Today Our Daily Bread 1 Ptr 1

1 Peter 1: 1 - 25
1 I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. 2 God the Father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!
3 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, 4 including a future in heaven - and the future starts now! 5 God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all - life healed and whole.
6 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. 7 Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 8 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him - with laughter and singing. 9 Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation.
10 The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. 11 The Messiah's Spirit let them in on some of it - that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. 12 All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves - through the Holy Spirit - the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!
13 So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. 14 Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. 15 As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. 16 God said, "I am holy; you be holy." 17 You call out to God for help and he helps - he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living. 18 It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. 19 He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. 20 And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately - at the end of the ages - become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. 21 It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. 22 Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. 23 Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God's living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself!
24 That's why the prophet said, The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers; Grass dries up, flowers droop, 25 God's Word goes on and on forever. This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.
The Message
~ Lena’s Comments ~
Peter’s name represents revelation, and the 4 winds represent the whole earth, which represents people. Only those who have received understanding and revelation would go anywhere for God (even to their own neighbors). This person begins a commitment to Christ, but just as we do in marriage or any other commitment. At the time of commitment we do not know or understand what all is in store for us along the way, and so we may encounter things that would cause us to wonder about making it "all the way". The only way to "go all the way" is through revelation, finish the same way you started On the ROCK! This is so awesome and right along the messages God is trying to give us through our Pastors. Eternity and its work begins the day we turn our lives over to God, or as some say, we give our hearts to the Lord. THAT is when it begins. We had been taught wrongly, and so it is now time to be re-taught correctly. We not only give our hearts to Christ, we give it all, for His use now. Why? So that others , many many others may receive this same promise and assignment. God wants children, safe from satan’s doom and torment. We are the way that they can be saved in this hour we now live in. If we are deceived into thinking that a magical prayer saved us from hell’s fire, then we won’t live for Christ. We will be in torment later on when we find that so many people we could and would have influenced died the eternal death they would not have had to die had we given our lives for them. We must give our lives for others like He was oh so willing to do.
Wow, isn’t it enlightening that true faith would be that of a life that has been proven? Aren’t we all interested in proof? If we were to drive a car, we’d want it to be proven. If we drink or eat, we’d also want what we receive into our bodies to be proven. If we fly, we’d like for that mode of transportation to have been proven, and so the world wants us to have our faith tried, before they are "sold" on it. If we lose our faith over nothing and it costs nothing for us to keep, then what is its value to anyone else? We are the worth of His suffering, the cost was worth its value to Him. Isn’t it just oh so amazing that Christ endured all of the mental and physical torture and knowing full well the pathway, and knowing full well we would reject Him and His work, we would mock Him , we would scorn Him, put Him off etc. He knew this all by Divine revelation and yet continued through to the end, because of His great love for us. Also, knowing that maybe, someone would obey the Commission, someone would receive Him, and love Him, someone would do His will and help spread the life of His plan in the ages to come. He knew, Do we know Him? Who He is? Who He is and desires to be in us? For us? With us? Ask God for a living breathing, call to action doing type of revelation. He’ll get it to you, no matter what it takes.