Category: Devotions

MONDAY September 11^th

 

1 Peter 2:21–24

‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.’

 

The previous verse to this says ‘But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God’  Peter is continuing on with the theme saying that it is better to suffer as a Christian in the workplace for doing good than for us to enjoin in any wrongdoing, and he points to Christ as being our example. What he is saying is that when society was against him, he acted in such a way that we can learn from it. Re-read the verses above, and in our workplace setting sometimes it is better to remain silent, remembering there is one who sees all and will one day judge justly.

 

But leaving the workplace setting behind and looking at these verses they are a  great reminder to each one of us that Christ suffered for each one of us. It was you and I who deserved to suffer, but Christ took our place.

 

The following verse reads ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (v24).

 

Take a moment today to meditate upon this. Jesus bore your sin, he bore my sin, if we began to write our sins out on a piece of paper, we would need sheet after sheet, but Jesus bore that sin upon himself as if it were his own, and suffered for that sin as if it were his own so that we sinners could receive the righteousness of God. The more we consider this the more we should fall on our knees and worship, that Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

 

But there is another challenge, Christ bore our sin so that we might die to sin! How sad that it would seem to be that some desire to keep dipping into the old ways rather than to be clothed in his righteousness. Oh how we should long to be free and to remain free, living lives that are separate, holy for God, lives that in every way and in all we do bring honour and glory to God our Saviour.

 

I suggested earlier that if we began to write our sins out on a piece of paper, we would need sheet after sheet, but the wonderful news in regard to being made righteous because Christ bore our sin or suffered for our sin on our behalf is that God has taken every sin we would have written on the paper and blotted it out! More than that he will never remember it anymore, so why should we. BUT, and it is a big BUT, we should be endeavouring in every way possible with the help of the Holy Spirit to ensure that we do not start compiling a new list by living in sinful ways since our new birth, for we have become new creations. We, yes, I speak to myself as well need to keep coming to the place of renewal, knowing that if we do sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous and as we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

FRIDAY September 8^th

 

1 Peter 2:18–20

‘Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.’

 

In this second instruction from Peter we are told to be ‘subject to your masters’, we need to put this into the context of the society in which we live and it is an instruction to be subject to our employers. This means that we are expected to work and in our work to be good employees. In fact I personally believe that the best employees should be Christians.

 

We should seek to excel in what we are employed to do and thus be an example to those who are watching on. Even when there may be times in our employment where we may be disgruntled or finding it difficult we should still seek to be and to do our best.  We also seek to be employees who work with honesty and integrity and it may mean that if we see something going on in the workplace that would not fit in along these lines that we maintain our integrity and pursue ways to ensure that we do not get entangled, even to the point of speaking out. Believe you me, I have been in this kind of a situation in the work place where I have had to refuse to do certain things because I knew them to be dishonest, at the time it made my position in the work place very difficult, but God honours us when we honour him by our lifestyle and conduct. Later, on more than one occasion in that same employment my employer needed someone who he could trust to do a certain job, and out of the workforce of around 20+ men I was the one who was appointed to do the specific tasks. My previous testimony although not appreciated at the time actually spoke volumes later.

 

In Colossians when Paul is giving similar instruction he says this ‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.’ (3:23-24) Yes, we do work for our weekly or monthly pay packet , but we also work in a way that brings honour to God and to his name. In fact in an earlier verse in regard to our work Paul says ‘obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord’. (v22)

THURSDAY September 7th

 

1 Peter 2:13–17

‘Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.’

 

The verses before us today are a reminder of God’s provision of law and order through human institutions and for the requirement of our being subject to those who are in authority. But there is within these verses the requirement of those in authority as well, to punish those who do evil and to praises those who do good.

 

As believers, we should constantly be those who are doing good and the good that we do should be seen in society around us and we thank God for every Christian activity that spills into society that shows to the world around us that God loves and God cares. Think of the blessing that the Salvation Army has been throughout it’s history and what can be said of them can be said of others, and not just organisations but also individuals who have been a reflection of the love of God to society through the good that they have done.

 

It is sad  today that the Christian faith that has given so much to the betterment of society in the past is being shunned and rejected. We need to pray that God by the power of his Holy Spirit will move again in sovereign power bringing about a revival in our own nation.

 

But alongside this Scripture we have the instruction of Paul as he writes to Timothy ‘First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.’ (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

 

Our Government today certainly needs our prayer, and I am not just referring to the party in power but also to those who are in opposition, I do not think I can recall a time when their seems to be so much back-biting, back-stabbing and division. They seem to be seeking after their own interests rather than the interest of our nation and we need to pray urgently that God would raise up again godly men and women who are not seeking their own selfish ambitions but whose priority is for the nation and men and women who will seek the righteous ways of God.

 

But let us also at the same time be reassured that what ever party is in Government, it is God who is sovereign over all. He raises up and he brings down, he holds all power and all authority and ultimately it is God himself who we are subject to.

WEDNESDAY September 6th

 

1 Peter 2:11-12

‘Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.’

 

There is one small word in these verses which reveal to us what is one of the central themes in this letter of Peter and it is the word ‘urge’. He is writing to them with a sense of urgency that they need to, must, as we refer back to chapter one live lives that are holy, lives that are worthy of the gospel.

 

He is urging them on the basis of what they have become and who they have become—again referring back a few verses ago—as the people of God to abstain from anything that is to do with the passions of the flesh, that is the old sinful nature. He calls it a war or a battle that is waging in the soul, an intensive struggle, a tug-of-war, the flesh tugging in one direction and the new made alive spirit tugging in the other direction. But which will tug the hardest? He urges us to tug with the spirit and not with the flesh. Abstain he says from anything to do with the passions of the flesh.

 

The reason being not just because God who is holy has called us to be holy, but also because we need to ensure that our conduct among unbelievers is honourable. They should be able to see that we do not use the same questionable language as them, we do not participate in the same questionable life-style as them, we live in such a way that they will see the difference and it will bring glory to God.

 

Going back to verse 3 we read ‘—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good’. Peter had drawn a comparison to those things we may have done in the past (see verse 1) and of the desire we should now have to grow up or mature as believers. He is saying if you have tasted of the Lord (that is of all that is to do with the new life in Christ) and have seen that it is good, why on earth would you think about or even consider going back to taste again of those things from which you have been saved.

 

The idea of tasting of the Lord comes from Psalm 34:8 which says ‘Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!’ We will all have tasted things that we either didn’t like or we liked so much that we wanted more, and once we have tasted of the Lord it should be the desire of each one of us to want to taste of him even more,  and to no longer desire to taste the things of the world.

 

If this is not the case in your experience, ask the Holy Spirit to touch your spiritual taste buds, ask him to bring a bitter taste to those things that are not spiritually healthy for you and to bring a sweet tase to those things that are.

 

Talking of taste, there is another reference in Hebrews 6 that gives warning to those who have tasted of the Lord and yet gone back to taste the things of the world, its verses 4-6 ‘For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.’

TUESDAY September 5th

 

1 Peter 2:10

‘Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

 

I wonder if any of us have ever looked on someone else and seen all their achievements, maybe the letters after their name and the big house etc. and thought to ourself I’m nobody in comparison to them, look at me, little education, a simple little job, very little money, my car is on its last legs and well, my house may not be like a castle, but at least I have a home.

 

Well, lets remind ourselves that all these things are temporal, and I am not knocking achievement I’m all for it, especially seeking to excel and do well in life and I certainly believe that we should seek to perform our best in the workplace, but whatever we have in this life, will in the final analysis count as nothing. Why?

 

Outside of Christ everything counts for nothing as far as eternity is concerned, but thank God because of his mercy and his grace, God has made us into a people, and not any kind of people, HIS people. We who were nothing and maybe may not have much in this life, have become something, and we have become rich in Christ, and there is no better person to be than one who is a child of God, one of his people, in his family and as such we are all of equal standing.

 

I am so grateful today that I have received mercy from God. Are you? Have you? For outside of his mercy and grace we would be hopelessly lost, we would be facing judgment that would lead to an eternity lost in hell. In James 2:13 we read ‘Mercy triumphs over judgement’ and when we have come to know the mercy of God which was demonstrated for us at Calvary, it triumphs over judgement and we are declared as not guilty, we are free.

 

One of the hymns we often sing has in its chorus, ‘Mercy there was great’ and God’s mercy is great, Peter has already said in chapter 1:3 ‘according to his great mercy’ and for us who have become his people his mercies are new every morning, (Lamentations 3:22-23). The same hymn continues ‘grace was free’ therefore as you read or may listen to this devotion, have you come to the place of receiving God’s great mercy and amazing grace? It is found at the place called Calvary, where Jesus died to bring mercy and grace for each one of us. Come today to place your faith and trust in him and in all that he has done for you, in Ephesians chapter 2 we read ‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . .’ (verses 4-5) In coming to receive his grace and mercy, you too will become one of his people!

MONDAY September 4th

 

1 Peter 2:6-8

 

‘For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honour is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”’

 

As we return again today with our devotions, I want to take from these verses ‘“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

 

These verses tell us that the One who is the stone, cornerstone comes from God, when the baby Jesus was placed in the manger on the night of his birth, God was placing in Zion a cornerstone! Peter also tells us that the cornerstone was chosen and precious, this tells us that he was the one that God had chosen to send, God has not chosen and sent anyone else, and he is precious! The words of the little chorus comes to mind, ‘Precious to me, precious to me, Jesus my Saviour, is precious to me’, well, he is not only precious to each one of us who have come to believe on him, he was and is precious to God, he is his eternal Son.

 

Peter continues ‘whoever believes in him will not be put to shame’, these are incredibly comforting words, because we can know, that once we have come to believe on Jesus, and our sin is dealt with, our shame is also taken away, we have been clothed in robes of righteousness, his righteousness is imputed to us. And although we will still have to stand before God and give an account of what we have done as his children, it will not be to condemn us, but it will be all about reward, even then we will never be shamed, because we will be eternally found in Christ.

 

 So, if you are in Christ today rejoice that you have come into a living relationship with the One who is the cornerstone, the One who is precious and has become precious to us. But these verses also contain some information which is sad, for it tells us that on the one hand the stone has become the means of blessing for those who believe, on the other hand for those who fail to believe he is a stumbling stone, not that Christ as the stone causes people to stumble, but their unbelief causes them to stumble. Whereas we see the name of this stone, Jesus, to be a precious name, to unbelievers it causes offence.  

 

Remember the little song we sometimes sing with the children,  ‘Whose side are you leaning on’ I will adapt it to fit these verses, which side of the stone are you to be found, are you leaning upon and standing upon him as a sure and solid foundation for your life, or are stumbling over him because you have not yet come to realise how precious Jesus really is and can be to you.

 

It is only those who believe on him who will not be put to shame, therefore if you fail to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, one day you will stand before God, ashamed firstly because you will still be in your sin and secondly because you will have rejected the One who he sent into this world, yes in these verses sent as a stone but it also means sent to be Saviour and thirdly ashamed because God will say to you ‘Depart from me for I never knew you’.

 

Today, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

FRIDAY August 25^th

 

1 Peter 2:9

‘ . . .that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’

 

In the second part of verse 9 Peter tells us why we have become the people of God, so ‘that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

 

Immediately that I read these words and consider my being ‘in Christ’ and of being God’s possession, I have to ask myself, and you need to ask yourself ‘is my life proclaiming the excellencies of God, for he  has called me out of darkness and into his marvellous light?

 

I have often said that sometimes we need to stop and consider exactly what has taken place, remembering the great cost as Peter has already reminded us in the first chapter, of the precious blood of Christ to bring us out of darkness. We were engulfed in darkness, gross darkness, utter darkness and God has brought us into his marvellous light (wonderful NIV).

 

Let me illustrate it this way, imagine being in the most darkest and dank, filthy and smelliest place you could find on earth and being chained to a post, unable to get out, see light and enjoy fresh air. Someone comes and sets you free, the first think you are going to do after saying thank you to them is to say to yourself, I’m never going back in there again! The kingdom of darkness is far worse than this, and Christ came and set us free!  He released us, surely we should also make the same decision ‘I’m never going back to that again’. Instead we should be doing all we can to proclaim the excellencies of God, we should be determined to live in every way possible to bring praise and glory to God, to honour him in who we are in him and because of him in all that we do.

 

Peter is making reference again to the Old Testament where it is said of Israel ‘ . . the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise’ (Isaiah 43:21) in an earlier verse it says ‘Behold, I am doing a new thing’ (v19) and through the Cross of Christ, God has done and is still doing another new thing, he has formed a new people, the Church so that we too may declare his praise.

 

We need to keep referring back to what Peter has already said, ‘as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct’, if we fail to heed this then we will be dishonouring toward God rather than declaring the excellencies or praise of his name.  

 

I am going to be using some of my annual leave up again next week, so the devotions will return on Monday September 4^th.

THURSDAY August 24^th

 

1 Peter 2:5b and 2:9a

‘. . . to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’

 

‘ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’

 

I have put together these two verses, for as Peter makes the first statement in verse 5 he re-echoes it when we get to verse 9. He reminds us that as ‘living stones’, we have also become the people of God, we are not only his children, which in itself is good news, worthy to rejoice in, but we have become to God his own people. As the ‘living stones’ or as the Church (Gr ‘Ecclesia’) we are called out ones, we no longer live as citizens of the world but rather as citizens of the Kingdom of God. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

 

The picture Peter gives here is the same as that of the Children of Israel in the Old Testament, they were God’s people, they were his chosen race etc. In Psalm 100:3 we read ‘Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.’

 

Today we as the redeemed of the Lord can also say that we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture, we are ‘a people for his own possession’. Now, it is important to understand that because Peter has used language that was also used to describe Israel in the Old Testament^* to describe we as the Church today, it does not mean that we have replaced Israel and that they as a people no longer matter in the purposes of God. God has one programme at the moment and the emphasis is on the Church, the preaching of the good news of the gospel, for we are living in the day of grace, and therefore the gospel is applicable to both Israel as well as the rest of the world, Jew and Gentile, but God still has much to work out for Israel.

 

But for today, in the now of yours and my experience we can rejoice that we have been brought into the fold of God, we have been saved to be his children, his people and as his people we have become  a chosen race, a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

 

We serve God together, we are in this world but not of the world, we are separated to be God’s holy people, we should as Jesus said in his sermon on the mount be so different to all outside that we shine bright as lights in this darkened world in which we live. It is also a good time to remind ourselves that we should pray for the nation of Israel, in particular that those who rejected the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ when he came into this world, will by the Spirit have their eyes opened and will come to understand the truth concerning who Jesus is and will welcome him into their lives just as we have done.

 

^{* See Exodus 19:6, Deuteronomy 7:6, Isaiah 4:20.}

WEDNESDAY August 23^rd

 

1 Peter 2:4–5a

‘As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house . . .’

 

Today in our verses we have the words ‘stone’ and ’stones’. But preceding these is the word ‘living’. This word has already cropped up in this epistle, first in chapter 1 verse 3 where we read of the ‘living hope’, then in chapter 1 verse 23 the ‘living and abiding word of God’, now in chapter two it is ‘living stone’, verse 4 and ‘living stones’ verse 5.

 

Let’s get excited about this word ‘living’ for the opposite would be to be dead! And that is what we were, dead in our trespasses and sins, but in Christ, through new birth we have been quickened or made alive.

 

In the context of these verses, Christ is the living stone, he is the living stone because he is in himself life and he has also become the cornerstone. What about living stones, well to really be alive, to be truly living as men and women can only be the experience of those who have come to know the ‘living stone’ and once we do we become the ‘living stones’.

 

But why stones? Well Peter is painting a picture here for us of the Church, he is using his own way of expressing exactly the same as Paul does when he talks of the church in language that says that we are the body and Christ is the head. In Paul’s language as the body we are connected to Christ as the head and so it is from the head, Christ, that everything in regard to the body, the church must flow. Peter says that Christ as the living stone is also the cornerstone and it is as attached to him as the cornerstone we as living stones must be set.

 

As Paul was illustrating the Church as a spiritual body, Peter is illustrating it as a spiritual building that is made up of all who have come to faith who as a result have become living stones and are joined to the one who is the cornerstone.

 

Connection is important in regard to the Church,  we must be connected to Christ and at the same time we must be connected to each other. We who have come to faith are all living stones and Christ’s intention is for us to be joined together.

 

We are joined together because we have become the family of God, but we are also joined together because we need each other, thus we are joined together for the purpose of fellowship.  

 

This means that a ‘living stone’ that does not participate in fellowship with other believers is out of sync with what Christ desires for his Church, he or she is disconnected and disobedient to the instruction of Scripture to ‘not neglecting to meet together’ (Hebrews 10:25) and using the language which Jesus used himself in John 15 to describe the being connected and fellowship they run the risk of becoming a fruitless branch, which eventually will be cut off.

 

I bring a challenge here to any who read or listen to this devotion, wherever you may be from for these devotions are read by others who are not a part of our local Church here in Gateshead., if you are forsaking fellowship with other Christians, please consider where you really are in your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with those who are your brothers and sisters in Christ, and seek to make every effort to place yourself again into a place of fellowship, for us in Gateshead, if something legitimately prevents attendance on a Sunday, remember we meet for prayer and Bible study in the week and you can be in fellowship then

TUESDAY August 22^nd

 

1 Peter 2:1–3.

‘So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.’

 

We have come today to the second chapter, but remember that the chapter and verse divisions have been a later addition to help us navigate around the word of God, and so Peter uses the words ‘Like newborn infants’ in verse 2. I like to think that the term ‘newborn infants’ takes us back to verse 23 of the previous chapter that tells us that we have been born again. When we were born again, we became spiritual newborn infants, but we shouldn’t remain as infants, we should mature and develop to become mature men and women of God.

 

This is one of the reasons why the different authors had written the letters or epistles so that we can 1) take up and read the word of God so that we can 2) move on from infancy to maturity.

 

The word of God is our spiritual sustenance or our spiritual diet and in these few verses Peter is drawing a comparison between what would be an unhealthy diet versus what is a healthy diet. Picture it this way, for example if we were to look into our food cupboards and put what we find in two piles, the unhealthy and the healthy, then if we were determined to live in a way that would suit us best, to enable us to be fit and well, we would put the unhealthy to one side and make a decision to use the healthy only.

 

Peter gets us to look into our spiritual cupboard and he starts off by considering the unhealthy option, things that if we allow them to be our daily diet would lead us to be unhealthy Christians, in the pile he puts malice, then deceit, then hypocrisy, then envy and he tops the pile with slander. ‘Look at this pile’ he would say ‘and put it away, bin them, for these things will cause you to be spiritually unwell, bitter and twisted and you will not progress to be spiritually healthy and mature’, Paul gives the same advice as we see in Ephesians 4:31 ‘Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice’ and Colossians 3:8 ‘But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.’

 

Peter then says, ‘This is what you need’ and he makes a simple pile, there is only one item in this pile, and it is the word of God. ‘Feed on this’, Peter then continues ‘take the milk first if you need to, but progress just like a newborn babe and move onto the meat and you will soon find that you will be spiritually healthy and will mature as a child of God’.