1 Peter 1

1 Peter 1:1

Peter and Paul were two apostles who had a major impact on the early church. In fact, when you read the New Testament, you see Peter’s name two hundred ten times and Paul’s one hundred sixty-two timeswhile all of the other apostles combined are mentioned only one hundred fourteen times. However, there is a third man who figures prominently in the early church. That man is John. As you look at these threePeter, Paul, and Johnyou must conclude that Peter is the “apostle of hope.” More than anyone else, Peter stresses hope as the answer to persecution and difficulty. Paul is the “apostle of faith,” as he articulates more clearly than any other writer the doctrine of justification by faith. John is known both through his person and writing as the “apostle of love.” Faith, hope, and love are personified in Paul, Peter, and Johnall apostles of Jesus Christ. The idea of “stranger” referring to one who is displaced, Peter could be addressing the Jewish Christians who were dispersedas well as speaking to any Christian feeling displaced or lost. This side of heaven, we’re part of an empire in which we don’t fit, part of a system with which we can’t agree. This is why Peter’s words are as needful for us now as they were for the early church. Nine or ten months after Peter wrote his letter, the persecution against Christians that had been simmering for quite some time came to a full boil. On July 19, A.D. 64, Caesar Nero set fire to the Imperial City of Rome. You see, determined to stamp his image upon a new Rome, Caesar hired arsonists to destroy the old one. Maybe you remember stories of Caesar fiddling while Rome burned. While that may not have happened literally, Caesar was fiddling around very definitely! The ensuing devastation gave him justification to rebuild structures like the Circus Maximus.

Seating over one hundred thousand people, the existing Circus Maximus wasn’t big enough for Nero. So he had it burned along with most of the city and rebuilt it to give three hundred thousand spectators the opportunity to witness sporting events, gladiatorial bouts, and, eventually, Christians being thrown to lions. Due to the immediate suspicion that he had a part in the fire, Nero knew he had to quickly find a scapegoat. He conveniently found one in the Christian community. “It’s not I who burned the city,” he said. “It’s these who speak of the unquenchable flames of hell.” Coupled with the absurd misconception that, due to their observance of Communion, Christians were cannibalistic, and combined with the fact that because Christians stressed love and purity, they were a threat to the rampant perversity of the day, the populace was eager to blame Christianity for their crumbling families and charred capital city. Consequently, only months after Peter’s Epistle was penned, persecution would come that would result in the annihilation of six million Christians as they were lit as candles or fed to lions. So Peter addresses this issue as he writes to people who would be understandably vulnerable to confusion and depression as they questioned the reason for their relentless persecution.

1 Peter 1:2

Here in verse 1Pe_1:2, Peter will refer to the Trinity at the very outset of his letter to remind his readers that they are a chosen community. Because God elected us before the world began, He sees us as already glorified. People look at us and they say, “Glorified? Them?!” The Father, however, knows better… Suppose you suddenly found yourself tumbling down a time tunnel, where you end up in the year 1992. There you are. The Gulf War has just ended. The country is celebrating victory. And with a 91 percent approval rating, George Bush is a shoo-in to be reelected president. If you find a bookie, and against unbelievably high odds, you place a bet that a governor from Arkansas will beat him in the upcoming election, you would walk away a rich man because you would have foreknowledge. Therefore, you would have put your money down not as a gamble, but with certainty because you would have known the outcome. The same is true with the Father. He sees the end from the beginning. He understands what no other person can comprehend. He knows we are going to make it. As bad a bet as we might seem to ourselves or to others, as steep as the odds against us may be, He calls us already glorified. Therefore, we can approach Him boldly. We can enjoy Him intimately. We can ask of Him expectantly because we have been elected eternally. For me, the sanctification of the Spirit took place not before the foundation of the world, but on a summer evening in 1957, when, in a little church called Calvary Temple, Pastor Kermit Jeffries was preaching about hell. Almost four years old, I wasn’t coloring or sleeping on my mom’s lap as I usually did in church, but was listening intently. I knew I needed to receive Jesus personally if I didn’t want to fry in hell eternally. When Pastor Jeffries gave an invitation, I was the first one down the aisle. That was the hour of my sanctification, my being set apart, my salvation. As far as the Son is concerned, I was saved when, two thousand years ago on a hill called Calvary, He shed His blood to cleanse me. Like the thief hanging next to Him, a way was made for me to be with Him in paradise that very day (Luk_23:43). The usual Pauline greeting is “Grace and peace.” Peter seems to borrow this phrase of Paul’s, and then makes it his own.

1 Peter 1:3

To these who are feeling discouraged, displaced, depressed, or in danger, Peter addresses the issue right away, saying, “We have a living hope based upon the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.” Unlike living hope, human hope tends to get weaker and dimmer, and finally dies altogether the farther one goes down the road of life. I was an awesome pitcher. As I stood in the street and pitched a tennis ball against my garage door, you wouldn’t believe my split finger fastball, my curve, my sinker. I knew even Hank Aaron would strike out if he ever faced me at the plate. Oh, I might go to the full count, but I would always come throughevery single time. In my imagination, I pitched perfect game after perfect game as a nine-year-old. But it finally hit me about two years ago that, in reality, I’ll never pitch for the San Francisco Giants. Even if I practice really hard, I now know it’s just not going to happen. My hope that once shone so brightly is now gone altogether. The same is true for all of us. As we go down the road of life, we check off more and more things we thought we would one day do or be. Regarding spiritual life, however, the opposite is true. The farther down the road we walk with Jesus, the more we realize our hope doesn’t lie on this earth, but in heaven. We don’t need to be a people who wrestle with midlife crises because our hope is not to make the San Francisco Giants or to make ten million bucks. Our hope is in heaven. And heaven’s getting closer every day. “Even if there is an inheritance reserved for me in heaven, it won’t do me any good if I never get there,” you say. “What if I don’t make it?” Read on.

1 Peter 1:5

We are kept by the power of God. It’s not us holding on to Him. It’s Him holding on to us. “Hold on to Daddy’s hand,” I would say to my kids as we crossed the street. And they would. But if, out of forgetfulness or fatigue, they loosened their grip, it wouldn’t matter because, although they thought they were holding my hand, in reality, I was holding theirsand I would never let go. So, too, we think we’re holding on to the Lord, but in reality, He’s holding on to us. We’re kept by His power. A young man who was being hazed by a college fraternity was taken to a secluded spot where he was told to hold on to a knot at the end of a greased rope as his fraternity brothers lowered him into a dark well. Thinking they would pull him up after a few minutes, he was terrified to see them tie their end of the rope to the bar across the top of the well, leaving him suspended in midair. This can’t be! he thought as he called for help. But none came. As he approached the fifteen-minute mark, his arms aching unbelievably, and his shoulders feeling as though they were on fire, he started to cry. Finally, after about twenty-five tortuous minutes, able to hang on no longer, he let goand fell two inchesjust as his fraternity brothers had calculated. Isn’t that just like us? “Where are You, God? I don’t know if I’m going to make it,” we cry. We fret, blubber, and scream until we finally let go. And guess what we find. We discover that our Solid Rock, Jesus Christ, was there all along. A bunch of us have burning shoulders and aching arms for absolutely no reason. We’re trying to hang on through our own efforts, by our own spirituality. We get disgusted with ourselves and worried we’re not going to make it. If we would just let go of the rope and rest in what Jesus did on the Cross of Calvary, we would realize it’s not our puny efforts that will see us through, but the power of God. This is what Peter is telling the believers who, no doubt, were wondering if, when the temperature rose and persecution came down, they would be able to hang in there. “I want you to know something,” Peter said. “You have an inheritance waiting for you that can’t be taken from you. You are kept by the power of God, and He is committed to seeing you through. All that remains for you to do is believe.”

1 Peter 1:6

In using the word “heaviness"the same word used to describe what Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat great drops of blood (Luk_22:44)Peter isn’t minimizing the reality of what his readers were fearing or feeling. “I know what you’re going through is heavy,” he says. “But it’s only for a season. Rejoice greatly because you’re going to heaven.” Think of it this way: You go to the United Airlines counter at the airport, and the ticket agent says, “Your flight to San Francisco is on time. There’s been some turbulence, but we absolutely guarantee that you’ll get there. Our plane is in great shape. Our pilot is fully qualified. You might experience a bump or two, but you’re going to get there just fine.” “Hang on to my ticket,” you say as you make your way to a different ticket counter. “Are there any seats available for the flight to San Francisco?” you ask. “You bet,” says the agent. “And we guarantee you’ll have a smooth ride. No bumps, no jolts, no airsickness. Guaranteed smooth sailing all the way. It’s the landing we’re not so sure about. You see, our landing gear is not working quite right, and we seem to have a problem with occasionally landing nose-first. Also, the brakes haven’t been serviced recently. But we guarantee the flight will be smootheven if the landing is a little iffy.” If you have to choose between a smooth flight with a crash landing, or a bumpy flight with a safe landing, you’ll no doubt opt for the bumpy flight. There are those who say, “I don’t want trials. I don’t want to go against the world’s system. I don’t want to deal with all of those church disciplines you talk about. I just want smooth sailing.” They are fools, for although they might escape a bump or two presently, they’re ultimately headed for a fiery crash landing. On the other hand, those of us who presently deal with a bump or two along the way, will make a safe landing in heaven. That’s what Peter will emphasize over and over throughout his epistle as he sets our sights on the big picture, on heaven. Jesus said it best: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you” (Mat_6:33).

1 Peter 1:7

When they go through hard times or difficult days, people sometimes say, “I don’t see anything good coming out of this trial.” Does the Bible say, “We see all things work together for good to those who love God”? No. It says, “We know all things work together for good” (see Rom_8:28). We may not see things working together for good this month or this year or even in our lifetime. The Bible doesn’t say we see it. The Bible says we know it. That’s what Peter is reminding the believers to whom he is writing. “I know you’re going through exceedingly difficult days, with even tougher times coming your direction,” says Peter, “but you can choose to rejoice. Why? Because trials strengthen faith.” In likening faith to gold tried by fire, Peter reaches back to a statement made by a man who knew uniquely what it meant to go through trials and difficulties. But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.Job_23:10 In Bible times, when a man wanted to make something of fine gold, he would subject the ore to such intense heat that all of the impurities would be burned out. The goldsmith would know that the work was done when he could see the reflection of his own face in the liquefied gold. The same thing is true with us. The Lord says, “I’ve got big plans for you, huge plans. I’ve got plans not for this life only, but for eternity. Therefore, I may need to turn up the heat a bit to work out the impurities. But My hand is on the thermostat. I know exactly what I’m doing. Although at the present moment, it might not be easy, you’ll thank Me for the next billion years to come because what I’m after is to see the reflection of My face in your life.” Why? God doesn’t want to see His reflection in our lives because He’s on some sort of an ego trip, but because He knows that although we may not realize it, what we really want is to be like Him. There are things in our lives that keep that from happening, so the way He deals with them is to turn up the heat a bit in order that we’ll come out of the fire stronger in faith and more like the Lord. …but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.Rom_5:3-5 When you finally understand this, you’ll rejoice in difficulty rather than rebel because you’ll see it as a purifying process that will work wonderful things into your life. Tribulation works patience. When you’re going through difficulty, there’s not a lot you can do other than wait for the master goldsmith to finish the process. Patience, in turn works experience as we learn that God truly knows what He’s doing. Experience works hopethe absolute expectation of coming good.

1 Peter 1:8

Not only do trials strengthen our faith in the Lord, but they deepen our love for the Lord. Although those to whom Peter was writing had never seen Jesus physically, such was not the case with Peter. Peter had not only seen Jesus daily in His humanity, but he had actually seen a sneak preview of His deity. Yet Peter’s joy was not unspeakable on the Mount of Transfiguration, for he merely said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here” (Mat_17:4). Therefore, I suggest that even though Peter had beheld Jesus physically, those to whom Peter was writing would experience an even deeper love and keener perspective due to the trials they faced. Certainly Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego found this to be true. Inside a furnace seven times hotter than it had ever been heated, these guys were in a fiery trial indeed. Yet because a “fourth Man"the Son of Godwas in the fire with them, they didn’t come out of the furnace until they were commanded to do so (Dan_3:26). A lot of us are getting to the place where we say, “Lord, keep me in the fire continually if that’s what it takes for me to see You more clearly.” “Your joy is unspeakable,” Peter says, “because you’ve seen Jesus in ways that far transcend seeing Him physicallyeven when He was transfigured in glory.”

1 Peter 1:9

“What you’re experiencing,” Peter says, “is something by which the prophets were intrigued, interested in, but couldn’t get a handle on.” You see, the prophets wrote about things they just couldn’t figure out, for they saw the glory of Psalm 2. However, they also saw the suffering of Isaiah 53. They saw the triumph on the Mount of Olives, where the returning Messiah will stand; but they also saw the blood on Mount Calvary upon which Messiah died. How can it be, they must have wondered, that He will be despised, rejected, and smitten; suffering, yet also ruling and reigning? This doesn’t make sense. They saw Mount Calvary. They saw the Mount of Olives. But what they didn’t see was the valley between the twoa valley of about two thousand years. They didn’t understand that they were writing of two comingsthat Messiah would come as a suffering Savior before returning as a conquering King. Some today might say, “I hear all of the promises, but I don’t see any glory.” That’s because there’s a valley between them that might last a week, a month, a decade, a lifetime. But God’s plan is being unfolded nonetheless, for glory always follows suffering. Always.

1 Peter 1:12

The phrase translated “look into” is the same phrase used to describe what Peter did when he peered into the tomb on Easter Sunday (Luk_24:12). Just as the disciples wondered about the meaning of the empty tomb, angels stoop down and look at you and me in wonder. “What does this mean,” they ask, “that God has chosen these people to be His family? Is that the best He could do?!”

1 Peter 1:13

Because we understand those things that were only a mystery to the prophets and angels, we’re to think soberly. What does it mean to “gird up the loins of your mind”? In Bible days, men would wear ankle-length robes. But if they wanted to move quickly or freely, they would loop the bottom of their robes over their belts. Thus, Peter is saying, “Don’t walk around with long robes or long faces. Pull up the mental garments that are tripping you up. Change your way of thinking concerning your situation.” It’s such an important principle. You cannot change your heart, but you can change your mind. God can change your heart. He won’t change your mind, but if you choose to change your mind, God will change your heart.

1 Peter 1:14

When people go through difficulty, there is a tendency for them to drift into carnality. “Oh, what’s the use,” they say. “Let’s just watch a video.” As we face trials and difficulties, Peter tells us we’re to gird up the loins of our minds, to think soberly, and hope to the end. Whatever we do, we’re not to return to our old fleshly inclinations, for God says we’re to be holy, to be whole. In other words, we’re not to tear ourselves apart or wear ourselves down with sin and sloth, laziness and iniquity. Instead, we’re to choose in the midst of our difficulty to think rightly.

1 Peter 1:17

Keep the context in mind. Peter says to a group of people going through really tough times, “In the midst of this difficulty you can either experience unspeakable joy, or you can feel sorry for yourself and drift back into carnality. If you return to carnality, know the repercussions are going to be heartbreaking. Therefore, pass the time in fearnot fear of the Father, but fear of the repercussions of your sin.”

1 Peter 1:18

“If you have a tendency to return to your carnal lifestyle, I want you to remember that you were purchased with the blood of Christ,” Peter says. Why did it take the blood of Christ to purchase us? The wages of sin is always death. Look carefully at the blood pulsing from the veins of Jesus Christ. See the thorns smashed into His skull. Listen to the crowd around Him mocking and cursing Him. Understand that is what sin does. The only way we, our kids, or our friends and neighbors will understand the result of sin is to look at the Cross. In the infamous work The Passover Plot, it is suggested that the disciples drugged Jesus on the Cross, which caused Him to swoon until He “came to” in the tomb, appearing to come back to life. While visiting a college campus, I noticed that this book is still being sold and is required reading for a certain course on religion. I, too, believe in the Passover plotthat it was plotted before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ would be sent to die as a Passover Lamb for my sin. In looking on Him as a Lamb slain, I see not only His grace and mercy, but a graphic picture of what sin does.

1 Peter 1:21

“They’re going to persecute you,” Jesus told Peter. “They’re going to stretch out your arms and take you where you don’t want to go,” He said, speaking of the manner of his death (see Joh_21:18-19). “What about this man?” Peter asked as he pointed to John. “What is that to thee?” Jesus answered. “Follow thou Me.” When pressure rises, when persecution comes down, when things are tough, like Peter, we say, “How come he’s not going through it?” or, “How come she’s got it made in the shade?” If we’re not careful in the time of difficulty, we can raise questions about one another and even experience a certain degree of animosity. Perhaps because he himself felt this, Peter said the solution is to love one another ferventlyand then goes on to give us four reasons why we should.

1 Peter 1:23

The first reason we are to love one another fervently is because we are children in the same family, born not of man but by the explosive power of the Word of God. The Explosive Power of the Word A Topical Study of 1Pe_1:24 I was waiting to buy a book that had been on the bestseller list for about six months, but I thought the list price of $29.95 was a bit high. While in San Francisco, I saw it on the bargain tablefor $1.88. That’s the way it always is. The bestsellers of today will be on the bargain table six months from now. Watch and see! I find it interesting that the fastest-growing category of books deals with the human growth, or human potential movement (we used to call them self-help books). These are books that help people be better, like Tony Robbins’ Awakening the Giant Within, or John Gray’s Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, or Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One that quickly climbed the charts was The High Fat Diet, in which the author maintains that our country is headed for serious health problems unless we get back to hot fudge sundaes and cherry pie. I can’t wait to get that book! Diet books, relationship books, and leadership books will all end up on the bargain table eventually and ultimately fade into oblivion for one simple reason: They don’t work. One hundred years ago, the best-selling book in our country was a book on phrenology. It said one could discover his personality strengths and weaknesses, and also predict his future by feeling the lumps on the top of his head. Phrenologists were serious people who would feel the lumps on people’s skulls and tell them how to get “ahead.” It sounds crazy now, but one hundred years ago, phrenology swept the nation. Solomon was right when he ended Ecclesiastes saying, “Of the making of many books there is no end” (Ecc_12:12). Our text goes on to say that although men’s ideas and philosophies spring up like grass and bud like flowers, as time passes, they fade away into oblivion and are ultimately forgotten. Perhaps no one epitomizes this truth better than Voltaire, the famous French infidel of the eighteenth century. Voltaire was seemingly a deep thinker, a persuasive orator, a well-known figure. He called his rival, Sir Isaac Newton, a “doddering fool” because of Newton’s contention that there would come a day when men would travel around the world. Newton knew this because, as a believer, he had read in the Book of Daniel that men would go “to and fro"an idiom for global travel. “For men to travel globally, they would have to travel at speeds in excess of sixty miles per hour,” scoffed Voltaire. “Any thinking man knows speed that high would cause one’s heart to stop beating.” That isn’t the only time Voltaire proved to be wrong. On his deathbed in 1778, he declared that within one hundred years of his death, the Bible would only be found in museums and in the archives of libraries. How fitting, then, that Voltaire’s house was purchased by the European Bible Society to produce thousands of Bibles annuallyeven to this day. Voltaire passed away like the grass, like a flower. The Word of God endures forever. Why? It is unique among all books in that it’s the only book that is living. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.Heb_4:12 The Word of God is living, folks. It’s not just alive metaphorically, but it is living in reality. Every book of the Bible, all 66; every chapter, all 1,118; every verse, all 774,746; every word, all 3,500,034 are inspired. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” Jesus declared,” but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God” (see Mat_4:4). Every part of the Word is living. None can be ignored. All must be embraced. Every word is inspirednot just poetically or theologicallybut physically. How do I know? Look at our text… Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.1Pe_1:23 The phrase “incorruptible seed” is a Greek term that speaks of sperm. This should not be surprising, for by definition, any living thing has the capability to reproduce itself. The Word of God is no exception, for by it we are born again. “The words which I speak are spirit and life,” Jesus declared (see Joh_6:63). “Master, we know that You must be from God, for no man can do the works You do unless God be with him,” Nicodemus said to Jesus one night. “Verily, I say unto you, you must be born again,” Jesus said. Perhaps scratching his head, Nicodemus said, “How can this be? How can a man enter into his mother’s womb a second time? What do You mean?” “That which is born of flesh is flesh,” Jesus said, “but that which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it wants, and you hear the sound, but no man knows from whence it comes and no man knows where it goes” (see Joh_3:1-8). A teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have understood the reference. Born again, wind blowing? His mind should have raced immediately to Ezekiel 37, a passage familiar to every rabbi and teacher in Israel… One day, the spirit of the Lord took Ezekiel to a valley full of dry, dead bones and told him to preach to the bones. As Ezekiel began to preach the Word, something amazing began to happen. The bones started to move. Before long, they had joined together like a great army, yet zombielike because they were without life. “Prophesy to the wind,” the Lord said to Ezekiel. So Ezekiel prophesied unto the wind even as he had done to the bones, and the windthe ruwachthe spirit moved into them and the bones came to life. If Nicodemus had made the connection between this story and what Jesus was telling him that night, he would have understood that to be born again means to be made alive by the Spirit and the Word, just as the bones became alive when Ezekiel preached the Spirit and the Word. Perhaps, like me, you have known for years that when the seed of the Word and the Spirit of God penetrate our being, we “dry bones” come to life. I want you to see that the same dynamic that caused us to be born again can continually impact us in any arena where there are dry bones in our lives. “Our marriage is as dry as a bone,” you might be saying. Or, “I respect him immensely, but my dad is spiritually as dry as a bone.” Or, “My seventh-grade daughter is not walking with the Lord as closely as she could be.” I have great news for you. The Word of God has the unique ability to impact and change your teenage son or daughter, your grandchildren, your mother, your co-worker, your friend, your husband, your neighbor. How? For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Isa_55:10-11 God is saying, “Just as rain coming down causes growth to take place on a barren hillside, so My Word will accomplish the purpose I sent it to do.” Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.Deu_6:4-7 When you’re driving in your car; when you’re having breakfast together; when you tuck your kids into bed, don’t talk to them about your ideas on dating or your philosophy on politics. Talk to them about Scripture. Share Bible verses with them over and over again. You see, the verse itself has power. It is the incorruptible seed that has the power to produce spiritual life: in your husband who seems to be a dry bag of bones; in your wife who seems to be unresponsive to spiritual things. The power is in the Word itself. It is a seed that will not return void but will permanently impact and powerfully affect anyone who hears it. If we really believed this, folks, we would be sharing Bible verses constantlyas we drive, as we have a meal, as we go on vacation, in the office, on the ball field, in the neighborhood. There would be a steady stream not of our thoughts, but of the living Word of God. Now, we may not see its effect immediately, but, according to Isa_55:11, it will take root and blossom ultimately. I challenge you today, Mom, Dad, Friend, Teenager, Grandfather, Neighborto take a verseany verseand plant it in the ear of your granddaughter. Use it in your conversation as you talk on the phone. Say it in passing to the guy at the gas station. The impact will be huge because God honors His Word even above His name. “That may be true,” you sigh. “but you must understand. It’s not just that I am surrounded by dry bones; I myself am dry.” If you feel this way, turn to 2 Kings 13… During an invasion in Israel, a Moabite soldier died. Midway in the process of burying him, his fellow soldiers caught sight of their enemies headed right at them. To save time, they tossed their dead buddy into a grave that was already occupied by the body of the prophet Elisha. When the corpse hit the bones of Elisha, it immediately came back to liferevived, resurrected, born again! This story never ceases to amaze me. It tells me that if our lives have been permeated with the Word of God, even when we go through dry days or dark nights, life will come from us as the Word of God flows through us to those around us. It’s not how we’re doing or how we’re feeling that matters. Whether we feel high or dry is irrelevant. It’s the power of the Word that works. Therefore, your assignment this week is to share a verse with your son, daughter, schoolmate, or co-worker. “I don’t know any verses,” you say. Come to Bible study and learn one! Learn one verse a week and then plant it in the heart of someone else to bring life to them. Speak Scripture, gang, and watch what happens.