In today’s Bible reading*, Paul discusses spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts tends to be one of those topics that many Christians feel uncomfortable discussing. And unnecessarily so because Paul’s thesis could be boiled down to just three verses: A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. One and the same…
Paul offers hope for perpetual sinners in today’s Bible reading*. Some will tell you that your sin defines you, that once you discover your “true self“, that’s who you truly are and you should celebrate your true self. But what if your “true self” is opposed to the revealed Word of God? How do you…
Picking up from yesterday, in today’s Bible reading*, I don’t think Paul was taking a jab at Apollos, but he highlights his goal in preaching the gospel to the Corinthians. He didn’t want to come in his own strength and wisdom. He didn’t want to come with flowery speech. He said he would rather come…
In today’s Bible reading*, we get a glimpse of the secret to Jesus’ success in His ministry. It’s very easy to look at Jesus in His temptation and say, “Well, that was Jesus; He’s the Son of God! I can’t measure up!” Of course, we can’t measure up. But Jesus didn’t give in to temptation…
In today’s Bible reading* we fast forward a few years and Jesus and His relative John (the Baptizer) are about thirty years old. John steps into the Jordan River and preaches that people should repent of their sins and be baptized. By today’s standards, John was a very politically-incorrect preacher. Nowhere do we hear him…
A few weeks ago, I commented on a parallel passage that Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:18ff. Today’s Bible reading* records Paul’s comments on letting God’s Word rule in our hearts. The results are the same in the two passages, so I would argue that being filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) is the same…
