Daily Reading
June 4, 2024
One of the most profound surprises that has come about through walking with God has been with regard to people. People make up a very large part of our lives. We’re surrounded by people. We deal with others every day, from the driver in front of us...
Daily Reading
June 3, 2024
Is there any doubt that the God John beheld (Rev. 4:3, 6) was beautiful beyond description? But of course. God must be even more glorious than this glorious creation, for it "foretells" or "displays" the glory that is God's. John said God was as radi...
Daily Reading
June 2, 2024
Because of Jesus, we have every reason to be known as people of deep hope and joy. But does that mean we are going to be running around singing and dancing and smiling every moment of our lives? Are you able to? Am I? Is that what it means to “rejoic...
Daily Reading
June 1, 2024
But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for wha...
Daily Reading
May 31, 2024
The meadowlark has long been my favorite songbird. I love its song because it evokes so many summer days out in the fields and streams of the West. Its song means summer, hay meadows, long lazy days, fly-fishing. More than anything else, it has becom...
Daily Reading
May 30, 2024
So long as we imagine it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart. But it is the other way about – He is looking for us. —Simon Tugwell Can it possibly get any more uncertain than this? We so long for life to be better than it is. We...
Daily Reading
May 29, 2024
The shriveled figure lay in the sun like a pile of rags dumped there by accident. It hardly appeared to be human. But those who used the gate to go in and out of Jerusalem recognized him. He was disabled, dropped off there every morning by someone in...
Daily Reading
May 28, 2024
When the going gets rough, we're going nowhere without desire. And the going will get rough. The world, the minions of darkness, and your own double-mindedness are all set against you. Just try coming alive, try living from your heart for the Sacred ...
Daily Reading
May 27, 2024
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). The Greek word here for “the world” we are crucified to is kosmos. It is quite an encompassing term, i...
Daily Reading
May 26, 2024
It's undeniable: the new covenant, accomplished through the work of Christ, means that we have new hearts. Our hearts are good. Or God's a liar. Until we embrace that stunning truth, we will find it really hard to make decisions, because we can't tru...
Daily Reading
May 25, 2024
Where has Jesus come through for you? Really. Take a moment and remember. And then write it down. Remembering fertilizes our hope. It makes our faith burgeon and bloom. It strengthens our belief in the promises of God that He is good and He is for us...
Daily Reading
May 24, 2024
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [Sam] When we moved into our first place, Susie started having some intense nightmares, something that isn’t common for her. After a couple...
Daily Reading
May 23, 2024
We cannot know the plans of God for us beyond His promises that He is working for our good at all times. And often we are far from comfortable as we wait. But, just as David wrote in the psalm, we, too, can remember God’s great love and faithfulness ...
Daily Reading
May 22, 2024
You might think that keeping Jesus all mysterious and heavenly is the proper thing to do, but consider this: When he came, he came as presented in the Gospels — very much human, a person, a man, with a very distinct personality. This is the primary w...
Daily Reading
May 21, 2024
Most of you have heard of the famous Cross, the assurance of forgiveness (and Lord knows we’ll need buckets of that as we go along). In the Cross God undergoes utter forsakenness so that we will never be forsaken. He understands sorrow, pain, rejecti...
Daily Reading
May 20, 2024
I never assume I know what the new prayer need before me requires. If someone asks me, “Pray that my mother and my father reconcile,” I don’t simply start praying that. For one thing, I do not know with any sort of certainty that reconciliation is wh...
Daily Reading
May 19, 2024
Satan has an ace up his sleeve — even if his captives want out of the POW camp, he has a legal claim to them. A claim that can be broken only by blood. These prisoners can be ransomed, but only at a terrible price. It appears the evil one doesn’t und...
Daily Reading
May 18, 2024
You will be tested. Like Jesus’ desert trial, the enemy comes, probing the perimeter. He knows your story, knows where the weak spots are. But this is our training. This is the spiritual equivalent of, “Take a high guard, like this. Strike from high....
Daily Reading
May 17, 2024
At one point in the long, arduous campaign of delivering to Judah the bad news of coming judgment and futile calls for repentance, Jeremiah explodes with thoughts that have apparently been building in him for a while with regard to God's use of him: ...
Daily Reading
May 16, 2024
Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King” Whatever else we observe about the life of Jesus, we know this to be true: at every moment, Jesus modeled what it looks like to live as God’s Son. It was the bedrock of h...
Daily Reading
May 15, 2024
The crisis of hope that afflicts the church today is a crisis of imagination. Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft writes: Medieval imagery (which is almost totally biblical imagery) of light, jewels, stars, candles, trumpets, and angels no longer fits ...
Daily Reading
May 14, 2024
What exactly are you perfectly clear on these days? How about your life — why have things gone the way they have? Where was God in all that? And do you know what you ought to do next, with a deep, settled confidence that it will work out? Neither do ...
Daily Reading
May 13, 2024
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you. (Psalm 143:8–9) David wrote this—the man who c...
Daily Reading
May 12, 2024
Once we come to accept that we can never find or hang on to the life we have been seeking, what then? As Dallas Willard writes, it matters for all the world to know that life is ahead of us. I meet many faithful Christians who, in spite of their fait...
Daily Reading
May 11, 2024
If you want to turn your children off to Jesus, ignore holiness (or choose the technical rule-keeping impostor). Be a jerk and then insist the family pray at mealtimes; let them see you lie to your boss or your aging parents and then insist you all g...
Daily Reading
May 10, 2024
The Evil One lied to us about where true life was found ... and we believed him. God gave us the wondrous world as our playground, and he told us to enjoy it fully and freely. Yet despite his extravagant generosity, we had to reach for the one forbid...
Daily Reading
May 9, 2024
I continue to be stunned by the level of deadness that most people consider normal and seem to be content to live with. It had been more than a year since Diane and Ted first came to see me for counseling. As with most marriages, the real issues lay ...
Daily Reading
May 8, 2024
Where would we be today if Abraham had carefully weighed the pros and cons of God’s invitation and decided that he’d rather hang on to his medical benefits, three weeks paid vacation, and retirement plan in Ur? What would have happened if Moses had l...
Daily Reading
May 7, 2024
Even Jesus endured assault — not the open accusation that he had a wicked heart, but the more subtle kind, the seemingly "innocent" Arrows that come through "misunderstanding." After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Jud...
Daily Reading
May 6, 2024
Many people think the theme of war ends with the Old Testament. Not at all. Jesus says, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). In fact, his birth involved another battle in heaven (Rev. 12:1-5, 7-8, 17). The birth of Christ was a...