Category: Devotions

MONDAY August 21^st

 

1 Peter 1:22–25

‘. . . since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’

 

In the closing verses of this first chapter, Peter reminds us that we have been born again as a result of the living and abiding word of God, he clarifies it further in the last verse, ‘and this word is the good news that was preached to you’.

 

You will have heard me often say as to how valuable and important the word of God should be to each one of us, and we should learn to appreciate its value even more in the days in which we are living in when all around us demonic forces are at work to undermine what truth really is. God himself is truth, the Lord Jesus Christ is truth and Gods word is truth. The gospel which we have heard and responded to is truth.

 

The word of God is so important that while everything else will come crashing down, or will wither and fall as Peter puts it, the word of the Lord will remain forever (v25).

 

Peter also tells us that the word of God is living, just think for a moment then, of all the books that this world has seen published and which you or I can hold in our hands there is not a single one of them of which it can be said that they are living! It can only be said of the word of God and the Hebrew writer says ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’

 

What a wonderful book that has come from a wonderful God who truly has done wonderful things for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh how much we need to treasure this book for its pages unfold to us the wonderful story of redemption and through it we learn what the gospel is all about and come to be born again.

 

O wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!

True wisdom its pages unfold;

And though we may read them a thousand times o’er,

They never, no never, grow old!

Each line hath a treasure, each promise a pearl,

That all if they will may secure;

And we know that when time and the world pass away,

God’s Word shall forever endure.

 

O wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!

The lamp that our Father above

So kindly has lighted to teach us the way

That leads to the arms of His love!

Its warnings, its counsels, are faithful and just;

Its judgments are perfect and pure;

And we know that when time and the world pass away,

God’s Word shall forever endure.

 

O wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!

Our only salvation is there;

It carries conviction down deep in the heart,

And shows us ourselves as we are.

It tells of a Saviour, and points to the cross,

Where pardon we now may secure;

For we know that when time and the world pass away,

God’s Word shall forever endure.

 

O wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!

The hope of our friends in the past;

Its truth, where so firmly they anchored their trust,

Through ages eternal shall last.

O wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!

Unchanging, abiding and sure;

For we know that when time and the world pass away,

God’s Word shall forever endure.

Julia Sterling CCLI 788682

FRIDAY August 18^th

 

1 Peter 1:22–25

‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’

 

In this chapter Peter has already highlighted some of the thing that should take place in the heart or life of a person who has been born again, or as he puts it here in our verses today, had their soul purified, and firstly from verse 13 ‘Prepare your minds for action’, ‘be sober-minded’, ‘set your hope fully on the grace’. Then verse 14 ‘do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance’, then from verse 15 ‘be holy in all your conduct’.

 

Here in verse 22 he tells us to ‘love one another earnestly from a pure heart’. Real, genuine love can only flow out from a pure heart. We know this because the greatest and purest example of love came from the heart of God himself. To love one another is as important as the command found here in 1 Peter 1:16 ‘You shall be holy for I am holy’.

 

You will recall when we were going through the epistles of John he continually spoke of the need for the children of God to love each other and he heard it from the lips of the Saviour himself, he records what he had heard in John 13:34 ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another’ (see also John 15:12 & 17, 1 John 3:23). Jesus then expressed why our love for one another is so important ‘By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (v35).

 

I know that every one of us would have to admit that we find it easier to relate with some people than with others, even to spend time talking with some than with others, after all we are all different in so many ways, but within the body of Christ, despite all those differences we should still have the same love and concern for each one. I wonder if a good exercise would be that over the next few weeks even maybe months when we are gathered together that you make the opportunity to speak with someone in more depth than what you normally would do, instead of just the cursory how are you, allow the conversation to develop into something more so that we may all together be a people who show we care and love for each other. Care and love which is demonstrated in our concern toward and mutual interest in one another.

THURSDAY August 17^th

 

1 Peter 1:20-21

‘He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.’

 

We continue today where I left off yesterday in our wonder at the miracle of God’s plan of redemption. Jesus willingly came into this world to be the Lamb who would be sacrificed for the sin of the world, that is your sin, my sin. He obediently went to the Cross and we have recorded in John 19:30 ‘When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.’ The Lamb really was slain for our sin, he did die, he gave up his life so that we may live again. But this incredible plan (remember the angels longed to look into it) had another incredible twist, for back in the Old Testament God had made this declaration in Psalm 16:10 ‘For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption’  and in the latter part of Isaiah 53:10 ‘he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.’

 

The Lamb that was slain would live again! The Lamb that was slain would not see corruption! The Lamb that was slain would see his offspring! And how? Three days after he had given up his spirit, the Lamb slain was raised to life again and he was raised as the One who had conquered the devil, sin and the grave. And for it all to happen it would take the Lamb, not any lamb, but the Lamb who had been prepared before the foundation of the world.

 

And as a result of his obedience, God not only raised him from the dead but also gave him glory. We could spend a lot of time considering what this word glory means but sufficient for now to conclude that it means that Jesus ascended back into the place of glory, he has the highest place that heaven affords and holds the highest name, he is the one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess saying that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2) and ‘But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone’ Hebrews 2:9.

 

Then finally from these verses in 1 Peter as a result of the whole outworking of God’s plan of redemption through the Lamb, Peter says our faith and hope are in God.

 

In other words we have entered into a real, personal and dynamic relationship with the true and living God, we have been made alive again, we have been reconciled to him, we have faith that is based upon fact and a hope that is guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

WEDNESDAY August 16^th

 

1 Peter 1:20-21

‘He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.’

 

We carry on with our verses today with the train of thought that was in the previous verses, which tell us that Christ who was the Lamb slain for the sin of the world was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Jesus already existed as the Word of God as we read in John 1:1 and as the eternal Son of God.

 

Jesus has never known a beginning and will never no an ending because he is God and he is eternal. And yet the wonder is that as God, and even before the foundation or the creation of the world, he was the Lamb who was going to be made manifest in the last times for the sake of all who would become believers in God. In Galatians 4:4-5 we read ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’

 

Remember back in verse 12 we read that God’s plan of redemption was so incredible that the angels longed to look into it. From heavens viewpoint they marvelled and wondered, and when the fulness of time arrived and Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Luke records that after the shepherds had visited, Mary ‘treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19) and the shepherds went away, ‘glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them’ (v20).

 

And the more I ponder or wonder on these things, the more amazed I am that even before Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden, God had a plan ready, he had a Son who was ready and when the fullness of time came the plan was put into effect and he came into this world to be our Passover Lamb. We will continue with the remainder of the text from today in the devotion tomorrow, but for now, spend some time pondering and wondering on how amazing God’s plan of eternal redemption really is, that we lost and hopeless sinners have been rescued and set free and brought into a living hope.

 

In the words of this song, which I have included in the audio devotion, we are reminded that for it to happen it took a Lamb.

 

He could ‘ve come in all His splendour.

Greater than the eye has ever seen.

He could’ve come in robes of scarlet.

And all the world would see that He is king.

He could’ve ridden on a White Horse.

As a warrior and conquered every land.

But He knew that if redemptions price

were paid, it would take a Lamb.

 

It took a Lamb, to die upon a rugged Cross, it took a Lamb.

(Just a Lamb)

Only One could pay the cost.

Nothing less, could take away my sin.

That is why the Great I Am.

Didn’t come as a King because He knew.

It took a Lamb.

 

For many years the temple altars,

were stained with sacrifices every day.

And though the blood appeased the Father,

still the curse of sin was never wiped away.

Till one day the Rule of Justice was

halted by a touch from Mercy’s

Hand, (Mercy’s Hand)

As the Father in compassion said it’s time,

to send the spotless Lamb. (Precious Spotless Lamb!)

Geron Davis CCLI 788682

TUESDAY August 15^th

 

1 Peter 1:17–19

‘And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’

 

Continuing from our previous devotion, there is another Old Testament example that we will turn to and it is in Exodus 12 at the time when the Children of Israel were about to be delivered from Egypt.

 

The final instruction that God gave to them through Moses was that they were to take a lamb that was without blemish and to kill it and the blood was to be applied to the doorposts and lintel of their homes and this is what God said ‘I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.’ Exodus 12:12–13.

 

The shed blood was to be both the means of their protection and their salvation. If we have not already come to appreciate it, we need as those who have been saved to appreciate all that the blood of Jesus should mean to us and appreciate its immense value. It has both saved us and protects us. For without his shed blood we would still be sinners, still in our sin and still heading for an eternity where we would be eternally alienated from God, eternity in the place which has been prepared for all who refuse to accept Jesus as Lord, the place which the Bible calls an eternal lake of fire.

 

Spend some time today thanking God for sending Jesus and in thanking Jesus that he was willing to come as the Lamb to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

 

Again if you are reading this devotion and you have not yet committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to consider the wonder of God’s love for you that he was willing to send his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to die for you. This is what the Bible says ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ John 3:16. We will close the audio devotion with a song, here are some of the words for those reading it.

I was a wretch, I remember who I was, I was lost, I was blind

I was running out of time, sin separated

The breach was far too wide

But from the far side of the chasm

You held me in your sight

 

So You made a way, across the great divide

Left behind Heaven’s throne, to build it here inside

And there at the cross, you paid the debt I owed

Broke my chains, freed my soul, for the first time I had hope

 

Thank you Jesus for the blood applied

Thank you Jesus, it has washed me white

Thank you Jesus, You have saved my life

Brought me from the darkness into glorious light

You took my place

 

Laid inside my tomb of sin, You were buried for three days

But then You walked right out again

And now death has no sting, and life has no end

For I have been transformed

By the blood of the Lamb

 

There is nothing stronger

Than the wonder working power of the blood

The blood

That calls us sons and daughters

We are ransomed by our Father

Through the blood

The blood

 

Glory to His name

Glory to His name

There to my heart was the blood applied

Glory to His name

Charity Gayle CCLI 788682

MONDAY August 14^th

 

1 Peter 1:17–19

‘And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’

 

We are turning to the same verses again in our devotion today and to the latter part ‘like that of a lamb without blemish or spot’ which we will consider again in our next devotion

 

It was John the Baptist who when he saw Jesus coming toward him cried out ‘“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”’ John 1:29 and again in verse 36  ‘“Behold, the Lamb of God!”’

 

The one who is the good shepherd was also a sheep? Yes, he was the Lamb of God and he came into this world to be the one who would take away sin. And as a lamb or more particularly as THE Lamb, he was without blemish or spot, that is he was perfect in every single way.

 

The picture of Jesus as the Lamb comes from the Old Testament and firstly from Genesis 22 when God had challenged Abraham to take Isaac, his only son up to the mountain and to sacrifice him and we read there ‘And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.’

 

At the very moment when Abraham lifted his knife to carry out the instruction from God, he heard the voice of the angel of the Lord ‘But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided”’ (verses 11–14).

 

This is a beautiful picture of what Christ became for us, he is the Lamb whom God has provided to take our place, as our substitute to be the sacrifice for our sin.

 

We were all sinners, we all needed saving, we all needed a Saviour and God provided the way of salvation by sending his Son. In Genesis 22, the angel of the Lord spoke to Abraham at the exact moment, we would say, bang on time, and we are reminded in Galatians 4:4 that at exactly the right moment, again bang on time, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, he sent him to be the Lamb who would be the propitiation for our sin. ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’, have you come to Jesus and received the cleansing that is available for each one of us, as we come to be washed in the precious blood which he shed on our behalf as the Lamb of God.

FRIDAY August 11^th

 

1 Peter 1:17–19

‘And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’

 

Continuing from where we left off in our previous devotion, Peter continues with a further and perhaps the most important reason why we should seek to conduct ourselves with fear throughout the time of our exile. It is because we have become what we are, the children of God, because a great cost has been made to redeem us. And we can think of those things in this world that are valuable, such as silver, gold, and diamonds but their value or worth is zero in comparison to the value and preciousness of the blood of Jesus. That’s how we have been redeemed, not by those things or anything else that is temporal or perishable but with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is like no other blood that had ever flowed through the veins of any human being, for it was blood that was without blemish or spot.

 

If you were to type into a search engine on the internet (this is what I did to get this information), firstly, what is the most precious commodity on planet earth? The answer would be something that you have probably never heard of (I hadn’t) it is called ‘Antimatter’ a gram of Antimatter would be worth about 80 trillion dollars! Or secondly, what about the most expensive liquid on earth? You would come up with the answer ‘Zolgensma’, one gallon would cost about 1.4 billion dollars, this is a revolutionary drug used to treat a rare neuromuscular disorder.

 

Now as staggering as these two facts are, those compiling the lists have failed to recognise that 2000 years ago a man called Jesus hung on a Cross at a place called Calvary, just outside the city wall of Jerusalem, during this barbaric act of crucifixion as they plunged a crown of thorns on his head, drove nails through his hands and feet and plunged a spear into his side, his blood was poured out and it would have flowed down, dripping onto the soil of the earth below and the value of that blood is impossible to even estimate as it is imperishable, inestimable and has the power to cleanse men and women of their sin.

 

Now stop and just consider these things, you and I have been ransomed as Peter calls it from our futile ways which we inherited from our forefathers, and it has taken place because of the precious blood of Christ. Therefore as we consider the inestimable cost involved to redeem us, we should desire to live, conduct ourselves with fear during our time on planet earth knowing that one day we will be standing before God and will have to give an account.

 

Or is it possible as I have said about those who compiled the list above, that we have failed to recognise the preciousness of the blood of Jesus. And is it possible that God will ask us among other questions when we stand before him, ‘What value did you place on the blood of Jesus?’ Then he will continue, ‘Let’s look and see, for the answer is to be found by the way that you conducted your life’.

 

Now, I know that this has been a longish devotion but it is well worth a hymn! It is difficult to choose but this is the one I have gone for.

 

There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains:

 

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away:

 

I do believe, I will believe,

That Jesus died for me!

That on the Cross he shed his blood,

From sin to set me free.

 

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Be saved to sin no more:

 

E’er since by faith I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.

W. Cowper CCLI 788682

THURSDAY August 10^th

 

1 Peter 1:17–19

‘And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’

 

When we were going through the Sermon on the Mount, we considered the verses where Jesus instructed the disciples in how to pray and told them to start with ‘Our Father, in heaven’ Matthew 6:9, in today’s verses Peter says to us ‘If you call on him as Father’, that is if you are born again and have come to truly know God as your Father, then it should, in fact, it must have an impact on your lifestyle, for he continues ‘conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile’, for us today it means that we should walk our Christian life in reverence toward God, and we show it by the way that we live, this includes the things we may say, the things we may do and the company that we keep. It all links back to the previous verse that says ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’

 

We should desire to live in a way that pleases God, brings pleasure to God and brings honour to who he is. I wonder how often when we are doing something or find ourselves in different places or spending our time in some activity do we say to ourself, I wonder if God is pleased with me with what I am doing at this moment!

 

But we should also desire to live in a way that pleases God not just for his names sake, but for our own sake as well, for Peter says that the one who we call Father will judge each one impartially according to his or her deeds.

 

Yes we have been saved from the wrath of God, our sin has been forgiven, we are justified, we are looking forward to the inheritance of the salvation of our souls, but we need to remind ourselves that one day we will also have to give an account as to how we have lived as God’s children.  

 

A couple of verses to close with

‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God’ Romans 14:11–12.

‘Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God’ 2 Corinthians 7:1.

WEDNESDAY August 9^th

 

1 Peter 1:14–16

‘As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”’

 

We all want and expect children, especially our own children to be obedient, in fact we demand it of them. In the same way God as our heavenly Father calls us to obedience and he has the right to demand it of us. This is exactly what he expected of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when he instructed them ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’, as we know from this account that disobedience to God carried with it consequences.

 

Here in our verses Peter says, ‘As obedient children’, he is going to instruct them further as to how obedience follows through, in this case by not being ‘conformed to the passions of your former ignorance’. He is helping us to understand that there were many things we did before we were saved because we were ignorant of the fact that they were displeasing to God, but now we are saved if we want to follow God with the obedience he both deserves and expects then we show it by ensuring that we do everything we possibly can to not be conformed to those things done out of ignorance, in fact we cannot plead ignorance any longer once we have become aware of the just demands that God places upon us as his children.

 

This first instruction is so important because he then tells the recipients in the letter that because the one who has called us is holy, so also should we be in all our conduct. In other words because he calls us his children, he is reminding us that our heavenly Father is holy and he wants that we his children also be holy not in a few areas of our lives, but ‘in all your conduct.’

 

Later in this letter Peter says ‘. . . so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God’ 1 Peter 4:2.

 

May God help each of us to live in obedience to the will of God, aiming to please him in every day so that our lives will be a testimony to his saving grace and an example to those outside.

TUESDAY August 8^th

 

1 Peter 1:13

‘Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’

 

I have returned to the same verse again today for I want to consider the phrase ‘being sober-minded’. What does it mean to be sober-minded? It means to be clear-headed, to have our minds fixed on or set upon the important things rather than the unimportant.

 

The KJV translates this verse in this way ‘Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ’. To gird up the loins means to gather your thoughts or your thinking, that which goes on in your mind and protect them by setting them upon the grace of God. It means to do all we can to think clearly and rightly as God’s children.

 

Our minds are an incredible part of our makeup, we are thinking all of the time, for example as I am writing this devotion at the same time my mind is thinking ahead as to what I will write next. Someone has rightly said that our minds can become the devils playground because if he can get us to think negatively or wrong thoughts then he will have a foothold in what we will do or say. Therefore we need to train ourselves to think positively or in the language of Scripture soberly and to put away immediately any thought that would detract us from the ways of and the things of God.

 

Peter mentions sober-mindedness again later in this letter in 1 Peter 4:7 ‘The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers’ and in 1 Peter 5:8 ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.’

 

Because of the importance of our minds and the need to be sober-minded, God has provided us with protection, it is found in the armour that we are instructed to put on in Ephesians 6:17 ‘. . . and take the helmet of salvation’, and we can also ask for the peace of God to guard both our hearts and our minds Philippians 4:7 ‘And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ Paul continues from Philippians 4:7 into verse 8 and says ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.’ Let us be sober-minded, let’s set our minds to be thinking on these things.