Read Isaiah 57—59 Justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Isaiah 59:9 There was a great deal of injustice in the land, with the rich exploiting the poor and the...
Read 1 Corinthians 8 We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 1 Corinthians 8:1 It has well been said, “Knowledge without love is brutality, but love without knowledge is hypocrisy.” Paul’s great concern was that the strong saints help the weaker saints to...
Read Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Ecclesiastes 1:3 The society that Solomon investigated a millennium before the birth of Christ was not too different from our world today. Solomon saw injustice to the poor, crooked politics, incompetent leaders,...
Read Colossians 3:16–17 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16 Psalms were the songs taken from the Old Testament. For...
Read Isaiah 49 I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6 “It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus,” wrote Robert Murray McCheyne. “A holy minister [servant] is...
Read Romans 12:1–6 Offer your bodies as living sacrifices. Romans 12:1 The mind controls the body, and the will controls the mind. Many people think they can control themselves and their lives by sheer “willpower,” but usually they fail. (This was Paul’s experience as recorded in 7:15–25.) It is only...
Read Galatians 6:1–10 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 The story has often been told about the message the founder of the Salvation Army sent to their international convention. General William Booth was unable to attend because of ill...
Read Isaiah 1:1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw. Isaiah 1:1 Salvation (deliverance) is the key theme in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah wrote concerning five acts of deliverance God would perform: (1) the deliverance of Judah from Assyrian invasion (Isa. 36—37); (2) the...
Read 1 John 1:2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 1 John 1:2 Counterfeit Christians—and they are common—are something like counterfeit money. Suppose you have a counterfeit...
Read Philippians 3:12–14 But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13–14 Before the tragedy of the Chicago fire in 1871, D....