<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="1pe+3:13-22">1 Peter 3:13-22</span></span></p><p>As Christians we ought never to forget that the message of the Bible is addressed primarily to the understanding; it enables us to understand life. Because of the Bible, we are able to give a reason for the hope that is within us. The psalmist found the truth of this. In the sanctuary he discovered an explanation for the way that he felt. He was not given a temporary lift that would stay with him for a few hours or a few days - he was given a solution that would stay with him for the rest of his life. It was this, in fact, that caused him to write the psalm we are focusing upon day by day. The words: "Then I understood their final destiny"  (<span class="scriptRef" ref="ps+73:17">Psalm 73:17</span>) suggest that previously he had not been thinking correctly. He had been seeing things from a partial and incomplete perspective, but now "in the sanctuary" he began to see the whole picture: "Then I understood". When? Then - when he came into the sanctuary. There is a line in one of Matthew Arnold's writings that goes like this: "Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole." What a delightful phrase this is. Nothing can be more wonderful than to see life steadily and to see it whole. Much of the inner turmoil we go through in life comes about because we do not see life as a whole. Prejudice has been defined as "seeing only what you want to see". People who are prejudiced say: "I have always seen it that way." That's their problem - their eyes are fixed on just one facet of an issue and they will not allow themselves to look at the other sides. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O Father, help me, for I don't want to be in bondage to prejudice or bigotry - I want to see life whole. We must work this issue out together over these next few days, for apart from You I can do nothing. Help me, Father. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="eph+5:1-20">Ephesians 5:1-20</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="2ti+1:8">2 Timothy 1:8</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>How are we to speak to ourselves?</li><li>What did Paul admonish Timothy?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

" Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have " (v. 15) 

<p>Take this text as your interpreter, and join yourself to the Lord Jesus, as he sets his face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem. With tears he gazes on the city. He endures the contradiction of many sinners; ― Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. He partakes of the passover with Judas. Washes the feet of his disciples. Gives the symbols of his broken body and shed blood to a little company the hope of the world, the elect of mankind, that were about to forsake him and flee. Look at these things under the surprising light of this explanation, that he might bring you to God. </p><p>See him in the garden of Gethsemane. Approach to within a stone's throw of that awful place, and by the light of the pallid moon, notice the agony, the sweat, as it were great drops of blood, the face in the dust, the frequent cry of anguish to the Father. Measure, if you can, the frightful depth of that abyss into which the Prince of life, the Lord of glory, has been willing to descend; and as you measure, remember why all this was ― namely, that he might bring you to God. See this Lamb of God led to the slaughter; follow him step by step, from tribunal to tribunal, to the cross; ask why he opened not his mouth to transfix all his enemies with a word; the answer is, that he might bring you to God. Are there not ten thousand glorious things in the word of God, the true glory of which only comes out when the light of this text is turned upon them? You see how far you were from God. Omnipotence, not merely omnipotence, but self-immolating omnipotence, had to embark in the enterprise of recovering you to God; while all the angels of heaven looked on with wonder and semi-incredulity. </p><p>Why are you brought to God? That he may have a superlative opportunity of showing that God is love, by raising you to the sublimest heights of purity and perfection. </p>

A daily devotional written by a Baptist Missionary to India, Reverend George Bowen (1816-1888) over 150 years ago.

Bowen's Daily Meditations

" That he might bring us to God." ― 1 Peter 3:18. 

<p>The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. § Christ … suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. § The way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.<br><br>I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.<br><br>No one comes to the Father except through Me. § Through Him we … have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. § [Have] boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh. § We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.</p>

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 

<p>He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him … The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all … For the transgressions of My people He was stricken … It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.<br><br>Jesus our Lord … was delivered up because of our offenses. § Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. § [He] Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed.<br><br>He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.<br><br>Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.</p>

Evening Daily Light

 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? 

<p><span class="bible-text "> <sup class="verse-num ">18 </sup>For Christ also suffered once   for sins,   the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.   He was put to death in the body   but made alive in the Spirit.   </span></p>

For Christ also suffered once<cr>1</cr>  for sins,<cr>2</cr>  the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.<cr>3</cr>  He was put to death in the body<cr>4</cr>  but made alive in the Spirit.<cr>5</cr> 

1 Peter 3:18

 18 For Christ also suffered once   for sins,   the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.   He was put to death in the body   but made alive in the Spirit.  

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

<p><span class="bible-text ">For Christ also suffered once   for sins,   the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.   He was put to death in the body   but made alive in the Spirit.   </span></p>

 For Christ also suffered once   for sins,   the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.   He was put to death in the body   but made alive in the Spirit.  

Bible Verse of the Day

March 27, 2023

1 Peter 3:18 NIV

Verse by Verse Bible Study

More on the web

Group of Brands