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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Peter 2:1-12

Set – 1 Peter 2-3

Go! – 1 Peter 1-5

1 Peter 2:1-12
¹ So get rid of hatefulness and deception, of insincerity and jealousy and slander. ² Be like newborn babies, crying out for spiritual milk that will help you grow into salvation ³ if you have tasted and found the Lord to be good.
⁴ Come to Him—the living stone—who was rejected by people but accepted by God as chosen and precious. ⁵ Like living stones, let yourselves be assembled into a spiritual house, a holy order of priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus the Anointed. ⁶ For it says in the words of the prophet Isaiah,
See here—I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious;
Whoever depends upon Him will never be disgraced.
⁷ To you who believe and depend on Him, He is precious; but to you who don’t, remember the words of the psalmist:
The stone that the builders rejected
has been laid as the cornerstone—the very stone that holds together the entire foundation,
⁸ and of Isaiah:
A stone that blocks their way,
a rock that trips them.
They stumble because they don’t follow the word of God, as they were destined to do.
⁹ But you are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received it.
¹¹ Beloved, remember you don’t belong in this world. You are resident aliens living in exile, so resist those desires of the flesh that battle against the soul. ¹² Live honorably among the outsiders so that, even when some may be inclined to call you criminals, when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when He returns in judgment.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Peter addresses his modern world. Many of his day assumed they would not like this new Christian religion because of its freedom from the rules established by Moses centuries before. So they fought against Peter and his compatriots. They assumed faith in Me as the living God-Man, born of woman and of God could not be who I showed them I was and could not do the things I did even when they saw it with their own eyes or heard it from the lips of eyewitnesses.

Many were afraid of what others might think of them if they abandoned the religion they pledged their allegiance to as children or young adults feared the isolation from their old religious order more than they feared the living God, as My Spirit spoke to them convicting and convincing them of sin. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Unfortunately, the same conditions exist today.

You fear what others think far more than you fear Me. You listen to the voice of religious leaders than you listen to My voice. You follow the fancies of men instead of following the precepts of My word. I look around and even in My church, I find hatefulness, deceiption, insincerity, jealousy, and slander. These characteristics might be expected from those outside the walls the cathedrals built for My worship, but from those who gather to worship Me? From those who call themselves Christian? How can I tolerate such behavior?

The answer is, I can’t and I won’t. The title by which you call yourself makes no difference to Me. It is your behavior and your heart that I watch and see. I know when you love Me and worship Me. I know when your prayers are sincere or just for the hearing of those around you. I know you better than you know yourself. And there will be a test at the end of time. I will judge your heart.

So what should you do? Peter tells you. Come to Me like babies crying out for spiritual milk if you have tasted Me and found I am good. And you will. Then like growing children, be curious about Me. Learn My language of love for others. Engross yourself in My word and you will find more than ample demonstrations of My grace and mercy and love to mimic as you reach out into the world around you to minister to My creation, the people lost in their sins and blinded by the veil Satan puts over their eyes.

Become one of the spiritual stones that make up the spiritual house in which I dwell. Each of you plays a significant role, no one more important than another, but I am the cornerstone and on My foundation, you together for the spiritual edifice for true worship. But how can you fill that role if you are unwilling to allow the Master Builder to place you in the perfect spot to erect the walls and floors and windows and doors of the edifice. The Master Builder knows just what to do with each stone.

He knows where to place you in His plan. You were called out of darkness into the light of His glory to fill that perfect spot in His perfect plan for your life. Don’t give up. Don’t ease off. Don’t retire from your task. Fulfill your place in the spiritual house I am building for us for all eternity.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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