The author of 1 Peter uses the metaphor of stones used to construct a house to explain to believers their relationship with Christ. Christ is the all-important cornerstone, but believers are an important part of the structure as well. They are living stones who have received God’s mercy and love. Their relationship is part of a royal priesthood of believers wherein they have access to God directly because of God’s great love for them.

Because of the hope we have found, we are encouraged to love one another from the heart, without hyprocisy.

Suffering has long been a part of the experience of humanity and especially the Church. In the present day we may not see suffering in the same way as the audience of 1 Peter as far as persecutions against the church as a whole. All believers face suffering due to life events such as sickness and death. However, many believers face individual sufferings due to issues that not all of us face such as their ethnicity, sexual identity, etc. Those of us who are more privileged and sheltered from these types of suffering are called to speak out against them. This is a factor of living out the hope that we have found through faith in Christ.

Throughout the palm and passion narratives we see reflections of ourselves. More often than not, they point us to our need for a messiah, the lamb of God who takes away our sins.

Jesus is calling us to come out of the darkness and into the light. When we come out we can proclaim Jesus’ love like Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Martha proclaimed Jesus as Messiah through her words, Mary through her posture, and Lazarus by listening and being unbound.

This week, Rev. Chad Watkins spoke from Mark 1:9-13 and encourages us with some things we need for life.

God's love for us is so vast, that our own sin doesn't hold it back. We didn't have to clean ourselves up before coming to faith in Jesus. Jesus made a way for us while we were still sinners.

John 3:16 has become ingrained in our culture and can be easily overlooked or just acknowledged and we move on. But it’s an extremely radical idea - God really loves everyone. Period. We “know” this mentally, but do we really embrace it and put it into practice?