Fly Right

A reality check from 1 Peter 1:13-22
Fly right, or you are going to crash, a message from James MacDonald that uses four gauges, found in the cockpit of an airplane, to help our walk with Christ.

A good pilot, a family man, will refer to these indicators frequently.

Hope. Hope is the fuel gauge of the Christian life -- is the the equivalent to the fuel gauge in your air plane. No hope means that your plane is going to crash quickly. Hope is the confident expectation of something better for tomorrow.

5 Things that believers place their hope in, but shouldn't.
1) Health, beauty, physical fitness, nutrition
2) My situation, my setup, finances, houses, home, your lawn, stuff of this world
3) Church, the fellowships and the friendships.
4) Family, or marriage, or children.
5) Abilities, smarts, talents, hard work, being a man of action

These are all worthwhile...but the Bible says:
v.13 -- set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Holiness. Holiness means "set apart." If someone asks you a spiritual question like, "what you are you working on in your life?", Holiness, that's what you are working on. Holiness is the altimeter which tells you "where you are" when you are working within the two parameters essential for flight: 1) outerspace, and 2) the ground.
Written to mean an on-going process, you have to ask yourself what can I do differently so that I'm not conforming to this world? (Romans 12:2)
v.15 -- but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct

Fear. This is more than respect for the authority of God. Fear seeks a right relationship, a favorable outcome with the fear source. The attitude display indicator in an airplane similarly tells the pilot his position with respect to the horizon. Are your wings level? Is the nose up? Or, is the nose down?
v.17--If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;

Love. As the air speed indicator tells the pilot how fast they are traveling, check how you are loving. Peter is prescribing to put some effort into it. This is more that just being a good person, for anyone can be a good person! He says to love earnestly (NET), fervently (KJV), intensely (NLT) and deeply (NIV).

v.22 -- So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.