Daily Reading
December 21, 2018
Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, “Ascend and enter. I’ll show you what happens next.” (Revelation 4:1 The Message) The dreams I have about the kingdom only started this yea...
Daily Reading
December 20, 2018
“Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me.” (Revelation 22:12 NLT) Reward—it fills the pages of both Testaments. C. S. Lewis writes: “If you consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in th...
Daily Reading
December 19, 2018
“Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating.” (Isaiah 65:18 The Message) Certainly storytelling is one of the great pleasures in the kingdom. Would you like to write? Illustrate? Act? Produce? These are not obliterated when you step into the ...
Daily Reading
December 17, 2018
They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isaiah 35:10) What will it be like to be crowned with everlasting joy? To be “overtaken” with gla...
Daily Reading
December 16, 2018
“God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8 NLT) According to the Scriptures, the heart can be troubled, wounded, pierced, grieved, even broken. How well you know that. Thankfully, it can also be cheerful, glad, joy...
Daily Reading
December 15, 2018
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) There’s an expression that is used to describe someone...
Daily Reading
December 14, 2018
The child-heart wants to know, “Will there be animals in heaven?” The calloused heart dismisses this as theologically unworthy. Friend, the whole debate ends when you realize that heaven comes to earth. How could your creative God renew his precious ...
Daily Reading
March 27, 2027
Your suffering is neither pointless nor isolated. Somehow, Jesus’ sufferings overflow into our lives; somehow ours are linked to his. This is a great honor. It grants our sorrows an incredible dignity; it invites us to know an intimacy and connection...
Daily Reading
March 26, 2027
Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to death by a vain puppet of the Roman government acting as district governor of Jerusalem. He was nailed to a cross by a handful of Roman soldiers who happened to be on duty, and left there to die. He died sometime ar...
Daily Reading
December 6, 2026
Today's Daily Reading is from Stasi's new book The Ladder of Love, available now — order your copy today! We, as followers of Christ, are meant to live in community. We need each other. Isolation kills. The Surgeon General’s report Our Epidemic of L...
Daily Reading
December 5, 2026
Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five we...
Daily Reading
December 4, 2026
I think even a quick read of the Old Testament would be enough to convince you that war is a central theme of God's activity. There is the Exodus, where God goes to war to set his captive people free. Blood. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. Death. Plague aft...
Daily Reading
December 3, 2026
You will appreciate the mastery of Jesus only to the degree that you understand the minefield he walks. He is advancing against the prince of darkness in a bid for the human heart. The whole situation is booby-trapped. Satan already has the upper han...
Daily Reading
December 2, 2026
Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he...
Daily Reading
December 1, 2026
Some prayers just happen; they are “the Cry of the Heart.” No training is needed when it comes to this kind of prayer. I’ve uttered it thousands of times; I’m confident you have too. Like when the phone rings and the bad news starts to spill and all ...
Daily Reading
November 30, 2026
Of course, small groups have become a part of the programming most churches offer their people. For the most part, they are disappointing and short-lived — by the very admission of those who try them. There are two reasons. One, you can't just throw ...
Daily Reading
November 29, 2026
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Rom. 8:34) Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore ...
Daily Reading
November 28, 2026
“Life,” as a popular saying goes, “is not a dress rehearsal. Live it to the fullest.” What a setup for a loss of heart. No one gets all he desires; no one even comes close. If this is it, we are lost. But what if life is a dress rehearsal? What if th...
Daily Reading
November 27, 2026
When the curtain goes up on the story of humanity, we see God in a flurry of breathtaking, dramatic actions that we rather blandly call “creation.” Remember, we’re looking for the motives of his heart. Why is he doing all this? We know he already had...
Daily Reading
November 26, 2026
Something has gone wrong with the human race, and we know it. Better said, something has gone wrong within the human race. It doesn't take a theologian or a psychologist to tell you that. Read a newspaper. Spend a weekend with your relatives. Simply ...
Daily Reading
November 25, 2026
I am deep in the jungle of the assault, and the only verse I can even remember to hang on to is, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). I repeat it to myself. Over and over. It gives me strength to fight the di...
Daily Reading
November 24, 2026
God begins our courtship with a surprise. Taking the blindfold off, he turns us around and reveals his handmade wedding present. “Here,” he says. “It’s yours. Enjoy yourselves. Do you like it? Take it for a spin.” A lavish gift indeed. What’s he up t...
Daily Reading
November 23, 2026
The family is … like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy. Chesterton could have been talking about a little fellowship (our true family, because it is the Family of God). It ...
Daily Reading
November 22, 2026
We know a time will come for us to look back with our Lord over the story of our lives. Every hidden thing shall be made known, every word spoken in secret shall be uttered. My soul shrinks back; how will this not be an utter horror? The whole idea o...
Daily Reading
November 21, 2026
We exercise because we want to grow stronger; we take vitamins in the hope of being healthy; we attend language classes expecting to learn a new language. We travel for adventure; we work in the hope of prospering; we love partly in the hope of being...
Daily Reading
November 20, 2026
Life is not a list of propositions, it is a series of dramatic scenes. As Eugene Peterson said, “We live in narrative, we live in story. Existence has a story shape to it. We have a beginning and an end, we have a plot, we have characters.” Story is ...
Daily Reading
November 19, 2026
When things get hard, it can feel like the foundations of your life are giving way. It is good to remember that our foundation is firm, based on the finished work of Jesus Christ for us. There are some things that remain true, at all times and for al...
Daily Reading
November 18, 2026
Some years into our spiritual journey, after the waves of anticipation that mark the beginning of any pilgrimage have begun to ebb into life's middle years of service and busyness, a voice speaks to us in the midst of all we are doing. There is somet...
Daily Reading
November 17, 2026
Paul speaks of different glories — the glory of the sun, as compared to the glory of the moon. There are different humilities as well. You have the humility of setting aside an office — the king takes off his crown to become a pauper in the street. B...
Daily Reading
November 16, 2026
When we first think of being in a relationship with God, we probably picture him as somewhat flashy, even as many of us tried to be (at least us guys) when we were dating. He gave Jacob visions of angels descending and ascending to heaven; he parted ...