July 5 Paul begins 1 Corinthians 7 talking about sexual intimacy in marriage. While he prohibits sexual immorality (all sexual behavior outside the context of a one-man-one-woman covenant marital relationship), Paul encourages sexual intimacy within a covenant marital relationship. In fact, he says that giving yourself to your spouse is your conjugal duty. And it’s…
April 3 Many of us over a certain age have seen A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV. Charles Schulz’s main character becomes discouraged with all of the commercialism of Christmas. At the pivotal moment, Charlie Brown cries out, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus van Pelt claims he knows. He…
February 2 Are you ready to have some of your preconceptions about God blown away? Matthew tells us, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1, CSB) 1.) Jesus was led into temptation. The writer of the book of Hebrews knew what he was…
January 1 John begins his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1 (CSB) Right out of the gate, John recalls the first chapter of Genesis, which states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and…
In today’s Bible reading*, we see two things that are called, “awe-inspiring”: an awe-inspiring sign in heaven (v. 1) and the awe-inspiring works of God (v. 3). Awe is a word that is foreign to many Believers. We just don’t see things as being “awe-inspiring”. The things of God tend to be, quite frankly, normal. Boring….
In today’s Bible reading*, we see two witnesses given authority to prophesy/preach against the people’s sins for a period of time. During their allotted time, they are immortal; no one can harm them. At the end of the allotted time, people martyr the witnesses and leave their bodies on the street until the witnesses are resurrected…
