Submission and Attraction

Read 1 Peter 3:3–6 Your beauty … should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 1 Peter 3:3–4 Attitudes such as submission, understanding, love, kindness, and patience are the fruit of the Spirit (Gal....

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Fruitfulness

Read Philippians 1:11 [I pray that you will be] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:11 The difference between spiritual fruit and human religious activity is that fruit brings glory to Jesus Christ. Whenever we do anything in...

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Killer Instinct

Read 1 John 3:11–15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. 1 John 3:15 A visitor at the zoo was chatting with the keeper of the lion house. “I have a cat at home,” said the visitor, “and your lions act just like my cat. It seems a shame...

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Short-Term Memory

Read Hebrews 8:7–12 I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:12 What does it mean that God remembers our sins no more? Does it mean that our all-knowing God can actually forget what we have done? The phrase “remember [our] sins no more” means...

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Lost Patience

Read 1 Peter 4:4–6 [The pagans] think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 1 Peter 4:4 Unsaved people do not understand the radical change that their friends experience when they trust Christ and become children...

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When Pleasure Is Treasured

Read Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 When I surveyed all that my hands had done … everything was meaningless. Ecclesiastes 2:11 Today’s world is pleasure mad. Millions of people will pay almost any amount of money to buy experiences to temporarily escape the burdens of life. While there is nothing wrong with innocent...

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Pleasing Priorities

Read 1 John 4:20–21 Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 1 John 4:20 When our hearts are confident toward God, there is no need for us to pretend, either to God or to other people. If we...

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Maintaining Togetherness

Read Hebrews 10:24–39 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 Our fellowship with God must never become selfish. We must also fellowship with other Christians...

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Disorder in the Court

Read Ecclesiastes 4:1–6 I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. Ecclesiastes 4:2 Solomon went into a courtroom to watch a trial, and there he saw innocent people being oppressed by power-hungry officials. The victims wept, but their tears did...

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In Touch with God

Read Isaiah 1:2–4 The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Isaiah 1:3 Isaiah was a man in touch with God. He foresaw God’s Son and revealed God’s glory; he heard God’s message, and sought to bring the...

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