The classic Anglican liturgy goes back 450 years. It says that matrimony is “an honourable estate, instituted by God in the time of man’s innocency,” which takes us back to the beginning, to Genesis...
Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation to join together this Man and this Woman in Holy Matrimony. - Book of Common Prayer 1662.
These...
The apostle Peter has written briefly. He has written with an unshrinking realism and yet at the same time an undiminished hope. And though not written to us, he has written for us. So, if his last...
How are we to stand firm in God’s true grace? This, as I’ve said is Peter’s grand aim. He has written exclusively, as we’ll see in our final devotion with this single objective in mind. He wants each...
What does Peter choose to bring to mind as he draws his first letter to a close? In yesterday’s devotion he chose surviving our suffering; in tomorrow’s devotion, unmasking our enemies; and right in...
Some Christians feel the need to be sensational in what they say. Others feel the need for signs and wonders, to be spectacular in what they do. But it has long been my conviction that by unleashing...
Our work is great; our time is short; the consequences of our labours are infinite. With a little re-ordering John Newton captures most of the teaching of this section as Peter draws his second part...
One of the gifts of any real preacher is that they are able to say the same thing over and over again and not only hold people’s attention but drive the truth of what they are saying into the hearts...
Peter’s first letter may be written from bitter experience, but it is never without the greatest assurance. Like many of us, Peter faced rejection, opposition and persecution. He suffered. However,...
Peter fully anticipates that living such radically distinct lives, as he has been describing, will inevitably draw attention. He also fully anticipates that such attention will not always be friendly...
Christianity is sometimes described as a crutch to get weak willed, naive, gullible people through this world with the pipe dream of heaven. All modern, mature people, so the argument goes, have no...
At various times, in different cultures and for numerous reasons, God’s word has proved to be controversial. However, far from diminishing its authority, this fact, that it critiques and challenges...
The power of example is so very strong. Those around us influence us far more perhaps than we care to admit or can even sometimes see for ourselves. So Peter, acknowledging this reality, holds up the...
“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
I wish I’d said this earlier in these devotionals. I have probably already done something that Peter would not be pleased with; I may have already given the impression that there is nothing about the...
Martyn-Lloyd Jones once said, "I want to get back the discipline of the church - discipline for the minister as for the members - and to recapture the glorious conception of the Christian life, that...
What is one of the greatest distinguishing marks of any Christian? It is a helpful question to ask in a multi-religious, relativistic age. It is also helpful to know especially in an increasingly...
God’s elect, exiles in this world, are to be holy. They are to conduct themselves with fear. These sound fittingly pious and almost ‘churchy’ today, but what are we to do with them in real life? What...
