January 17 John’s first twelve chapters cover three years of ministry. In a unique twist, chapters 13-18 cover just one night. It’s as if John throws things into slow motion to catch all the details of this fateful night—the night that would be Jesus’ last with His disciples before His violent mocking, scourging, and death…
January 16 There are several Marys mentioned in the Gospels, and sometimes it’s easy to get confused distinguishing between them. The Mary in today’s Bible reading is Mary of Bethany—the sister of Martha and Lazarus (the friend Jesus raised from the dead in John 11). This Mary is not to be confused with Mary Magdalene;…
January 15 John 11:1-44 tells the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It’s a familiar story for those of us who have been around church a while. It reveals the Lord’s authority over death and demonstrates His compassion for His friends. It also contains the Bible’s shortest verse, the famous two-word passage: “Jesus…
January 12 I was saved for almost a decade before hearing about the reality of “eternal security.” One day a friend said something about “once saved, always saved,” and I scoffed. Back then I could not imagine knowing that I would make it into heaven when I died. In a desire to secure my salvation,…
January 11 Chapter 9 reveals Jesus’ sixth miracle in the Gospel of John: the healing of another disabled man on the Sabbath. We also discover a stark contrast between the cause of this man’s disability and that of the thirty-eight-year paralytic Jesus healed in John 5: The paralyzed man was disabled for some unspecified sin. This…
January 10 Have you ever heard a skeptic claim, “Jesus never claimed to be God?” I agree. Jesus never claimed to be God… well, not in so many words, not in the way we would say it. But if we look at how people responded to what He said and did, there’s no mistaking His…
