Be Subject To...Part 5 of 5...1 Peter 3:8-12...Mums not the word to this scam!

Here is a picture for some beauty around our house.  Some great new friends purchased 6 of these mums which are opening more blossoms each day.  Here are the other two!

But "mum" is not the word for what happened to me this last week.  This is an FYI for anyone who it might benefit.  Some people were getting texts saying it was me and asking for help in the form of gift cards.  The person saying they were me would only continue to talk via text if the conversation continued.  At first I thought I was being hacked and so I went about changing all of my passwords but then my investigating mind went into overdrive.  Those contacted were only of a certain group.  Some of those contacted I did not have their contact information.  What was common with those being contacted?

What happened was someone went onto the church website and pulled my name as the pastor of this church.  Next, they proceeded to text every number that was on the website to ask for their request as me.  So no one was hacked.  They just took the public information offered on the site and used it for their scam.  A lesson learned about church or public websites and the information that is given on them.  No one fell for the scam but a couple started walking down that road with this very opportunistic person (said with a lot of tongue-in-cheek).  Take a good look at your church website or even your personal sites and realize that your cell number that is able to receive texts could be used by a scammer to feed you a line from someone you might know asking for help.  Don't fall for it.  Check the number first to make sure it is from your known person.  This is what alerted many in the group that received texts saying it was me.

Sunday's sermon finished up another "Oreo" construct from Peter.  1 Peter 2:13 starts with the top chocolate wafer of speaking to all of us and then 1 Peter 3:8 ends with the bottom chocolate wafer of speaking again to all of us.  The white filling was the instruction to the specific groups of servants, wives and husbands.  

We keep adding to our mandates given to us as born again Christians from above.  

(1) We are to proclaim Him.  (2) We are to follow in His steps.  (3) We are to bless others.  And there are more to come next week!

The "hit me" portion of the sermon and study last week was the point about foregoing or rejecting the blessing of God because I did it "my way."  Do I not trust in His words and His ways?  Do I think in any way that the satisfaction of my self would be better than obtaining a blessing from God?  Even if I am raising my hand to speak about what is right in line with God's word, do I forego the godly conduct I am to use to make my point?  Maybe we don't realize how powerful a blessing given is by a sold out proclaimer and walker of His steps.  The examples of promoting ourselves are so prolific in our culture that we default to it rather than relying again or entrusting ourselves to the One who made our salvation possible.

We need to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday.  We need to remind ourselves of what has happened so that we are called children of God.  A walk through 1 Peter 1:20-25 and pointing at ourselves when it relates to us and pointing to a cross when speaking of Christ is a good exercise to see the connection between ourselves and what happened there.  We reinforce why we are taking these specific steps that mimic those of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  They might not be popular with the public but Jesus uses them to impact the public that is around us.  

I do desire to love life and see good days but may the life I love and the days be good because they are defined by Him who I am striving to follow diligently.

Adam