Read 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 My wife was driving on our trip to Chicago, and I was in the copilot’s seat reading another author’s book a publisher had asked me to review....
Read Romans 11:1–15 What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened. Romans 11:7 For centuries people have been puzzled by the nation of Israel. The Roman government recognized the Jewish religion, but it still called the nation secta nefaria—a “nefarious sect.”...
Read 1 John 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3 Most people are dissatisfied today because their total personality has never...
Read Hebrews 12:7–29 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11 I am sure that few children believe it when their parents say, “This hurts me more than...
Read Job 4—5 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?” Job 4:1–2 Job’s friends were silent for seven days (2:13), and Job later wished they had stayed that way (13:5). Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered...
Read 1 Peter 1:13–16 Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:13 “Prepare your minds for action” (or, “Gird up the loins of your mind” KJV) simply means, “Pull your thoughts together!...
Read Romans 7:14–25 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Romans 7:15 The law cannot give life—it can only show sinners that they are guilty and condemned. This explains why legalistic Christians and churches...
Read Job 42:1–6 Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that you can do all things.… Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:1–2, 6 Job knew he was beaten. Quoting God’s very words (vv. 3–4), Job humbled himself before the Lord and acknowledged His...
Read 1 John 3:16–17 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 In these days of multiplied social agencies, it is easy for us Christians to forget our...
Read Galatians 5:1–15 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 It is Christ who has made us free from the bondage of the law. He freed us from the...