First Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Devotional: 1 Peter 1:13-21

Today’s passage: 1 Peter 1:13-21

Helpful thoughts:

  • Hoping in Jesus is not a mystical or mindless action.  We are called on to prepare our minds for action and to be sober-minded.
  • We do not seek holiness it to earn eternal life. We seek holiness because our Father is holy.
  • We do not have eternal life because of our holiness or righteousness.  We have eternal life because God the Son, who was before the creation of the world, took on humanity/flesh and died in our place.  He rose from the dead and is glorified in Heaven right now.

Questions to consider:

  1. How does thinking about the Gospel (And believing in Jesus!) cause us to hope in Him alone?  How does preaching the Gospel to yourself change your perspective from a self-centered hope to God-centered hope?
  2. How does thinking about the Gospel (And believing in Jesus!) cause us to pursue holiness?  Why will we be more successful in our pursuit of holiness by acknowledging God’s initiating grace (God-centered hope) than by our own efforts (Self-centered hope)?
  3. How does our Gospel-centered, God-centered pursuit of holiness help us in times of suffering?  Did God command us to pursue a lack of suffering or to pursue holiness?  Can you pursue holiness while you suffer?

Devotional: 1 Peter 1:10-12

Today’s passage: 1 Peter 1:10-12

Helpful thoughts:

  • The coming of the Messiah was not a new idea.  The Old Testament points to Jesus.
  • What the Old Testament prophets only looked forward to and imagined happened right before the Apostles’ eyes and now we look back in history, seeing all of God’s promises kept.
  • The Holy Spirit is the agent of revelation, the preaching of the Gospel through the Word of God.
  • The Lord’s angels have never experienced salvation from sin…they have not sinned.  God’s work of grace in our lives fascinates them.

Questions to consider:

  1. How does the record of prophecies fulfilled and promises kept by God give you assurance and confidence?
  2. How did the Holy Spirit bring you the Word for salvation?  How did you hear the Gospel message when you first believed?
  3. Are the angels fascinated with how amazing we are because we are Christians or how amazing God is because He saved us?  How does that truth help us to remember to stay humble?

Devotional: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Today’s passage: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Helpful thoughts:

  • Our hope is alive because Jesus is alive.
  • Trials are:
    • Worth grieving (This passage never says not to grieve)
    • Temporary
    • Refining
    • Resulting in praise
    • Pointers to our purest and highest joys yet to be seen in eternity (Trials make us yearn for glory!)

Questions to consider:

  1. Who caused you to be born again?  Who’s power guards and keeps your faith and salvation secure?
  2. Who gets an inheritance?  Who’s child are you?
  3. Why is it possible to have joy and grieve at the same time?  Which emotion rules in the end for the Christian?

Devotional: 1 Peter 1:1-2

Today’s passage: 1 Peter 1:1-2

Helpful thoughts:

  • Christians are elect/chosen, and they are exiles/aliens dispersed in a foreign land.
  • “Foreknowledge” does not mean that God looked forward in time and elected us because He discovered we would choose Him.  God is eternal and omniscient.  It means God knew us before we knew Him (Relationship), because He is eternal and omniscient…and gracious.
  • “Sanctification” means set apart.
    • We were set apart by God to be:
      • Obedient to Christ (Progressive Sanctification)
      • Washed by His blood (Positional Sanctification or Justification)

Questions to consider:

  1. Who had the idea and did the work for our salvation?  And, not just salvation in general, but your salvation?
  2. What part did each Person of the Trinity play in your salvation?
  3. How might the reality of being an exile in this world change the way you think about your day and relationships today?

Devotional: Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

Helpful thoughts:

  • The Word of God is the one collection of writings that we can wholly trust.  Everything else we read must be run through the grid of Scripture.
  • The number of books we read is not the measure of our spiritual growth.  Fear God and keep His commandments.
  • God is our judge.  No person on the face of this earth…no friend, no enemy, no group of kids from school, no coworkers will ever be our judge.

Questions to consider:

  1. In the previous passage, we were told to remember our Creator in our youth.  These verses tell how to remember our Creator.  How do we remember and learn about our Creator?
  2. Why does the Word of God sometimes feel painful (Like an ox’s goad or a board of nails)?  When does this pain keep us away from God’s Word and when does this pain “Hurt so good”?
  3. Why should we love and read the Word of God with more gravity and attention than we read other books, news sources, or social media?  How do our actions in these areas work to reveal our loves and our fear/worship?

Devotional: Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Helpful thoughts:

  • God does not exist for our good pleasure, we exist for His.
  • Thinking of the future helps us to live better in the present.
  • The imagery in verses 2-7 convey the aging, growing old of a person.
    • The eyes dim
    • Our bodies weaken
    • We may grow fearful and recluse/lonely
    • Our hair whitens (Almond tree blossoms)
    • Our bodies break and give way and our life pours out
      • The sweetness of these years is the fruit and memories of a life well lived for the Lord, and the eagerness of going home and seeing Jesus face to face.
      • The “vanity” is the vapor that is life.  It’s here and its gone.  Don’t wait to start living the way your old self will have wished you lived.

Questions to consider:

  1. If God is my creator than who has the best idea how I could best live this vapor of a life?  How should that change my thinking, my values, my interests, my planning, my actions…everything?
  2. How does thinking about the future beyond retirement help us to plan accordingly for retirement?  How might it change some of our plans?
  3. How does our salvation in Christ totally liberate us from a life that just pours out onto the ground and dissipates when we die?  How amazing is it to be a child of God!?!

Devotional: Ecclesiastes 11:1-10

Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 11:1-10

Helpful thoughts:

  • If you cast out your goods, you may or may not have access to it later.  But when you give a portion of your goods, you can be sure it was put to good use.
  • The world is full of cause and effect.  If we wait around for the perfect scenario to do anything, the effect will be that we have done nothing.
  • Rejoice in the good days and look at the big picture of life so that we can even rejoice during the dark days.
    • Part of Solomon’s reminder of God’s judgement is our command to rejoice.  God commands us to have joy in the life He has given us.
    • We do not have to be told to follow our hearts…we always do what we do because we want what we want.  When we are rejoicing in the Lord, our hearts and eyes will delight in the right path.

Questions to consider:

  1. How could we apply verses 5 & 6 to our work?  What would be wiser than thinking we have a sure solution to any work-related problem?
  2. Given the context of this passage, how could we successfully put away vexation (Think grumpiness) and evil?
  3. Knowing that everyone has “light” days and “dark” days, why are some people grumpy and some joyful?  What makes the difference? (See Philippians 4:10-13)

Devotional: Ecclesiastes 10:1-20

Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 10:1-20

Helpful thoughts:

  • Verse 1 sums up verse 17-18 of chapter 9
  • Verses 2-7 teach that even though wisdom and foolishness are easy to behold/differentiate, fools will often still be elevated and the wise will often still be forgotten.
  • Verses 8-11 are a unit.  They teach the likelihood of being endangered whether you are working mischievously or honorably…but emphasize the greater prospects of working honorably and planning ahead.
  • Verses 12-15 convey the uselessness of the fool’s counsel.  They won’t stop talking and can’t even successfully give you directions into town.
  • Verses 16-20 speak of the value of hard work and diligence both in governmental leadership and in personal practice.
    • Verse 19 could be taken out of context in a bad way…money is not the answer to everything.  But, you need money to pay for everything you buy.

Questions to consider:

  1. There is much to consider from this proverbial chapter…what thoughts stick out the most to you?
  2. How does this chapter summarize and apply much of the content from the book of Ecclesiastes?
  3. How would you apply these principles to your work, home, family, etc.?

Devotional: Ecclesiastes 9:11-18

Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 9:11-18

Helpful thoughts:

  • “Man does not know his time.”  We can try to plan, and we can benefit from planning.  But planning is not guaranteeing…it’s just planning.
  • The wise man in the city was not heard until he was desperately needed.  Then, he was forgotten as soon as the threat was gone.  His wisdom now despised and his words unheard.
    • This doesn’t mean wisdom is inferior, it just isn’t desired because of sin.

Questions to consider:

  1. Should we quit planning altogether since we do not have control over our ultimate ability to execute it? (James 4:13-17)  What should we plan to do?
  2. Why do we have to call reading our Bibles a discipline?  Why do we have to train ourselves to read it?
  3. How can we prove that living with wisdom is better than living as a foolish ruler under the sun?  Why must our faith and delighting in Jesus be our motivation?