^1Pet1:1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

     To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ²who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying⁵ work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

    ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. - NIV

^Rm1:1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- ²the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, ⁴and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. ⁶And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. ⁷To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

   Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. - NIV

^Rm8:28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. - NIV

^Rm8:31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died � more than that, who was raised to life � is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written:

   "For your sake we face death all day long;
       we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." (Psa44:22)

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - NIV

^Rm9:10Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. ¹¹Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: ¹²not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger." ¹³Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Mal1:23) ¹⁴What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵For he says to Moses,

   "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
       and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." (Exo33:19)

¹⁶It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." ¹⁸Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. - NIV

^Rm9:19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" ²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' " ²¹Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? ²²What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? ²³What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory-- ²⁴even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As he says in Hosea:

   "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
       and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," (Hos2:23)
²⁶and,
   "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
       'You are not my people,'
   they will be called 'sons of the living God.' " (Hos1:10) - NIV

^Rm11:1I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? ³"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life [are trying to kill me]." ⁴But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept [reserved] for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." ⁵So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. ⁷What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸as it is written,

   "God gave them a spirit of stupor,
       eyes that would not see
       and ears that would not hear,
   down to this very day." (Deu29:4; Isa29:10)
⁹And David says,
   "Let their table become a snare and a trap,
      a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
   ¹⁰let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
      and bend their backs forever." (Psa69:22,23) - ESV

^Rm11:25Lest you be wise in your own conceits [conceited], I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness [full number] of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

   "The Deliverer will come from Zion,
       he will banish ungodliness from Jacob";
   ²⁷"and this will be my covenant with them
      when I take away their sins." (Isa59:20,21;27:9 Jer31:33-34)

²⁸As regards [with regard to] the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. ²⁹For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, ³¹so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. ³²For God has consigned all [bound all men over] to disobedience, that he may have mercy [them] on all. - ESV

^1Jhn3:16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. ¹⁹This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²²and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. ²³And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. - NIV

^2Jhn1:1The elder to the elect [chosen] lady and her children, whom I love in [the] truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, ²because of the truth that abides [lives] in us and will be with us forever: ³Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. - ESV

^1Pet2:4As you come to him, a [the] living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands [says] in Scripture:

   "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
        a cornerstone chosen and precious,
    and whoever believes [trusts] in him
        will not [never] be put to shame." (Isa28:16)

⁷So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
   "The stone that the builders rejected
         has become the cornerstone," (Psa118:22) ⁸and
   "A stone of stumbling [that causes men to stumble],
         and a rock of offense [that makes them fall]." (Isa8:14)

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. ⁹But you are a chosen race [people], a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession [belonging to God], that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. - ESV

^1Pet4:12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery [painful] trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice insofar as [that] you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. ¹⁵But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. ¹⁶Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that [he bears that] name. ¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸And

    "If the righteous is scarcely saved,
        what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (Pro11:31)

¹⁹Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a [their] faithful Creator while doing [continuing to do] good. - ESV

^Jud1:1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
      To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: ²Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. ³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. - NIV

5 - sanctify: to free from sin, purify, and set apart for a sacred purpose. ^

Faith   and   Love

Challenge:  True Life

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