“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” (1 Thessalonians […]
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in […]
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold […]
“He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:17-18). Ephesians is a letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in the city of Ephesus. There are only two main themes […]
The same “God of love” we worship is also a “God of judgment.” And in our scripture passage for today from John chapter nine, Jesus practices a kind of “tough love.” Condemning and uncovering the sin of those who deny and hide from him, yet covering and forgiving us if we just admit our sins […]
Most of us have fond memories of a mom, grandmother, or other kind person who picked us up when we fell, bandaged our knees when we scraped them, and encouraged us when we had been bullied or knocked down. And in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus in much the same way, […]
Not everything is easy in the life of a person who stands up and tells the truth about God. In our Bible reading verses for today a man born blind who was healed by Jesus undergoes scathing verbal abuse by the religious rulers of his day. They repeatedly questioned his testimony. They insulted his integrity. […]
In a trial, witnesses are called to testify and give evidence about what they have seen and heard. And the scripture passage below almost seems like a court case as a man who was born blind and healed by Jesus tells the religious rulers what happened to him. His testimony culminates with the famous line […]
What difference has Jesus made in your life? And…is that difference visible to other people. In our Bible reading passage for today, Jesus touched and healed a man who was born blind, and the evidence was obvious, visible, compelling, and overwhelming. So, as you read today, go in two directions with your thoughts. First, think […]
We like to assign suffering in the lives of other people to something they have done. If a person has cancer, we wonder if they smoked or had a healthy diet. When someone is a victim of crime we imagine they hung around the wrong group of friends or left their doors unlocked or strayed […]
