August 30, 2024
This week's verses are 1 Peter 3:21-22.
Original from December 28, 2024
Take Time to Pray
Dear Lord
Taking a break from what feels like the pressures of life is one thing. Taking a break from my time in Your Word is never a good idea. It sours my mood and unsettles my heart. I lose perspective and focus on the negative, not my blessings. Forgive me for my negligence and my sinful mistreatment of the gift of Your Word and presence in my life.
Examine
21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and power in submission to Him.
Note: The water being referred to in verse 21 is spoken of in verse 20 as the water of The Flood in Noah’s time.
Notice
God
· God is our Savior.
· God is powerful.
· God washes clean.
Lesson
· Our sin is washed away in baptism just as God washed away the sin on earth with The Flood.
· Jesus Christ’s resurrection in our path to righteousness.
· Jesus Is God and reigns over everything from Heaven.
· Baptism is back by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Note: These verses come at the end of a passage that started with the topic of suffering for doing good. It then speaks of the correct response of defending our faith with wisdom and gentleness. It then discusses Jesus’s resurrection, His trip to hell to preach to those killed by The Flood and then switches to baptism.
Do/Thoughts
· 1 Peter 3:13-22 is an interesting train of thought that seems to wind up in a different place than it started, but is logical in the path.
· The passage starts with suffering for good and ends with baptism. How many people have suffered for the simple act of being baptized?
· Baptism is an amazing gift of God that blesses us each and every day, but we treat it with indifference.
Question
· What does baptism mean to me?
· How can I live my life differently, remembering my baptism every day?
Response
· It reminds me of my earthly dad’s love as well as my Heavenly Father’s love. My dad loved me enough to have me baptized thought it may have caused conflict. God sent his Son Jesus to die for my sins, which caused them immeasurable pain.
· I was washed clean from all of my sins – past, present, and future.
· Baptism reminds me of how loved and important I am.
How can I live my life differently?
· A prayer each day remembering my baptism.
August 30, 2024
Prayer:
Psalm 27: 7-8
7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of You, "Seek His face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
I find so much meaning in Peter identifying the flood as a symbol of baptism. Baptism washes away our sin, whereas the flood washed away all the sin (and sinful people) populating the earth at the time. Baptism saves us from our sin and the flood saved Noah and his family from a wicked world of sin. Baptism comes with a promise that we are adopted into God's family as sons and daughters. After the flood, God promised that He would never destroy the earth with a flood again.
Baptism alone is not enough to save us. We need Jesus' death and resurrection to make it complete. Baptism brings faith, but faith in what? Faith in God, our Heavenly Father. Faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Faith in the Holy Spirit who connects us to God. Baptism cannot be separated from Jesus' death and resurrection.
Jesus died and rose again. He was here on earth for a while after His resurrection, but then He rose to Heaven. There He reigns at the right hand of God the Father. Everyone and everything is submissive to Him, including angels and miraculous powers.
What is this teaching me about God?
God gave baptism as a means of saving grace. Baptism is something that God does for us - not something we do for Him.
In Jesus' name,
God's Blessings
댓글