Reading through The Bible - 1 Peter

Some Books of the bible are very short and some are very long but this one is one of the shorter books.

1st Peter  -  NEW TESTAMENT  -  EPISTLE

21st book of the NT 

60th book of the Bible

It starts by blessing God

  in 1 Peter ch. 1 v 3-5

 

4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,  

5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

and quickly takes us to rejoice in salvation in 

verses 6-9

6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,

8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,  

9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

What is it?

The Book of 1 Peter is one of the EPISTLES in the New Testament which means it is a Letter.

How Long is it?

It has 5 chapters.

When was it Written?

It was written in 64 AD

Who Wrote it?

Simon Peter the disciple of Jesus

The name of the letter tells us the writer.

Other letters in the bible are named to show who the recipients of the letters were specifically intended to be but these were letters written by Simon Peter who we know as the Apostle Peter.

One of the three disciples who Jesus often took with him apart from the others. 

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"Peter wrote the letter during Nero's reign"  

 

Who was it Written to?

It was written to the believers that had moved away because of the persecution of the early church.

This is told to us in the first verse

"To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." 

What is it normally well-known for?

It is a source in the Bible where people can find encouragement when suffering or being persecuted for their faith.

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

"Peter writes to Christians who are being persecuted, encouraging them to testify to the truth and live accordingly"

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"Jesus becomes the source of example and strength when we come into trials & tribulations.  By allowing God to help you in your perseverance and work for Christ we can always have hope in the midst of our suffering."

Why was it Written? 

It was written to encourage and remind the believers of the truth and love they have in Jesus and to rely on Him as they face persecution. 

Encouragement for times of worry

 

& persecution of the faith

but also to have love for one another

 

Which other books of the Bible may have a connection with this one? 

Peter wrote two epistles of which this is the first and is followed by 2nd Peter

 2nd Thessalonians also deals with suffering as a Christian

How does it end?

With encouragement of eternal life in Jesus

 chapter 5 v 11

 

and that God answers our prayers 

chapter 5 v 14

The Overview Bible  gives us the following

Quick outline of 1 Peter

1. Suffering proves salvation (1 Pet 1:1-12)
   Therefore: 
   • Be holy (1 Pet 1:13–21)
   • Love one another (1 Pet 1:22–25)
   • Long for the word (1 Pet 2:1–3)
2. We are a holy people (1 Pet 2:4–11)
   Therefore, pursue excellent behaviour: 
   • Toward authority (1 Pet 2:11–25)
   • Toward spouses (1 Pet 3:1–7)
   • Toward all (1 Pet 3:8–12)
3. Christ suffered for us (1 Pet 3:13–22)
   Therefore: 
   • Live for the will of God (1 Pet 4:1–6)
   • Exercise spiritual gifts (1 Pet 4:7–11)
4. Suffering tests us (1 Pet 4:12–19)
   Therefore: 
   • Elders should guard the flock (1 Pet 5:1–5)
   • Humble yourselves under God (1 Pet 5:6–7)
   • Stand firm (1 Pet 5:8–14)

OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE ARE ADDED REGULARLY AND AN UPDATED LIST CAN BE FOUND AT OUR READING THE BIBLE PAGE 

How to Share the Gospel on Social Media - Good News for Everyone in 90 Seconds - Coffee & Conversation

Do you need some help to share the Gospel 

on Social Media?

Do you feel you need a short interesting video to help you 

share the Gospel?

We all could do with help or instruction to help us tell others about Jesus and there are many ways we can can find help.

In this post I want to point you to a Video which will do a lot of the work for you.

When looking for videos about the Gospel we need to be sure we are looking for good reputable, reliable, Bible Based companies or individuals behind these and not just click unto Google or Youtube and search Gospel or Good News.

We also don't have enough time to search through all that would pop up on our screens from these types of searches to weed out

 

the 

 boring, 

old-fashioned, 

long-winded ones

especially when we want to get someone's attention on Social Media.

Hence I want to introduce you to a video that is

NOT boring

NOT old-fashioned

NOT long-winded

and

is produced by people I can fully recommend

What could be better than a direct, to the point, colourful, eye-catching

90second video

who would refuse to take a look?

"Speak Life" has produced this video (see below)

called

Good News in 90 Seconds

and

it does what it says.

 

You can find this and other projects by this organisation on 

Facebook

SPEAK LIFE UK

and

Twitter

SPEAK LIFE

Here's a direct, to the point, colourful, eye-catching way to share the Good News

For other ways to share the good news on Social Media you can see my

 Facebook Page Sandra's Ark from which you are welcome to share my Bible Verse graphics, Inspirational pics and any other posts.

How to Learn Micah 6 v 8 Plus Free Colouring Page - Bible Memorization

I could never do it!

          Do what?

Memorize a chapter of one of the Books of the Bible!

Yeah that's not so easy,  

BUT  

you can learn ONE verse of the Bible.

Let's look at a verse from one of the shorter books of the Old Testament  -  Micah

Many people think they could never manage to memorize a whole Psalm or a whole chapter of Scripture.

It is a rather daunting challenge especially if you have never learned any scripture before.

So we are not even going to tackle all of the book of Micah or even of it's 7 chapters but we will take Micah chapter 6 verse 8

"He has shown thee, O man, what is good; 

and what does the Lord require of thee,

but to do justly,

and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?"

So in memorizing this verse we will look at 3 things:

• Memorising Tips
• A Music Video of Micah 6 v 8
• Some Freebies to help you.

Memorising Tips

If you read the Top 10 Ways to Learn Scripture you will see that I give 10 tips to help in this process but we don't have to use all 10 of them on each verse - just the ones that suit best with the verse.

For Micah 6 v 8 I'm going to advise using tips 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10

 

1.  Read the verse often, every day, multiple times in the day.

Leave a bookmark in your bible and every time you go past it grab the bible and open at the verse etc.  (you will pick up other ideas later in this post).

Reading and repeating somethings over and over is the natural way to get it into your head.

With this verse you may feel like breaking into 2 parts as it is a long verse but when reading it is often best to read the whole verse to instil the meaning into your mind which actually helps with the memorizing.

"He has shown thee, O man, what is good; 

and what does the Lord require of thee,

but to do justly,

and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?"

2.  Write out the verse several times.

Why?  Because he action of  WRITING  helps us learn anything.

If you note the way I have written the verse above in 5 lines and use this method of writing it out yourself you will find it easier to get a kind of flow to the wording.  As we all know that as we write we often say the words in our heads then you will understand why I mention the flow of the words.

6.  Question and Answer within a verse.

If you ask a question you expect an answer to that question and in some verses we see that pattern so use it to your advantage when memorizing.

When the first part of the verse poses a question check if the second part answers it and if so then learn it as a question and an answer - it really will help.

Let's look at Micah 6 v8 to help you see my point.

The first two lines as we have it written here seem to state a fact and then lead into a question

"He has shown thee, O man, what is good; 

and what does the Lord require of thee,

The last 3 lines then give an answer

but to do justly,

and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?"

So as you read or write this verse think what the question is about and what the answer is and then each will help you to memorize the other.

8.  Make it easy to see the verse clearly and regularly each day.

In no.1 above I mentioned your bible and a bookmark

but

we cannot have our Bible at hand every moment of the day so if you feel you need frequent readings of the verse like pop-up reminders then do the following:

Get a post-it pad and write the verse out clearly on it then tear off the post-it and stick it on

• the mirror you will use first thing each morning and last thing each night
• the front cover of your Bible
• the front cover of the book you are currently reading
• the door of the fridge
• the inside of the door of the cupboard where you go to get your favourite mug for that cup of coffee

9.  Make or use Bible Verse Graphics 

The picture of Micah 6 v 8 near the start of this post is an example of a Bible Verse Graphic.

A picture with the words written on it clearly.

By making these yourself you will learn as you create them.

or

by using ones made for you that you keep close to hand

(see my freebies below)

I also post a bible verse graphic every morning on my

 Facebook Page for Sandra's Ark  

so if you want to be encouraged by a verse each day or have a graphic you can Share to your timeline or Save in Facebook then click through to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and follow the page to see those graphics in your feed each day.

or Colouring Pages of the bible Verse

While colouring in a Bible Verse Page you will be spending time around the words and this also helps to learn the verse.

or Phone Screensavers / Wallpaper

What better use of your phone - to keep that verse in front of you each time you go to check your messages.

For this you will need it to be a suitable portrait shape and size so most of the normal verse graphics you see will not suit.

I have a few verses made out for screen savers & you can download them from

 My Resource Library

and finally my favourite way 

but it is not always possible to use this method

10.  Sing it.

It is well known that in singing a song you can easily learn the words of the song.

Many people have benefited in memorization from putting words of scripture to music so

If you can find a song based very closely to the scripture passage then use it.

Music Video of Micah 6 v 8

Fred & I have made several short videos of songs/choruses to help you memorize certain verses and you can watch the one for Micah 6 v 8 below 

We also prepared a playlist of Short Songs to memorize Scripture on YouTube:

  Sandra's Ark Youtube - Bible Memorization

Some Freebies to help you

For this verse I have 2 Freebies to help and you can download them via my  RESOURCE LIBRARY  (available in both A4 and Letter size)

Firstly a pdf containing 8 copies of the graphic for Micah 6 v 8 shown earlier in this post.

Secondly  this colouring page of  Micah 6 v 8  

More Help:

For other verses see my Memorizing Scripture Page 

For other freebies see my Resource Library

 

 

I Love Butterflies - A Dose of Encouragement

Where do I begin?


I cannot remember when I was not interested in something which had a butterfly on it.

Most people who know me well will be able to tell you that

 I love Butterflies.

I have Butterfly 

     necklaces,    rings,    scarves     &    brooches

 - not sure how many I have but because of these items many people know I love butterflies 


Over the years my family have bought me scarves, vases, bags and necklaces at Christmas time all decorated with butterflies.


Even the Ladies who came to the International Christian Club of Brussels knew I loved them as I was often found with a butterfly brooch pinned to my jacket.
When I was leaving Belgium to return to live in Northern Ireland I was given a lovely white lace Butterfly brooch from one of these ladies as leaving gift.

Isn't it beautiful?

My daughter even had a mug specially printed for me with butterflies on it for my Birthday one year and I featured it in a humorous blog post called 3 More Coffee Mugs

I have bought myself bags with butterfly designs, clothes with butterflies & room decorations with butterflies.

Then there was the time Fred and I spent a lovely afternoon in our home in Belgium taking pictures of the butterflies that were on a bush just outside our lounge window -  I was going to miss the Butterflies

It just makes me smile to see butterflies around the house and in our garden with our Buddleia (butterfly) bush here in Northern Ireland too and we manage to get some nice pictures of the bush in full bloom

 with butterflies around it each summer.

Why do I love Butterflies?

Because they are beautiful, intricately patterned, delicate creatures.

They are also a great reminder of new birth in that they start as caterpillars and turn into beautiful butterflies.

Just like I was once a person marred by my sin and through God's Love and the Grace of Jesus I was able to experience a new birth and share Christ's beauty.

I love to share about the butterfly in Kids Work that I would do to explain to the children that God offers them a new life in Jesus through His blood because of His Love for them.

Children hear that Jesus died on the cross but they need to know that He did this for them individually and that His beauty can become their beauty.  They need to know that he didn't stay dead but rose again and is still alive today so that they can know He talks to God about them and shares in all their feelings.

Children need to feel loved and secure above all else and Jesus wants them to accept His love and assurance that He will never leave them.

But you and I need to know exactly the same thing.

There is something very important that we all need to know.

You and I need to know we are loved and that we are safe and that there is a God planned future for us.

You and I need to experience this new birth and know that we can be beautiful in the eyes of our creator because of His Son.


There is one last Butterfly I would like to share with you today

This Butterfly sits on the Vanity Unit in our ensuite and I see it every day at the start of my day and the end of my day.


I believe in miracles.

Do you?


The Butterfly is an example of a miracle in that it changes from an ugly creature to a beautiful one.

Can you believe in Jesus and experience Him work this miracle in your life too?