Daily Reading
April 22, 2026
I love feeling happy. Absolutely love it. Who doesn't? But my pursuit of it has sometimes gotten me into trouble. I'm pretty sure it's gotten you into trouble too.Sometimes I wonder if, in our mad pursuit of happiness, we run right past the joy that ...
Daily Reading
April 21, 2026
Our life of faith is uncertain, but we can be expectant of good. Because we belong to God, we can rest in knowing his promises to us are true and he is faithful. It’s not a question of if God is going to show up but how and when. It is not a question...
Daily Reading
April 20, 2026
Most people assume that the Cross is the total work of Christ. The two go hand in hand in our minds — Jesus Christ and the Cross; the Cross and Jesus Christ. The Resurrection is impressive, but kind of ... an afterthought. It was needed, of course, t...
Daily Reading
April 19, 2026
Remember, when Jesus boiled his whole mission down to healing the brokenhearted and setting prisoners free from darkness, he was referring to all of us. Our modern, scientific, Enlightenment worldview has simply removed spiritual warfare as a practic...
Daily Reading
April 18, 2026
What can this incessant craving, and this impotence of attainment mean, unless there was once a happiness belonging to man, of which only the faintest traces remain, in that void which he attempts to fill with everything within his reach? But it is i...
Daily Reading
April 17, 2026
Jesus enjoyed people. Not everyone does, you know. Many stories find him feasting with a rowdy crowd. He invited twelve men to spend day and night with him for three years. His longing for companionship intensifies to a crescendo in Gethsemane: “He t...
Daily Reading
April 16, 2026
When God creates Eve, he calls her an ezer kenegdo. “It is not good for the man to be alone, I shall make him [an ezer kenegdo]” (Genesis 2:18 Alter). Hebrew scholar Robert Alter, who has spent years translating the book of Genesis, says that this ph...
Daily Reading
April 15, 2026
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “W...
Daily Reading
April 14, 2026
One last thought as we sweep away some of the clutter about holiness.I don’t remember the issue my friend and I were talking about — it had something to do with Christianity — but I do remember my friend’s response: “Gosh, I’m not really sure,” he sa...
Daily Reading
April 13, 2026
How does God shape our character? We hate the answer but we know it to be true: affliction. If you say that God does not intend to use affliction, then what in your mind does he then use? Joy does wonderful things for our souls—it soothes, and stren...
Daily Reading
July 21, 2026
Dare we forget King David? Yes, his passions got him in a heap of trouble—and gave us our book of worship, the Psalms. Sure, Peter was a hotheaded disciple always quick with a reply. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane—he's the one who lopped off th...
Daily Reading
July 20, 2026
Worry is only one of a hundred things that burden our souls. Genuine concern is just as dangerous, maybe more so because it’s grounded in something noble — your concerns for your aging parents, a sick friend, a people group, a cause crying out for ju...
Daily Reading
July 19, 2026
The poet Yeats wrote,If I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror No vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had Before the world was made. ("Before the World Was...
Daily Reading
July 18, 2026
God drops things in our laps at just the right time. He puts barriers in our paths that look like roadblocks but are really gifts in disguise, beckoning us to take a closer look at what’s going on inside of us. We can either step over them or choose ...
Daily Reading
July 17, 2026
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. (Matt. 13:1...
Daily Reading
July 16, 2026
One of the most crippling convictions held by believers today is the idea that everything that happens is the will of God. It is a poisonous belief that will destroy your confidence in God; you will end up believing terrible things about him. The new...
Daily Reading
July 15, 2026
"Don't be afraid of embracing the disappointment you feel, old or new. Don't be scared of the unreasonable joy either. They're the highway markers home."We snort with disdain at such quaint sentiments, and our choice made, strike off down the straigh...
Daily Reading
July 14, 2026
Something is happening to the human heart. You need to understand what it is if you would make sense of any of this. Human beings are by nature ravenous creatures; a famished craving haunts every one of us. We were created for utter happiness, joy, ...
Daily Reading
July 13, 2026
There is the joy of having someone save a place for us. We walk into a crowded room at church or at a dinner party and someone across the way waves us over, pointing to a chair he's held on to especially for us. For a moment we feel a sense of relief...
Daily Reading
July 12, 2026
Now — what is your part? What is your role in the Story? In truth, the only one who can tell you that is the Author. To find our lives, we must turn to Jesus. We must yield our all to him and ask him to restore us as his own. We ask his forgiveness f...
Daily Reading
July 11, 2026
The devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all-time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver — that you do not really love Jesus Christ an...
Daily Reading
July 10, 2026
Aren't there times in your life that if you could, you would love to return to? I grew up in Los Angeles but spent my boyhood summers in Oregon where both my mother and father's parents lived. There was a beauty and innocence and excitement to those ...
Daily Reading
July 9, 2026
We human beings are made up of three interwoven parts. As Paul says, “May God himself ... sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). We are body, s...
Daily Reading
July 8, 2026
The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] The more you know yourself, the more this will prove an immensely helpful category. (And please, as Socrates urged, do not live an une...
Daily Reading
July 7, 2026
Athletes will tell you that working out is not the most important part of training. Recovery is. The number one cause of athletic injuries is the lack of recovery time between training sessions.Let me repeat this because it’s so counterintuitive — re...
Daily Reading
July 6, 2026
Watch Jesus with "the rich young ruler":"One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had grea...
Daily Reading
July 5, 2026
Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son, my child in whom I take pleasure!Every time I mention his name,my heart bursts with longing for him!Everything in me cries out for him.Softly and tenderly I wait for him. (Jer. 31:20 The Message) Put your own name in...
Daily Reading
July 4, 2026
But far and above the most revealing aspect of anyone’s character is how he handles people. Friends, I hope you understand this — the way a person handles others is the acid test of his true nature. How is Jesus with people? What’s he like to be arou...
Daily Reading
July 3, 2026
We want to be as clear as possible what we mean by an “agreement.” Satan is a liar, “the father of lies” (John 8:44), so utterly convincing he deceived a glorious man and woman to betray God, whom they walked with every day. I think we tend to dismi...
Daily Reading
July 2, 2026
How have we learned Christ? It ought to be a startling thought, that we may have learned him wrong. That must be far worse than not to have learned him at all: his place is occupied by a false Christ, hard to exorcise! The point is, whether we have l...