I Peter 5- Be on the Alert

 ⁶  Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
 ⁷  casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
 ⁸   Be of sober spirit, be on the alert your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
 ⁹  But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
 ¹⁰ After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

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What a great, succinct way to end a book packed with incredible truth. 

Based on all the previous truths I have shared, Peter says, be humble, trust God, be always prepared for battle, have compassion for your fellow believers because God is performing incredible things in your life!

Thank you Lord for working in me, through me and with me.

I Peter 4- Serve with God's Strength

 ¹⁰ As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
 ¹¹ Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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God has blessed each of us, as believers, with a supernatural gift.  There are many things that can be done by our own strength, but none will compare to the ability God has given if we perform it to His glory, by His strength.

I Peter 3- AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD

 ⁸ To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;
 ⁹ not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.
 ¹⁰ For,
         "THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,
         MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.
    ¹¹ "HE MUST TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD;
         HE MUST SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT.
    ¹² "FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS,
         AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER,
         BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL."

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Twice in these five verses Peter reminds believer to avoid evil but also to pursue good or a blessing.  I am amazed at the number of times this has shown up since my first recognition of the concept earlier this year. In fact I cannot go more than a few days without reading in The Word a variation of the same concept...

It must be important if God repeats Himself over and over.  I have read the Bible many times cover to cover and not until this year have I been impacted by this concept. 

Thank you Lord for the teaching, make this a reality in my life and help me to be training my children to behave this way too!

I Peter 2- Advertise with our Behavior

 ¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
 ¹² Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
 ¹³  Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,  ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
 ¹⁵ For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

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I Peter 1- Our Hope

 ¹³ Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
 ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
 ¹⁵ but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
 ¹⁶ because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

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This passage caught my eye and my heart this morning because of the word "hope".  A guest speaker preached at my church yesterday and brought to light the Greek meaning of the word hope.  He brought to light that the word "hope" is not defined the same as the "hope" we use today... (i.e. "I hope I get an "A" on that test", or "I hope you feel better in the morning."   Something that could go either way, but we have a preference for one.)  In the Greek, this word "hope" means "a settled certainty based on the promises of God."  That is a shortened definition, but get's to point across. 

The hope we have in Christ is Perfect in that it is already settled, our sins are forgiven, our Savior was triumphant over the grave so that we can be sure of our eternal position in Christ..

James 4- Double Action Required

 ⁷ Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
 ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

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I am so taken by how often we see this required double action, this two step process, to continue in righteousness.  God has placed before us the perfect plan for successful living.  I have described this before, but it continues to astound me how often Scriptures are repeated in a slightly different way.

1) Submit to God... pursue righteousness.

2) Resist the devil... flee from evil, hate evil.

We cannot live successful without doing both of these actions...  doing one of the two will always result in failure.

Jame 3- Untamable Tounge

⁵ So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
 ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
 ⁷ For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.
 ⁸ But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
 ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;
 ¹⁰ from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

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James 2- Faith does not exist without Works

 ¹⁴  What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
 ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
 ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
 ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

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What is the point in all this?  That Faith always produces righteous works!  However, the opposite is not true...Works does not produce Faith and will not even get you close to Heaven.  Salvation alone is God's plan for our eternal dwelling place with Christ.  The only path to salvation is through Faith which comes from God alone.

James 1- The Word, our Yardstick

 ²¹ Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
 ²² But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
 ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
 ²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
 ²⁵ But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

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Some days I have yearned for a personal road-map of life... you know the special book that tells us exactly what God wants us to do each day.  This one needs to be customized so that I can know what jobs to apply for, which home to buy etc.  You know all the hard choices...

The Living Word of God is that book.  Unfortunately it was not customized for Russ Libby, but with the Holy Spirit working in me while I read God's Word, I have every thing I need for life and godliness.  This is the tool with which we are called to measure our lives by.  Yes the bar is high, in fact something unattainable on our own.  That is the reason for Christ!

Hebrews 13- Remember our Pastors

⁷ Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
...
  ¹⁷ Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

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The calling to the ministry is amazing and full of trials...  We need to remember that and make sure that we are adding to the blessings and not the trials!

Hebrews 12- God's Discipline Yields Rightousness

⁹ Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
 ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
 ¹¹ All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

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Bring on the discipline if that is what it takes to "share in His holiness" and produce "peaceful fruit of righteousness".  I thank God for the learning, growing and changing He has produced in my life.  We must be soft to His will through every situation.  He is sovereign and uses life's situations to train, discipline and mold us.  We are much better off rolling with His teaching than working so diligently to do what we want, and failing.  God has only our best interest in mind and more importantly does all things for His own glory!

Hebrews 11- Pleasing God

 ⁵ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
 ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

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The encouraging Faith Chapter...This verse really stood out to me this morning because I had just heard a similar statement last night during our Churches Summer Series.  The speaker had been impacted as an early believer by the statements found in scripture where different people had "pleased God".   This is another of those statements.  Enoch seems to be a man to study... If you did not notice above it was not a single action that pleased God, but was in a constant state of pleasing God.  Continually... what an incredible testimony to have.

Hebrews 10- Christ's Sacrifice is Final

 ⁵Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,
         "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED,
         BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;
    ⁶IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.
    ⁷"THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME
         (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)
         TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"
 ⁸After saying above, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them" (which are offered according to the Law),
 ⁹then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.
 ¹⁰By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

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Hebrews 9- Our Calling to an Eternal Inheritance

 ¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
 ¹² and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
 ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
 ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
 ¹⁵ For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

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Hebrews 8- Christ Heavenly Ministry

 ⁶ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

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What an Awesome God we serve, Who has placed His Son, Christ, as the mediator for each of us.  We are able to go directly to Jesus with our thanksgiving, worries, requests and to seek forgiveness.

Hebrews 7- Christ: Our Hope and Salvation

 ¹⁸ For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness
 ¹⁹ (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

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Jesus Christ had to come to this earth to save us from our sin because, as Scripture points out repeatedly, the Law made (or can make) NOTHING perfect.  God requires nothing less than perfection!  Being good by our own (or our parents) standard does not even get God's attention.  The only thing our own efforts can produce is sin.

Think about it...  If I work really hard to be good, who am I impressing?  Not God, likely myself, maybe some others... Okay, so what does that produce?  Pride, false confidence, false hope.  No matter what we do on our own, it is doomed to produce sin in our lives!

The only thing which we can confidently place our trust in is Jesus Christ.  That is the Hope being spoken of in vs. 19, through which we can draw near to GOD.  What an amazing concept!  Even though God demands perfection, He has created a path through the "red tape" and enabled us to be forgiven, IF WE DO NOTHING ON OUR OWN, BUT ALLOW CHRIST TO WORK IN US!

Has anything similar been done in all of history?  I doubt it...You deserve eternal death, but if you let Me do everything for you, I will reward you with eternal life in the presence of Christ & God.  ...wow...

Hebrews 4- The Word & Our Christ

 ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
 ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
 ¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
 ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
 ¹⁶ Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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