Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Verse of the Day: A Call to Persevere Jude 17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. 20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. 22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Reflection: The author here continues to describe a process in which the early Jewish Christians could avoid false teaching, and avoid “apostasy”. Apostasy is those who have either left the faith, or really never had true faith to begin with. We see the connect...

Verse of the Day: 3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Reflection: Jude like some of the other later books of the New Testament writes about a heresy that cropped up in the early church. It was a perversion of the gospel which basically said you are forgiven so that gives one license for all kinds of immorality. At its root it denies Jesus as Lord and makes the person lord because they do whatever they want when they want. Jude calls these types of people irrational beasts and warns of their effect on the church. How can this happen today? It is all to easy to cheapen ...

Verse of the Day: 3 John 5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth. 9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. Reflection: The author of 3 John describes two types of people in the early church. First, he mentions Gaius, who he says is faithful to do good things for the brothers and sisters even though they are not part of his flock. He ...

Verse of the Day: 16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. 18 Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep. Reflection: There was a reason Daniel was so successful as the person the king made the manager over the 120 satraps who ruled over the kingdom. It says that three times a week Daniel prayed to God. When the other men tried to find anything corrupt in Daniel because of their jealousy of him, they could not find anything as he lived a life completely above reproach. So they reasoned the only way we can trip this guy up is in regard to the Law of His God. They kn...

Verses of the Day: Daniel 3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual 20 and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. 21 So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. 22 The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 23 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” 25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the go...

Verse of the Day: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. Reflection: As John seeks to define what a true believer is in the first century church, he uses the gold standard of belief in Jesus expressed not only in words but actions. In fact, he says this is how you can know that you are a believer and part of God's family. A believer has two primary relationships, his or her relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ and the other people in their life I.e.family, friends, co-workers and those they come upon in need of help. Then to make it crystal clear, he defines what love is. He defines it through the life of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life fo...

Verse of the Day: 1 John 3:4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Reflection: These verses and the ones that follow it are challenging to say the least. If not interpreted correctly and put in the right context they could be used harmfully. On the one hand, we mustn't deny the plain meaning of the apostle John's inspired words to the early church. The key area of reflection is the two instances of "keep on sinning" and "continues to sin". How we approach the interpretation of these phrases will guide how we apply them to our lives. And in this case there are two extremes to hold in tension. The first one is to say if anyone sins they must not be a Christian. Can you imagine what that would be like if every time we sinned we were in d...

Verse of the Day: 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2 NIV Reflection: In treating addiction, which is so prevalent in our world today, any expert will tell you that the biggest battle is against a dark and sinister force. What is it called? Denial! As the old joke goes no that is not a river in Egypt. In the addict's life denial keeps them from ever admitting they have a problem. And any expert in the recovery movement will tell you that unless an addict is willing to admit they are powerless over whatever it is that is running their life, they will not get help. They will remain stuck in their addiction. Our verse today describes the origin of this proble...

Verse of the Day: 15-17 Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.1 John 2 The Message Reflection: It is important to note right away that when the apostle John warns the early church not to love the world he is NOT saying don't love the people in the world! He is saying don't love, as Eugene Petersen's Message aptly translates the verse, the world's ways and the world's goods. More importantly is why he says this. Love of the world squeezes out our love for God and conversely love for others. Love of the things of the world, the pride of the eyes, the lust of the flesh; leads to a ...