It's The Real Deal

I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. - 1 Peter 5:12

One of the coolest thing hanging on the wall in my home office is a Certificate of Authenticity.

It has on it the logo of US Space Shuttle flight 110, which was launched in April 2002. Aboard the Atlantis on that flight was Mission Specialist Rex Walheim, who took into outer space an article from Our Daily Bread titled "Seeing God's Glory." Lt. Col. Walheim sent me the certificate to prove that this devotional page actually left earth's atmosphere.

Sometimes we need these kinds of things - documents that verify truth. If I were to show that article to someone and say, "This flew on the Space Shuttle," I could be doubted because I would have no proof. But when Walheim sent me the Certificate of Authenticity, he gave me verification.

In 1 Peter, Simon Peter created a Certificate of Authenticity for his message about the grace of God. In chapter 5, he wrote, "I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this [letter] is the true grace of God" (v.12). Peter was assuring his readers that the many messages of 1 Peter - themes of hope and courage and even suffering - were all authentic and demonstrate the grace of God.

Looking for evidence of God's grace? Read 1 Peter, and be confident that its teaching is the real deal. - Dave Branon

The Bible stands like a mountain towering

Far above the works of men;

Its truth by none ever was refuted,

And destroy it they never can. Lillenas

To trust God is to trust in His holy Word.

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1 Peter 1:3-12

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, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, 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.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - or greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

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, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glorious that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now veen 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.

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Jesus is the only REAL thing...