1 Peter 1:13

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 51:1-15

As we continue discussing what it means to be pure in heart, we ask: How do we ensure that our hearts are made pure? Great controversy has raged over this issue in every century of the Church. Those who see sin as having made deep inroads into human nature say that the only thing God can do with sin is to forgive it....

Arise and depart, for this is not your rest. § Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. § There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. § Gird up the loins of your mind, be...

Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. § Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breast- plate of righteousness … above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.He will swallow up death...

The lazy man says, “There is a lion outside!” § Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.I press toward the goal. § I run thus: not with uncertainty… I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached...

It is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. § Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness...