Gary Gleans

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.     In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.     Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the sal...

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.     To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Pro and con lists are a common means of making decisions.  The decision to follow Christ also comes with its pros and cons.  Peter’s readers were experiencing some of the cons as they faced persecution for following Christ.  He wants to remind them that the pros far outweigh the cons as the implications are eternal as well as immediate. A MESSAGE TO THE ELECT EXILES: This message is being delivered by Peter who is a representative of Jesus Christ as one of His chosen apostles.  The message is being delivered to fellow believers in Christ who had been chosen by God’s grace to be mem...

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.     Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.     And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.     Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.     Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.     Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.     My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that ...

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.     You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.     Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.     As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.     Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.     But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnatio...

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.     Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.     Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.     Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.     You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.     You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Riches can be dangerous because they can easily become our functional god.  Idols always require sacrifices, are never satisfied, and offer false hope.  Idols present t...

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.     Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”     As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.     So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. God should have preeminence in our lives.  He should be our first consideration and our highest priority.  We should constantly acknowledge His presence and live in light of His desires.  Unfortunately, there are many who go through life as if God does not exist.  This is both delusional and foolish.  As we go through life, all our plans should center around the will of God and His sovereign con...