Read Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 When I surveyed all that my hands had done … everything was meaningless. Ecclesiastes 2:11 Today’s world is pleasure mad. Millions of people will pay almost any amount of money to buy experiences to temporarily escape the burdens of life. While there is nothing wrong with innocent...
Read 1 John 4:20–21 Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 1 John 4:20 When our hearts are confident toward God, there is no need for us to pretend, either to God or to other people. If we...
Read Hebrews 10:24–39 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 Our fellowship with God must never become selfish. We must also fellowship with other Christians...
Read Ecclesiastes 4:1–6 I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. Ecclesiastes 4:2 Solomon went into a courtroom to watch a trial, and there he saw innocent people being oppressed by power-hungry officials. The victims wept, but their tears did...
Read Isaiah 1:2–4 The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Isaiah 1:3 Isaiah was a man in touch with God. He foresaw God’s Son and revealed God’s glory; he heard God’s message, and sought to bring the...
Read Job 42:7–17 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. Job 42:10 Job ended up with twice as much as he had before. He was once again a wealthy man. But we must not...
Read Colossians 1:18–20 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Colossians 1:18 In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago, and more than twenty-one million people...
Read 1 Peter 5:12–14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. 1 Peter 5:14 Peter closed this epistle with a benediction of peace. He opened the letter with a greeting of peace (1 Peter 1:1–2), so the entire epistle points...
Read Job 16—17 If the only home I hope for is the grave … where then is my hope? Job 17:13, 15 People treated Job as if he were the scum of the earth (v. 6). His body was only the shadow of what it had been (v. 7), and...
Read Isaiah 37 The angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Isaiah 37:36 Sennacherib boasted of his military might and his great conquests. But the king of Assyria forgot that he was only God’s tool for accomplishing...