Friday.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God (Wisdom 3:1). But in whose hand are the souls of sinners? The Saviour said to the apostles that satan seeks to sift them like wheat, that is, he seeks to knock them from the right path, to take them into his hands and do with them what he wants. That is why everyone turning away from the Lord is in the hands of satan, and he sifts them and casts them wherever he desires. Due to this the heads of sinners are constantly spinning, because the enemy, dragging them here and there, does not give them a chance to come to their senses. As soon as the enemy notices that someone is starting to have second thoughts, he starts to shake him even more strongly, so that his head again becomes clouded and his thoughts become scattered.

Tuesday.

Baptism according to Apostle Peter is the answer of a good conscience toward God (I Pet. 3:21).[1] He who has been baptized gives a vow to live the rest of his time according to a pure conscience, according to the whole breadth of the Lord’s commandments, accepted in his conscience. Moral purity is a characteristic of one who is baptized. The Apostle Paul compares the brightness of this life with the brightness of the resurrected Lord. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). In baptism, the old sin-loving man dies and a new man arises, zealous to do good works. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves, ye who are baptized, to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you (Rom. 6:11–14).

[1]The Slavonic for I Pet. 3:21 reads: the promise of a good conscience toward God