"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." - 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian used mightily by God in the First Great Awakening, understood what it meant to live with eternity in mind. As a young man, he developed what he called "70 Resolu...  Read More

"But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers." - 1 Peter 4:7 (NKJV)I was probably eight or nine years old when the reality of eternity first gripped my heart. That Sunday night, after getting in trouble during children's ministry, I found myself sitting with my parents as they showed "A Thief in the Night"—one of those rapture movies similar to the moder...  Read More

"In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." - 1 Peter 4:4-5 (NKJV)If we truly are living the life that God wants for us as His children, we need to recognize that the old self is gone, and I no longer live the same lifestyle. The new ...  Read More

"For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries." - 1 Peter 4:3 (NKJV)I will never forget that my dad gave his life to Christ in his thirties, and he was completely transformed. I was born when he was 40, so I never knew the version of him before his conversion. I...  Read More

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)C.H. Spurgeon would personally interview new converts or those interested in membership. Instead of just coming forward like people do today, he would talk to each person individually during the week, ask questions, and decide whether to accept or r...  Read More

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." - Romans 6:11-12 (NKJV)A young child gets hurt on the playground and comes up to their parent crying like something terminal has happened to them. The parent looks the child over real good. They don't see any rea...  Read More

"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." - 1 Peter 4:1 (NKJV)  When we watch two athletes of comparable skill, we often notice that one wins while the other does not. As spectators or coaches, we might think, "This person didn’t show up to play." We may use phrases like "Get your head i...  Read More

"Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him." - 1 Peter 3:22 (NKJV)There's a story about one of our presidents who would bring in future ambassadors to certain countries. He would go over to a globe and ask, "Now, where is your country?" That ambassador sometimes would point out the country he was being sent to. Each ...  Read More

"Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." - Romans 6:4 (NKJV)Nik Ripken, in his book "The Insanity of God," tells of a woman named Samira who lived in a heavily persecuted area. Through a series of visions and dreams, God led her to missionaries who explain...  Read More

"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." - 1 Peter 3:20 (NKJV)Peter uses Noah as his chief example for these persecuted believers, and this wasn't accidental. Noah was the most popular or well-known of all biblical figures in Asia Minor, even to t...  Read More

"By whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared." - 1 Peter 3:19-20 (NKJV)This is where the waters get weighty, where we've got to be slow enough to really assimilate what's going on. After Jesus said, "It is finished," and after He said, "Into Your hands I co...  Read More

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." - 1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV)Sometimes we can live in a place for so long that we lose our gratitude for where we live. We become so accustomed to our freedoms that we forget what a gift they truly are. The same thing happens with our faith. In the...  Read More