This episode takes a deep dive into spiritual growth, catalyzed by personal experiences and biblical teachings. Discover how a near-death experience transformed into a lifelong commitment to daily Bible reading, emphasizing the immense power of God’s Word in guiding one’s life. Through anecdotes and scriptural insights, we explore how each of us can build upon the cornerstone of our faith.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we are in 1 Peter chapter 2. We’ll listen to our guest reader Howard Copeland read the 25 verses of this chapter. Howard is the former president of the Gideons International of the state of Colorado, the Rocky Mountain State Association, and served in our country for 20 years in the U.S. Army. Let’s listen to our guest reader Howard Copeland.
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1 Peter 2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to Him, a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you 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. For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumbled because they disobeyed the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellency of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which rage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to the governor as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and the gentle. but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beating for it, you endure, but when you do good and suffer for it, you endure? This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were strained like sheep, In 1990, at 35 years old, I read 1 Peter 2 and cited a couple of verses. Verse 2,
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Verse 8, for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word. Verse 5, you also are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus. Verse 11, abstain from fleshly lusts. Verse 12, keep your behavior excellent. 15, do right. In looking at some of the journal entries in the year 2000, I noticed there was a special occasion going on as I was reading through 1 Peter, so I’d like to share that with you. This was over Thanksgiving weekend in the year 2000, and I wrote, The Golden Anniversary Party Begins. A few family and friends came in yesterday. Everybody else arrives today to celebrate mom and dad’s golden 50-year anniversary, which was October 21st. It should be a wonderful time. We will go to Colorado Springs tonight. Because it was Thanksgiving, I would also like to share my journal entry from Thanksgiving, the year 2000. I wrote Thanksgiving 2000. I have so much to be thankful for, mostly how the Lord is directing our steps. I have been gone away on Gideon business more this year than ever before. Yet ABA sales will pass one million for the first time and I am more billable than ever before. You add it up. It’s godly math. Praise the Lord. I have also been to Asia, South Pacific twice, Chicago International Convention, Florida for spring training and our silver anniversary cruise. Bought new wedding rings, all paid for, no debt. Again, you add it up. Godly math. Praise the Lord. We have a new church home we really like. There are things that I could and should do better on, but today is not a day for those issues. I bless the Lord today and praise Him for His faithfulness to me and mine again this year. When I considered the International Extension Committee, I knew I didn’t have what it takes because I didn’t have two things it took, time and money. The Lord has provided both in a miraculous way. Hallelujah! Amen. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I wrote, And the Saturday of that weekend, When I read 1 Peter chapter 2, I wrote, Everything went great yesterday. Mom and Dad had a wonderful service renewing their vows. The reception was terrific. Terry and Tammy did a wonderful job decorating and preparing. Dad was comical. The line of the day was how they met. I went over to her parents to play poker and ended up with a full house. Oh, the joy of celebrating my parents’ golden anniversary. Why did my dad say he ended up with a full house? They had six kids, a family of eight. I didn’t make any notes, but I did read 1 Peter 2 that day. In 2010, I read 1 Peter chapters 1 through 4 on the same day, and related to chapter 2, I cited a few verses. Jesus is the cornerstone on which we build. Then I wrote, they stumble because they disobey the word. I continue to write. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you shall put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Those were my journal entries, but let’s look at 1 Peter chapter 2. Let’s look at verse 2. I love that verse. It tells us we must mature as Christians. We are to long for the pure spiritual milk, like a newborn baby longs for the pure milk of their mother. We are to grow in our salvation. If indeed you’ve tasted that the Lord is good, surely you have tasted that the Lord has been good to you, as he has been to me, as I just shared. my thanksgiving passage in my journal from the year two thousand we are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession he has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light therefore we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul Keep your conduct honorable, for this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. And finally, keep deceit from our mouths. Jesus is our example. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. We can do the same because by his wounds you have been healed, because he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Thank you, Lord, that in 1 Peter 2, you remind us to grow in our salvation, to not remain as infants, but to live life abstaining from the passions of the flesh, which war against our souls. Help us, Lord, to strive for righteousness in you. Help us keep our conduct honorable, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God. And most of all, thank you, Thank you for bearing our sins on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. To God be the glory. Great things he has done. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war, so he was never home. So we took the car that day, neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin, and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car, and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf. Get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did, was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
