Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson 2026

Peter 1:10-12 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. As Peter is encouraging the early believers to stand firm in the midst of persecution, he reminds them of how precious their salvation is. He points to the prophets who so earnestly sought out the time and place Jesus the Messiah would suffer and be glorified. And the revelation to them was through the Spirit of Christ, the same Spirit that spoke through the apostles to the first believers. It was a ...

1 Peter 1:8-9 T Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. As Peter encourages these new believers amidst their difficult circumstances. He helps them to remember three things. 1. They love him. They have experienced a love they have never experienced before. This is the unconditional love the world could never offer. When we realize what love God has shown us through Jesus' death on the cross, we learn how to love someone we can't see. We can love because He first loved us. 2. They believe in Him. It was easier for Peter, who had spent three years with Jesus to have faith, but these believers had never seen him. They believed through the testimony of the apostles. And through believing in Him they discovered life in His name . They experience that He was is with them through...

1 Peter 1:4-7 This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed As Peter continues to encourage the early believers, he reminds them of their future inheritance as God's sons and daughters. If he is speaking specifically to the Jewish believers, they have seen their temple for all intent and purpose destroyed. They have been taken from their land which was part of the promise of inheritance to the 12 tribes of Israel. And finally, they are suffering all kinds of grief in their trials. So Peter focuses on one major thing that cannot be ta...

1 Peter 1:3-4 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. After a brief introduction, Peter sets the table for the rest of the letter by stating who we are through our new birth in Christ. This word is only used by Peter in the New Testament, but has the same meaning of John's "born again" used in John 3:5. He mentions this idea of re-birth and regeneration in two other places in this letter. As the believers faced persecution, as we talked about yesterday, knowing who they have become and where they were going some day is of great encouragement. Importantly this new birth is into a living hope. It is not a hope that is here one day and gone tomorrow, but living in us. Secondly, although of our possessions here on earth perish, spoil or fade, what we inherit as God'...

1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. As we start the letter of 1 Peter, the first two verses give us insight into who this letter is written to, and it's purpose. We see it starts, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ". If we date this letter around 62-63 AD, most scholars agree that is indeed Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus three times, but was reinstated after Jesus' resurrection. Tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down under Emperor Nero's brutal reign, because he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified as Jesus was. We also see who Peter is writing to. It says to the exiles scattered throughout Asi...

James 5:19-20 19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. We have different words for somebody who has fallen away from the faith, "backslider", "lukewarm Christian", or "not walking with The Lord". The bottom line is that a lot of us have had times in our lives where we have wandered away from the Truth. Sometimes more obviously and dramatically, or sometimes in the form of the "the subtle sellout". As the passage says we have wandered away from the Truth. We have wandered away from Jesus who is the Truth. And we have believed the lie, the evil one is always throwing in our face. And what is this lie? The big lie is that we can have a better, easier way outside of Jesus' plan for our lives. Following Jesus is not the best alternative. So ...

17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. As James gives all kinds of practical teaching on many aspects of the Christian life, he turns to prayer. To show the power we have in prayer, he gives the Old Testament example of Elijah. He prayed it wouldn't rain and it didn't. He prayed that it would rain and it did. Now someone might say he was a prophet and had special powers and a closer audience with God. But note James starts with the fact that Elijah was a mere man in every respect. I think this is a big deterrent for us in our prayer. We don't either consider ourselves good enough to pray, or we can't pray eloquently enough. Or, another thing we believe is that God doesn't have time to worry about my petty concerns. There are all kinds of reasons not to pray, and all kinds of...