Read Galatians 4:1–7 You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4:7 We do not enter God’s family by adoption the way a homeless child would enter a loving family in our own society. The...
Read Job 15 All his days the wicked man suffers torment, the ruthless through all the years stored up for him. Job 15:20 In his first speech, Eliphaz had described the blessings of the godly (Job 5:17–26), but now he describes the sufferings of the ungodly. The problem with Eliphaz’s...
Read 1 John 2:7–8 I am not writing you a new command but an old one.… Yet I am writing you a new command. 1 John 2:7–8 The Christian life—the life that is real—is a beautiful blending of “something old, something new.” The Holy Spirit never grows old! And He...
Read Isaiah 26—27 Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. Isaiah 27:2–4 In the day of the Lord, God will use suffering to purge His...
Read Isaiah 34—35 A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way. Isaiah 35:8 Isaiah 35:8 expresses one of Isaiah’s favorite themes: the highway (11:16; 19:23; 40:3; 62:10). During...
Read 1 John 5:1–3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3 Everything in creation—except man—obeys the will of God. “Lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds … do his bidding” (Ps. 148:8). In the book of Jonah, we...
Read James 5:13–20 Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. James 5:20 What are we to do when we see a fellow believer wandering from the truth? We should pray for him, to...
Read Isaiah 52 So will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. Isaiah 52:15 The people who were astonished by the Servant’s humiliation and exaltation will shut their mouths in guilt when they hear His proclamation. Paul interprets this proclamation as the preaching of...
Read Isaiah 53 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:7 In this passage, the Servant is compared to...
Read Ecclesiastes 1:12–18 I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 1:17 When Adam and Eve sinned, they did get an experiential knowledge of good and evil, but since they were...