Category: Fast Five

Baptism and Noah’s Flood
In 1 Peter 3:18-20, Peter compares baptism with the flood and the salvation of Noah’s family. In the same way that the flood separated Noah from the wicked, baptism separates us from the world and brings us into Christ.

Five More Ways the Flood Points to Baptism

So how else does the flood point to baptism and Christianity?

Cole Thomas – The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge – 1829
- Noah was on the water for nine months, then began to live on the earth. Christians are to be born of water (John 3:5)
- The flood destroyed the wicked who laughed and scoffed at Noah. Baptism might be thought to do the same thing considering the numbers that scoff and deride it as unnecessary.
- Water saved Noah. Water saves Christians who walk in newness of life.
- The flood washed away the filth of an evil generation. Water washes away sins (Acts 22:16)
- Just a few were saved through the flood. Just a few, in relative terms, will be save through baptism.
Baptism is our way to get into Christ. Responding to our faith in baptism is God’s plan for the beginning of our life serving him. Baptism is the way we gain association with Christ ad his church.
August 24, 2013
Built Up to Sacrifice
God’s original intention for his children were to become a nation of his priests. (Exodus 19:6) Jesus was the cornerstone of that intention. Having been baptized into him, we are to be used as living stones to build up his spiritual temple. (1 Peter 2:4-5) Christians therefore, are his priests. The concept is also a major point in the book of Hebrews and mentioned in Revelation 1:6.

Part of the responsibilities of the priests were to offer sacrifices. This was a big deal to the Jews of the time because once Christ sacrificed himself, there was no more need for the bloodshed of bulls and goats. This took away a major part of the ceremony of the Jewish nation. Peter reminds us that that we are a part of the holy priesthood with related tasks to practice.

Ten Ways Christians Sacrifice

New Testament Christians do not offer sacrifices the same way the Jews did. We have a number of other responsibilities that Peter refers to as Spiritual Sacrifices. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

We sacrifice through our:

Francisco de Zurbarán, The Bound Lamb, 1635–40. Rights
reserved © Museo Nacional del Prado–Madrid.
- Our faith (Philippians 2:17)
- Our love of God (Mark 12:33)
- Our repentance (Hosea 14:2)
- Our confession of faith in Christ (Hebrews 13:15,16)
- Our baptism into Christ (Romans 12:1, Hebrews 10:19-22)
- Our praise of God (Hebrews 13:15)
- Our contributions (Philippians 4:18)
- Our songs (Colossians 3:16)
- Our prayers (Revelation 5:8)
- Our life of honor and love (2 Timothy 4:6, Ephesians 5:2)
As we worship and serve God in these various ways, we need to be mindful of the reasons we do them. We often forget the reason and only go through the motions.

Daily Bible reading for August 22

Psalm 20
1 Samuel 8
Jeremiah 52
1 Peter 2:4-10
August 22, 2013
7 Ways God Forgives
We serve a loving and forgiving God. When he forgives us, his forgiveness is complete.

Seven ways God Forgives Us

From these verses we can see that we are never in a position to be left unforgiven. The rest is up to us to make some changes and ask!
- “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive. . .” (Psalm 86:5)
- “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12)
- “. . .For thou hast cast all my sins behind my back” (Isaiah 38:17)
- “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isaiah 43:25)
- “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, and as a cloud, thy sins return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed. . .” (Isaiah 44:22, 23)
- “. . .I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34)
- “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18).
Daily Bible reading for August 19

Psalm 17
1 Samuel 4
Jeremiah 49
Mark 16
August 19, 2013
5 Invitations to Pray for our Needs
As you prepare for worship today, consider making an extra effort to really concentrate on the prayers led during the service. That is a time that we can come together as a group and talk to God as one.

God wants us to talk to him and has given us plenty of reason to. He has invited us countless times to pray for what is needed for ourselves and for others. Here are just five:

Praying hands
- Matthew 7:7-11 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:…
- John 14:13-14 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
- Philippians 4:6 Be careful [NKJV: anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
- James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
- 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Daily Bible reading for August 18

Psalm 16
1 Samuel 3
Jeremiah 48
Mark 15
August 18, 2013
Brotherly Love: Top of the List
The Hebrew writer gave brotherly love first place in a list of items that please God (Hebrews 13:1-16)

Five Ways Brotherly Love Works

As you go to your next worship service, keep in mind that brotherly love is one of the reasons for going to church. It is a time to strengthen the bond of those we study and worship with. Those bonds:

Brotherly love is not only good for us, God requires it!
- help us become teachers
- help us become charitable
- help us learn from the examples of others
- help us feel grow to maturity
- help us practice compassion
John has a very specific warning about our place with God in relation to the love we have for our brother. (1 John 2:9-11) Practicing kindness, making connections and not being a busybody are ways to get into God’s light. Given everything else we need to be in the light, a lack of brotherly love will shade into darkness.

Daily Bible reading for August 4

Psalm 2
Judges 14
Jeremiah 30
Hebrews 13:1-19
August 4, 2013
Faith Only: A Complete Listing
Here is an exhaustive listing of the places in the Bible that mention “faith only” (Or “faith alone” depending on your version)

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. – James 2:24 KJV

Yes that’s it. The complete and unabridged list.

Faith is a Milestone

While faith is a very important milestone on the path to salvation, the path doesn’t end there. As I have outlined on my Gospel Plan of Salvation page, faith comes very early on that journey, but at this point, the seeker is only beginning to see the goal in the distance. God has never accepted a person’s faith by merely taking his word for it.

In my post, But, What Do You Do By Faith?, I listed off a few points for consideration when discussing “faith only” salvation vs. the requirement to be baptized for the remission of your sins. (Acts 2:38) With those points (and even more) we can quickly determine that we need a deeper study of the word if we have taken any passage and tried to prove “faith only.”

The Heroes of Faith didn’t get away with Faith Only

Moses Striking The Rock – Pieter de Grebber, 1620

One of the points in the But, What Do You Do By Faith? post looks to Hebrews 11 as proof that God requires more than just believing or “accepting” God. Each and every one in that chapter had to go do something:
- Faith led Abel to offer the correct sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4)
- Faith led Enoch to actively please God (Hebrews 11:5)
- Faith led Noah to build the ark (Hebrews 11:7)
- Faith led Abraham to pack up and move his family (Hebrews 11:8-10)
- Abraham and Sarah had innumerable descendants through their faith (Hebrews 11:11-12)
- Abraham knew that God could raise Isaac after he sacrificed him (Hebrews 11:17-19)
…and the list goes on. We know that we need faith to please him, (Hebrews 11:6) but we can also see that if any one of these folks in Hebrews 11 had failed to act on God’s command, the outcome would have been very different for them. (See: Moses Strikes the Rock)

God has a complete plan for us. It is up to us to complete the plan.
August 3, 2013