Focal Passage: I Peter 3:13-22  As Christians our lives should draw a clear line between good and evil. Our suffering should be for the sake of righteousness and our testimony should affirm the same truth. First Peter 3:15 puts “Lord” first (the emphatic position), revealing the Lordship of Christ to be first and foremost in Peter’s mind. Nothing calls us to righteous living like worshiping Christ as Lord.  When we

Focal Passage: I Peter 2:11-17, 21-25  Most transient people have one thing in common – they travel lightly. How often have you seen a hitchhiker pulling a wagon? They tend to have the clothes on their backs and only a few very portable possessions, because they know they are just passing through.  Peter addressed his readers as “strangers and exiles” in this world and exhorted them to “abstain from sinful

Focal Passage: I Peter 3:1-12   Submit is not a dirty word, but some Christians have tried hard to redefine it. As Jerry Vines said, “they use our vocabulary, but not our dictionary.” Ephesians 5:21 tells us we should submit to one another “in the fear of Christ.”  If our lives are guided by the worship of Jesus, our attitudes should match. Instead of fearing that we will be disadvantaged,

Focal Passage: I Peter 2:11-17, 21-25  Most transient people have one thing in common – they travel lightly. How often have you seen a hitchhiker pulling a wagon? They tend to have the clothes on their backs and only a few very portable possessions, because they know they are just passing through.  Peter addressed his readers as “strangers and exiles” in this world and exhorted them to “abstain from sinful

Focal Passage: I Peter 2:1-10   Have you ever noticed the singular focus of a baby’s diet? While we as adults are scarfing down pizza, cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese and an endless list of other foods that are not good for us, newborn babies simply want milk (or a close substitute).  Give them a few months and they will be willing to expand their pallets a bit. Give them a

Focal Passage: I Peter 1:13-25  I learned a hard lesson on conformity before I reached the age of ten. However, I was past twenty before I realized that conformity was the problem. It happened one day when I was pushing my toy tractor through our gravel driveway.  Between my excessive speed and the size of the gravel, one of my front wheels made a sudden turn and snapped off. After

Focal Passage: I Peter 1:3-12  An earthly inheritance is simply the reception of someone else’s stuff, usually after their death. An inheritance can be so highly valued (either real or perceived) that people build their lives in anticipation of receiving it.  I grew up near a family that courted a neighbor’s property for three generations! The man who finally inherited the sizable estate died before he could enjoy it. An

Focal Passage: Leviticus 26:1-13  When I was young the Coca-Cola company created a contest that challenged customers to find four bottle caps with each having a word that created the phrase, “Coke the real thing.” As you might imagine, my older sister and I examined every Coke cap we could find but could only spell, “Coke the thing.” The “real” was nowhere to be found.  I don’t remember how much

Focal Passage: Leviticus 16:1-10, 29-30  Liberal theologians reject the idea that God would sacrifice His own Son as our substitute (II Corinthians 5:21) to appease His own wrath toward sinners, calling it “slaughter house religion” that is beneath the loving God of the Bible. Yet even a cursory reading of the Old Testament law reveals a people whose lives centered around the sacrificial system.  The unfolding of Old Covenant revelation

Focal Passage: Colossians 3:1-5, 12-17  The Apostle Paul was put in prison for preaching the Gospel. While there he wrote letters to encourage the faithful; one of those four ‘prison epistles’ is the New Testament book of Colosssians.  This letter was written to exhort believers in the town of Colossee not to be taken in by a current heresy that belittled the Lord Jesus Christ; it claimed that Christ was