Greetings from the Oʻahu Church of Christ. My name is Jackson Cheng, and I want to thank you for joining us in this podcast series, “Refined by Fire”.
I hope that you enjoyed the last podcast on Overcoming Worldliness. We started this series by looking at spiritual blindness and how there are things that can keep us from seeing God with clarity. This series focuses on the Apostle Peter and his own spiritual journey and the things that he has to overcome in order for him to see God and God’s will for him clearly.
The theme Scripture is 1 Peter 1:3-9. It says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
What a great Scripture! This was written by Peter toward the end of his life. So when he talks about our faith being refined by fire, he is writing with a conviction that comes from his own life and the things he had gone through that refined his own faith.
I thought about this passage and how it is fitting for us today, as many of us are feeling the effects of COVID-19. Life will have many challenges. But if we keep God’s perspective, they are momentary. So if we persevere, our faith will grow and ultimately that faith will give us hope of one day receiving salvation of our souls!
Today, we are going to look at Overcoming Failure. We are all familiar with failure in one form or another, but let’s look at Peter.
Disciple in the church for over 28 years. Married to an awesome wife and raising two teenagers and one poi dog (who is more obedient than the kids!). I was inspired to do this podcast series to bring a little more dose of Bible and faith into all of our lives, especially during these uncertain times.
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