Today Our Daily Bread 1 Peter 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 Journalin’~
Dear God DO NOT listen to the liar who tries to tell you that there’s nothing left to live for! I’ve listened to that before, and I’ve got to know that that word can only come from a liar, it is NOT the word of my loving Father God, who fills my life with His purposes and gives more and more life to me! (Jn 10:10). Jesus died for purpose to be fulfilled in me here on earth, for purpose to be fulfilled in you here on earth. Do you see here where it says your future, your eternity with God begins now? Now, not later, when we escape all of this and get to heaven. He gives us the opportunity for a brand new life now! We’ve got to take a hold of it, now. We’ve got to realize that life here is not about how much money we can get and make and how much stuff we can buy, but it is all about influence for a God-purposed life and the continual giving of that life, the continual reproducing of that life. I Love how this says, God won’t allow us to get by with sloppy living (note the phrase "get by", isn’t that all some feel is happening in their lives?). If we live sloppily, not intently focused on His plans, we will barely "get by", we’ll wonder why we are just "getting by". We will, by God’s grace, be discontented with where we are at and desire more. This is God’s way of leading us out of where we’ve been and onto where He is taking us. We’ve got to know that what we are desiring is more of Him, not more things or more activities or more satisfaction of this world’s goods. It cost God plenty to get us out of an empty-headed life- headed towards emptiness. Genesis says, FILL the earth! This is God’s Destiny and design for each of us. Our old lives have no bearing on any of this, if we will make changes and go head on with God. This life on earth is truly short term, we’ve got to see how urgent it is that we get on board and fulfill God’s purpose. We will not be "happy" or content until we do.