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    Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough: Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere
    Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough: Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere
    Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough: Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough: Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere

    By Jeff Doles

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    About this ebook

    Keep the Faith, Change the World!

    When times are hard, it can be very tempting to hold on to the world and let go of the faith. The apostle Peter certainly knew what that was like when he denied Jesus three times, mere hours after pledging unshakeable faithfulness. But with the reality of the resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit, he learned how to do just the opposite—to keep the faith and change the world!

    In his letter to Jesus believers scattered abroad, Peter reveals not only how to keep the faith in difficult circumstances but also how to change the world by the new life that comes from Jesus—a life of loving, giving and serving. This book is a study of that letter. In it you will learn about:

    * The new birth, the new mind, and the new life believers have in Jesus
    * The new kind of people we are called to be in Him
    * The incorruptible Word by which we have come to know Him
    * The indestructible inheritance He has for us
    * What it means to be holy
    * What true freedom is and how it transforms relationships
    * How to walk in fervent love and find exuberant joy beyond words
    * How to arm yourself with the mind of Jesus
    * How to manifest the glory and dominion of Jesus
    * How to stand firmly against our true adversary
    * ... and more

    These are “bite-size” studies to help guide you through Peter’s letter, a little at a time. At the end of each study are focus questions to help you think further about the truths Peter brings. They are open-ended questions to allow for maximum personal reflection and group discussion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJeff Doles
    Release dateJan 28, 2012
    ISBN9781465753953
    Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough: Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere
    Author

    Jeff Doles

    JEFF DOLES is a Christian writer, blogger and Bible teacher. He and his wife, Suzanne, live near Tampa, FL and are the founders of Walking Barefoot Ministries. Their desire is to help you take the next step of faith in your walk with the Lord, live in the reality of His kingdom, and experience the presence and power of God in your life. Jeff's books include Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church, Healing Scriptures and Prayers, and Praying With Fire: Change Your World with the Powerful Prayers of the Apostles. His blog is The Faith Log: Exploring the Dynamics of Biblical Faith.

    Read more from Jeff Doles

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      Book preview

      Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough - Jeff Doles

      Keeping the Faith When Things Get Tough

      Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere

      ©2012 by Jeff Doles

      All rights reserved.

      Smashwords edition

      Print ISBN: 978-0-9823536-2-2

      Published by

      Walking Barefoot Ministries

      P.O. Box 1062, Seffner, FL 33583

      All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the New King James Version. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

      Scripture taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Cover foreground image: Saint Peter, a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. Anonymous. Public domain. Cover background image: Passion altar, left inner panel, upper Scene: Kiss of Judas, by Hans Holbein the Younger. Public domain.

      Cover design and book interior by www.ChristianBookDesign.com

      For more resources on enjoying new life in Christ, living in faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, or to find out more about Jeff Doles, visit our websites:

      www.WalkingBarefoot.com

      www.TheFaithLog.com

      www.HolySpiritMiracles.com

      www.JeffDoles.com

      Contents

      Introduction ~ Keep the Faith, Change the World

      Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere

      A Letter from Rocky (1:1)

      A Letter to Scatterlings (1:1-2)

      The Abundant Mercy of God Revealed in Jesus the Messiah (1:3-5)

      A Joy Words Cannot Contain (1:6-9)

      The Intense Desire of Prophets and Angels (1:10-12)

      New Birth, New Mind, New Life (1:13-16)

      The Destiny of Holiness (1:16)

      Living in Awe of the Redeemer God (1:17-21)

      The Gospel of Fervent Love (1:22-25)

      Incorruptible Seed, Incorruptible Harvest (1:23)

      Growing Up in New Life (2:1-3)

      Honored by God or Destined to Fall? (2:4-8)

      A New Kind of People (2:9-10)

      Glorifying God on the Day of Inspection (2:11-12)

      Living in True Freedom (2:13-17)

      Undermining Slavery with True Freedom (2:18-25)

      Transforming Marriages with True Freedom (3:1-7)

      A Life of Blessing (3:8-12)

      A Ready Heart and a Gentle Response (3:13-17)

      Suffering Messiah, Reigning King (3:18-22)

      Armed with the Attitude of Jesus (4:1-6)

      The End is Here? (4:7)

      Manifesting the Glory and Dominion of Jesus (4:7-11)

      An Unexpected Cause for Rejoicing (4:12-16)

      Deliverance in Difficult Times (4:17-19)

      Wearing the Victor’s Crown (5:1-4)

      Clothing Yourself with Greatness (5:5)

      Under the Mighty Hand of God (5:5-7)

      Standing Firm Against the Adversary (5:8-11)

      The Grace of God in Which We Stand (5:12-14)

      About the Author

      Books by Jeff Doles

      Introduction ~

      Keep the Faith, Change the World

      crosses

      WHEN times are hard, it can be very tempting to hold on to the world and let go of the faith. The apostle Peter certainly knew what that was like when he denied Jesus three times, mere hours after pledging unshakeable faithfulness. However, with the reality of the resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit, he learned how to do just the opposite — to keep the faith and change the world!

      In his letter to Jesus believers who were scattered abroad and experiencing persecution and hardship, he reveals not only how to keep the faith in difficult circumstances but also how to change the world by the new life that comes from Jesus — a life of loving, giving and serving.

      This book is a study of that letter. It comes from a series I taught on First Peter in the Bible study group I have lead for the past ten years. Teaching it live inspired me to expand on it in a series of blog posts at www.TheFaithLog.com. And now I have collected those posts together and edited them into this present form (I believe in retasking).

      These are bite-size studies to help guide you through Peter’s letter a little at a time. For the most part, they retain the shape and style of the blog (minus all the typos). At the end of each study, I have added some focus questions to help you think further about the truths Peter brings. I have left them open-ended to allow for maximum personal reflection and group discussion.

      In my series of Jesus Believers* books, I make no distinction between those who believe in Jesus and those who follow Him. They are one and the same. Faith is not an abstract assent to a proposition, it is personal relationship with another person — the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who know Him, follow Him. That is what faith looks like.

      Also, when I speak of believers, I do not have in mind merely an assortment of individuals who have faith in the same Lord, I am thinking as much or more of the one body of which every believer is a part — the body of Christ — and how it is revealed in the local church (in this case, the body of believers at Philippi). There is both diversity and unity, and the interaction of the one and the many in the community of faith. All take part together as one. This is particularly significant as we go through Paul’s letter and see how he exhorts the believers at Philippi to work through their differences and come together with the same attitude that was demonstrated by the Lord Jesus.

      My intent with this book, as with my blog, is to encourage you and stir up your faith to receive the wonderful promises and walk in the divine destiny God has for you. For many years now, my favorite verse, the one I come back to again and again, is Isaiah 50:4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple (NASB). That has been my desire with this project and, indeed, with all my writing and ministry — to sustain the weary one with a word.

      * In addition to this present book, my Jesus Believers series also includes There is Always Joy: Paul’s Letter to the Jesus Believers at Philippi and The Focus of Our Faith: Paul’s Letter to the Jesus Believers at Colosse.

      Peter’s Letter to Jesus Believers Scattered Everywhere

      crosses

      A Letter from Rocky

      Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. (1Peter 1:1)

      THE name Peter comes from the Greek word, petros, which means rock. It is the name Jesus gave Simon Bar-Jonah when he received a very important truth from God.

      When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

      So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

      He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

      Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

      Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:13-19)

      Simon did not come up with this on his own. It was a revelation he received directly from heaven. It was the sudden, divine realization that the one to whom he was speaking was the

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