Today’s Scripture Reading 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the worldRead More …

What Did He Say? When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5) Unable to get to Jesus, the paralyzed man’s friends are emboldened. The crowd is too thick to get close to Jesus by going in on the ground floor.Read More …

How to Pray for Your Community or City As prayer leaders today often seek God for “city transformation,” urging faith to seek God for a whole city, what may guide our intercession? In 1 John 5:14-15, we read that if we ask anything according to God’s will, we can haveRead More …

Belittled Trapped like a firefly in a mason jar. Stifled, I peered out, watching others’ dreams, hopes and joys twinkle and fly by my stagnant ones. My own desires sat dusty in my valley of pain. Extinguished. Exhausted. Expectant no longer. “I’m so sorry your dreams are dashed,” my friendRead More …

With Friends Like These *Think of the last time you tried to comfort someone who was hurting. What did you do right? What did you do wrong? *What will you do differently next time? One way God comforts hurting people is to put caring friends in their lives. And ifRead More …

Tending Each Other’s Wounds The book of Hebrews was written to Christians who were facing persecution. Though evidently none of them had as yet been martyred because of their faith (see Hebrews 12:4), a number had been jailed or had their property confiscated (see Hebrews 10:34). Most of the believersRead More …

The Samaritan Woman Perhaps in order to avoid the respectable townswomen who filled their water jars at sunrise and sunset, “the Samaritan woman” came to the well at noon, the hottest hour of the day. This immoral woman, who had five husbands, now lived with a man who was notRead More …

Manna From Heaven The situation looked hopeless. The 2.5 million Israelites desperately needed food and water. When God didn’t provide for the Israelites in the way they expected, they became angry and accused God of taking them into the wilderness to starve them to death. But they failed to recognizeRead More …

What Marriage is Meant For Marriage is the oldest institution on earth. It precedes any other, including government, commerce, academia, the arts, or the military. Initiated in the opening pages of Genesis, it is civilization’s bedrock—God-created and God-ordained bedrock. First of all, it was a strategic institution. The first coupleRead More …

Rewards, Not Promises Proverbs often holds out the stick and the carrot to motivate people to the best type of behavior and attitudes. Those actions it characterizes as wise often are accompanied by reward, and those it characterizes as foolish are said to result in punishment. Indeed, the ultimate rewardRead More …