Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here to Listen to or Read the One Year Bible Lessons 2 Corinthians 3:1-5 "Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not! 2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. 3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. 4 We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. 5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God." Epistles of commendation: Such letters were common and necessary in the early church. A false prophet or apostle could travel from city to city

Click Here to Listen to Or Read the One Year Bible Lessons Job 28: 23 “God alone understands the way to wisdom;   he knows where it can be found  24 for he looks throughout the whole earth  and sees everything under the heavens.  25 He decided how hard the winds should blow  and how much rain should fall.  26 He made the laws for the rain  and laid out a path for the lightning.  27 Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it.  He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.  28 And this is what he says to all humanity:  ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;  to forsake evil is real understanding.’ ” Today's passage in Job 28 talks about the value of wisdom. This makes sense because the book of Job is under the biblical category of "wisdom literature". Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs are all books in the bible referred to as "wisdom literature".  "Wisdom is a capacity of the mind that allows us to understand life from God's perspective ." NIV B

  Click Here to Listen to or Read the One Year Bible Lessons 2 Corinthians 1:17-20  You may be asking why I changed my plan. Do you think I make my plans carelessly? Do you think I am like people of the world who say “Yes” when they really mean “No”? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” 19 For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” He is the one whom Silas,[d] Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. 20 For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. How many of you have friends who initially say "yes" when they commit to do something with you, and then have a tendency to cancel and say "no". You are never quite sure if you can count on them, because they are what we often call "flaky". Whereas there are other people

Click Here To LIsten To or Read The One Year Bible Daily Readings 2 Corithians 2:3-7 God Offers Comfort to All 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us . This is a very significant passage for us to dwell on in the New Testament. Paul teaches on how God comforts us in our suffering, so that we can comfort others when they are suffering. First, we know tha

Click Here to Listen or Read Today's One Year Bible Lessons Psalm 40 For the choir director: A psalm of David. 1 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,     and he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair,     out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground     and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing,     a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed.     They will put their trust in the Lord. I don't know about you, but I am impatient at times. Like many in our culture, " I want it now! " And sometimes we get that way with God. We say, " What have you done for me lately God ?" We want God to be like a vending machine where we put in a dollar and push what candy bar we want to come out. But God doesn't work that way. God responds to those who wait patiently for Him. As we wait patiently for him it shows we trust him.  As David waited patiently on th

Click Here to Read or Listen to the One Year Bible Lessons for Today Job Wants to Argue His Case with God - Job 13:1-6 13 “Look, I have seen all this with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, and now I understand. 2 I know as much as you do. You are no better than I am. 3 As for me, I would speak directly to the Almighty. I want to argue my case with God himself. 4 As for you, you smear me with lies. As physicians, you are worthless quacks. 5 If only you could be silent! That’s the wisest thing you could do. 6 Listen to my charge; pay attention to my arguments. Job is fed up with his advisors who continue to give him really no advice at all. They aren't telling him anything new, and in particular nothing which is of any help to him. As for Job, he wants to speak with God himself. He realizes they are all helpless sinners and God is infinitely greater, wiser, and more all knowing than them.  He says Job 12:13,  “But true wisdom and power are found in God;  counsel and understa

Click Here to Listen to or Read the One Year Bible Lessons for Today   Job 10:18-20 “‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb?     Why didn’t you let me die at birth? 19 It would be as though I had never existed,     going directly from the womb to the grave. 20 I have only a few days left, so leave me alone,     that I may have a moment of comfort 21 before I leave—never to return—     for the land of darkness and utter gloom. 22 It is a land as dark as midnight,     a land of gloom and confusion,     where even the light is dark as midnight.’” Many of you know the story of Job. Job was reduced to sitting amidst the rubble of his once-prosperous life. The verses above show how desperate he really was. You might say he was hopeless and helpless. And, his friends didn't help him much either. They kept telling them to stop blaming God and admit that he was the cause of his own problems.  Job was at a point many people get to in life. Things go wrong and even though you ha

Click Here To Listen or Read the One Year Bible Lessons for Today   1 Corinthians 14:22-25 22  So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers.   23  Even so, if unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your church meeting and hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy.   24  But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say.   25  As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.” Paul continues his teaching to the Corinthian church about the use and role of the gift of speaking in tongues. He is specifically addressing whether someone should speak in tongues during a worship service. Note Paul affirms

Click Here to Listen to and Read the Lessons fir Today’s One Year Bible Lessons   4  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud   5  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.   6  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.   7  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love never fails. Although this passage is usually read at weddings, Paul includes this teaching in the middle of his teaching on spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 14. It is sandwiched between the two chapters   Since Paul is addressing the prideful ways in which the Corinthians were using their gifts, especially the supernatural ones, he needed to remind them that it is not just what they were doing but also HOW and WHY!  Paul states no matter how powerful or exciting a particular ministry was, if it was not done with love it was only a “noisy g

  Click Here to Read or Listen To The One Year Bible Lessons for Today! per 1 Corinthians 12: 4  There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.   5  There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.   6  God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.  7  A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. Today Paul teaches on the concept of spiritual gifts perhaps one of the more widely misunderstood aspects of the Christian faith. Simply put a spiritual gift is a divine enablement God has given us to help the church grow. It is a specific gift God has given to each believer to use, as we work with others in the church to grow his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven   As Paul teaches, though we each have DIFFERENT gifts, they all come from the SAME LORD!  There is no classification of certain gifts like speaking in tongues over and above for instance the gift of helpi

  Click Here to Listen to or Read the One Year Bible Lessons for Tuesday, August 16t h 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 31  So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.   32  Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God.   33  I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. Though the context of these verses relate to the issue of eating meat which had been offered to idols in the marketplace, this principle applies to all of the decisions we make in life, either big or small.  Since the requirements of the Law had been satisfied on the cross by Jesus, we are set free from the law.  As we use the freedom we have been given in Christ we need to always be asking this question, " Is what I am about to do going to give glory to God?"    If our decisions give glory to God they will also encourage and build up our brothers and sisters in Christ. G

  Click Here to Listen to or Read the Lessons from the One Year Bible for Today Paul’s Use of His Freedom 19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. One of the biggest themes in all of Paul's writings is the freedom of the Christian. We know Paul was a strict, legalistic Pharisee who spent his early life hunting down and persecuting the early Christians. He

Click Here to Listen To or Read the One Year Bible Lessons 1 Corinthians 7:32-40 32 I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. 33 But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. 34 His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible. 36 But if a man thinks that he’s treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes. It is not a sin. 37 But if he has decided firmly not to marry and there is no urgency and he can co

Click Here to Listen To or Read the Lessons Instruction on Marriage 1 Corinthians 7:1-9 7 Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter. Yes, it is good to abstain from sexual relations.2 But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. 4 The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 But I wish everyone were single, just as I am. Yet each person has a special gift from God, of one kind or anot

Click Here to Listen to or Read the Lessons 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 We know that sexual immorality was rampant in the city of Corinth. We know that the Corinthians were already proud of a man who had sex with his father's wife. At the very least they didn't do anything about it. One of the ways they rationalized their freedom to commit sexual immorality was that just as they were free from the food restrictions of the Old Testament, should they not be free from the restriction to have sex with only their wives. Note this was mainly a freedom that the men exercised not the women.  But Paul says, " Not so fast ". The difference b

Click Here to Listen to or Read the Lessons for Today 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 5 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.  3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit.And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. Yesterday Paul addressed the church at Corinth pointed out that they were pridefully becoming dependant on a person rather than God. Some sai

Click here to listen to or read today's readings! Paul’s Relationship with the Corinthians Romans 4:1-5  So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries. 2 Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. 3 As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. 4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. 5 So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. Most of us are interested in what other people think of us. It is quite natural and in and of itself there is nothing wrong with it, if done in a healthy way. But often when we interpret other's evaluation of us it puts us in one