Resist evil and it will flee! Darkness cannot exist in the light of God’s truth.
1 Peter 5:8-11
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. The New King James Version
1 Peter 3:20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
In the death of Jesus His atoning blood broke the veil that separated us from God. For 120 years Noah worked on the ark. The people knew that something was coming but not exactly what. So are the days of our lives. We do not know what the end will bring. But there will always be a core of believers, a remnant, that will be spared.
Genesis 6:13 13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
We know that the earth was filled with violence in days of Noah. God instructed Noah in the building of the ark. Because of the pitch that sealed the ark, a representation of the blood of Christ, making the ark a foreshadow of salvation, a safe haven, for those who believed and obeyed His voice.
Faith heals, complete faith in the power of Jesus Christ saves totally those who choose to accept Him.
2 Peter 3:15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation
Paul wrote of the revelations given to him by Christ for him to share with others the mysteries of salvation. The Jewish believers found some of them hard to understand especially that His salvation extended to any Gentile who would choose to believe in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
Baptism means “placed into” something.
The human body is made up of many parts that make up one body. Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Body of Christ as one of the many parts or members of His Body.
The new testament uses both “Satan” and “devil” as terms for the chief figure of evil in the Bible. The Hebrew term satan used in the ot means “adversary”. Peter alerts his audience to the devil’s constant threat to the people of God. Within the wider context of the passage, Peter’s use of animal imagery depicts God’s people as vulnerable sheep in desperate need of their shepherd’s protection from all sorts of threats, including persecution and preying animals like the devil. Believers throughout the Roman empire were suffering both localized persecution as well as opposition from the devil. Peter offers his audience a final word of comfort. He reminds them that God will empower and ultimately glorify those who remain steadfast in their faith under the weight of their present suffering. Faithlife Study Bible
Be sober means to be self-disciplined, to think rationally and not foolishly. Be vigilant means to be alert to the spiritual pitfalls of life and take appropriate steps to make certain that we do not stumble.
Satan is our avowed enemy. He never ceases from being hostile toward us; he is constantly accusing us before God. Satan is both cunning and cruel. He attacks when least expected and desires to destroy completely those whom he attacks. We are not commanded to run, but to resist—to fight rather than flee. Victory comes when we remain committed to God, because He is greater than our enemy.
Like a doctor setting a broken bone, God will mend our broken lives and make us whole. God will make our way stable, despite the instability we feel living in a world that inflicts suffering upon us. God will give us the ability to succeed in all that we do for Him. As a consequence of our facing the attacks of our enemy, God will build in us a firm foundation that will make us steadfast and immovable. The NKJV Study Bible
James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
2 Timothy 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
1 Corinthians 1:9–10 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Colossians 2:5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
…humility produces honor, but arrogance leads to ruin. His rule will have no end (Luke 1:33). And we have great hope in knowing He gives grace to the humble and faithfully acts as a righteous Judge for the good of His children. First 5
We can learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Teshuvah—repentence, response, return—is the ability to move, to change course, to come back to center, to reconcile.
Tefillah—prayer—is the ability to let the world take your breath away, to hold onto and to articulate gratitude, hope, and awe.
Tzedakah—righteousness—is the ability to pursue justice and to act from a fountain of generosity.
"We take with us the truth that we must cede power, but we don’t cede all of it. Even when we can’t change the plot, it is the strength of our character that can make the story rich and strong. It is not what will happen to you that makes your life meaningful. That power is in your hands, as you cultivate the self to whom it will happen.” Rabbi Helen Plotkin.Thank you Rabbi. That does my heart good. Sabbath Moments
Christians, however, hold to this inscrutable and beautiful promise: our teacher not only spoke, but he speaks. His wisdom is not confined to an ancient document but is part of the day-to-day curriculum of our mentor, the Holy Spirit. Max Lucado
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