Forgetting Love

Read Job 6—8 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.” Job 8:1–2 Job had poured out his grief and was waiting to hear a sympathetic word, but his friend said that Job’s speech was just so much hot air....

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The War Is Over

Read 1 John 3:4–6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. 1 John 3:6 For many months after the close of World War II, Japanese troops were discovered hidden in the caves and jungles of the Pacific Islands. Some of these stragglers were living like frightened savages; they...

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Religion Gone Wrong

Read 2 Corinthians 2:1–11 If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. 2 Corinthians 2:10–11 One of the members of the Corinthian...

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Bright Forecast

Read James 1:12–18 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 It is impossible for God to change. He cannot change for the worse because He is holy; He cannot change for...

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Hanging On to Hope

Read Hebrews 10:19–23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23 The readers of this epistle were being tempted to forsake their confession of Jesus Christ by going back to the old covenant worship. The writer did not exhort them to...

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God Responds

Read Job 38—41 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. Job 38:1 We prefer that God speak to us in the sunshine, but sometimes He must speak out of the storm. God’s address to Job centered on His works in nature and consisted of seventy-seven questions interspersed with...

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Bearing the Pain

Read 2 Timothy 1:8–18 Do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 2 Timothy 1:8 By nature, none of us enjoys suffering. Even our Lord prayed, “Father, if thou...

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Time to Move On

Read Romans 15 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Romans 15:20 The vast area of opportunity in other parts of the empire kept Paul from visiting Rome sooner. He was...

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Why Bother?

Read 2 Corinthians 11:16–33 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 2 Corinthians 11:27 In my limited itinerant ministry, I have had the convenience of automobiles and planes,...

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Misusing a Good Gift

Read Isaiah 28 Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. Isaiah 28:7 Isaiah saw storm clouds gathering over the city and announced that trouble was coming. He began his message announcing God’s...

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