have chapters and verses, as our more modern versions do. So, in a sense, I should not have separated 1 Peter 2 from 1 Peter 3 as I did in my last episode of Set Free. So let’s go back a little. In that last episode, we briefly look

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is hard for us to imagine what it was like for those early believers to whom Peter is writing this letter. From my understanding of situations like that in Rome, the Jewish Christians were forced to flee the city because of persecution. When some of them returned to Rome, they discovered a ch

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. I woke up before daybreak this past Friday morning, thinking about the draft of this episode. I seem to “beat the drum” for mutuality in ministry and for women to be allowed to do what God has called them to do, because the “walls” of the spiritual house that God is building are weaker when they

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In 1991, Steve Green released an album titled We Believe. One of the songs he recorded was Let The Walls Come Down. The album’s focus was to encourage unity among those we often refer to as having “like precious faith.” I love Steve Green, but in this episode of Set Free, I am addressing some wa

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. What should a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own possession look like? Well, let’s just say that a lifetime is needed to cover all THAT subject. In his letter to the scattered saints, Peter mentions a few items. I assume that, because he mentions them, they were somehow

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. More and more, I am reminded of the importance of the Word of God in my life. There are so many “voices” out there, voices that try to tell me who I am, what I should do or not do, where I belong and where I don’t belong, what I can say and what I should refrain from saying, and what I should be

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In the translation I am using for this series, the next section in 1 Peter we are looking at is titled A Call to Holiness. This section is particularly intriguing to me because of recent studies I have been doing into the lives of medieval religious women. Most of these women have been excised f

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Peter wrote to the believers in the early church, now scattered throughout the Roman Empire, from the perspective of one who had walked beside the Son of God. He was an eyewitness to the very hope in Jesus that he now proclaims to them. As they listened to the apostle’s letter being read and exp

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. In our first episode, we briefly examined 1 Peter 1:1-2 and learned that Peter, a sent one or apostle, a disciple of Jesus, wrote this letter to believers who had been forced to flee persecution for their faith and were now scattered throughout the biblical world of their day. Peter had spent ti

…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 seemed like the perfect theme verse for these meditations on the freedom we, as redeemed women, have in Christ. We are indeed fully part of those called out of the darkness to join in the wonderful work of restoring the Kingdom of God. Then I realized that one verse does not make an