Devotions from September 2024

Passage Read: John 11-12 Meditation Verses: 12:49-50 Jesus doesn't come up with His own thoughts and wisdom, but He only says what His Father has commanded Him to say. The Father's command is eternal life, so He is careful to speak just as the Father…

Passage Read: John 13-14 Meditation Verses: 14:12-14 This seems like such a great promise, such a huge promise. The works that Jesus did, those who believe in Him will do greater things. He has done some pretty spectacular miracles! But He promises that those who…

Passage Read: John 15-16 Meditation Verses: 15:26-27 The disciples would not be alone in their testifying about Jesus. The Holy Spirit would also be testifying to the whole world. The Spirit's testimony is what makes our testimony powerful and effective. It's also what makes our…

Passage Read: John 17-18 Meditation Verses: 17:14-18 Jesus sends His disciples into the world, even though the world hates them. He sends us into the world just as the Father sent Him into the world, to testify of its deeds, that they are evil, and…

Passage Read: John 19-20 Meditation Verse: 19:11 Jesus here is saying what Paul later explains, that all authority on earth is appointed by God. God established authorities, not just those that acknowledge Him, but even those that have no idea He exists. God is a…

Passage Read: John 21 - Acts 1 Meditation Verses: John 21:17-18 Jesus adjusts His question to meet Peter where he is. Jesus first asks if Peter loves Him with a sacrificial love, but after denying Jesus three times, Peter no longer dares claim such a…

Passage Read: Acts 2-3 Meditation Verse: 3:15 The resurrection of Jesus is the assurance that all He taught, all He claimed about Himself, and all He promised to those who believe in Him is true. It is the evidence we need to believe in Him.

Passage Read: Acts 4-5 Meditation Verse: 5:33 This is the third time the apostles were arrested, and their courage and boldness remain undimmed. They were just imprisoned, but released by an angel and told to preach in the temple first thing in the morning. Is…

Passage Read: Acts 6-7 Meditation Verse: 7:60 Stephen drew from history to show how disobedient and rebellious the Jews were, especially this leadership. He called them out for their sin in no uncertain terms, calling them stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart, the betrayers and murderers…

Passage Read: Acts 8-9 Meditation Verses: 8:21-23 Simon believed the Gospel at Philip's preaching, but he used to be someone great, called the "Great Power of God." But he saw in Philip and the Gospel something greater, and when the apostles came to give the…

Passage Read: Acts 10-11 Meditation Verses: 10:34-35 Cornelius believed in the God of the Jews, that He was indeed the one true God. He turned away from his own gods and accepted the conditions and restraints and lesser position Gentiles had in the Jewish world.

Passage Read: Acts 12-13 Meditation Verse: 13:10 Elymas was a Jewish false prophet, who served the proconsul. When the proconsul invited Paul and Barnabas to explain the Gospel to him, Elymas opposed them and worked at turning the proconsul away from the message. According to…

Passage Read: Acts 14-15 Meditation Verse: 14:22 Paul and Barnabas have suffered tribulation in their efforts to take the Gospel to the nations of the Roman empire, but what tribulations do the people who remain at home need to go through? There is perhaps hatred…

Passage Read: Acts 16-17 Meditation Verses: 17:24-27 Paul is not afraid to speak the truth, even if it's offensive to people. He is not offering an alternative religion that people can choose to believe or not, but telling them the truth about the universe, that…

Passage Read: Acts 18-19 Meditation Verse: 19:6 Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, though Luke didn't record him receiving the Spirit like this, with a noteworthy response. Yet Paul was laying hands on others and the Spirit was coming on them. Paul went on…

Passage Read: Acts 20-21 Meditation Verses: 21:11-14 Paul and those with him, representatives from each of the churches that gave a gift for the Jews in Jerusalem, kept hearing that Jerusalem would end badly for Paul. So in several of the places where they stopped,…

Passage Read: Acts 22-23 Meditation Verse: 23:16 God had already promised to Paul that he would testify for Christ in Rome. Though Paul was willing to die for Christ in Jerusalem, the Lord had other plans, such that He had Paul's nephew in the right…

Passage Read: Acts 24-25 Meditation Verse: 25:11 Paul had been in prison two years, and he was no closer to Rome and no closer to being set free. Whatever means God intended to use to bring him to Rome to testify had not materialized. For…

Passage Read: Acts 26-27 Meditation Verses: 26:20,23 Paul proclaims Jesus as the Christ, who was foretold to have to suffer and rise from the dead, so that forgiveness of sins could be given to anyone who turns from their own ways to God, displaying their…

Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1 Meditation Verses: Romans 1:28-32 Turning away from God results in all kinds of depravity, not just sexual immorality and perversion, but all kinds of unrighteousness and wickedness and greed and murder and strife and gossip and arrogance and…

Passage Read: Romans 2-3 Meditation Verse: 2:1 It is so interesting to read that those who pass judgment on others are guilty of doing the very same things. Like there's a heightened sensitivity to the things we feel guilty about doing, and perhaps we want…

Passage Read: Romans 4-5 Meditation Verse: 5:12 Through Adam, sin entered into the world and brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all men also sinned, even without any specific Law having been given. All men weren't condemned in Adam's sin, but…

Passage Read: Romans 6-7 Meditation Verses: 6:12-14 Sin has reigned in my mortal body, and I once willingly surrendered myself to it, submitting in slavery to it. It deceived me and I sold myself into slavery to it, because that looked right to me, to…

Passage Read: Romans 8-9 Meditation Verses: 8:23-25 It is the hope of the resurrection that enables and encourages obedience and endurance in the things of God. It is the promise that we will live forever, that we will receive a new, eternal body, freed from…

Passage Read: Romans 10-11 Meditation Verses: 10:3-5 There is God's righteousness and there is righteousness through the Law. Most Israelites didn't understand God's righteousness and thought the only way to righteousness was by obeying the Law, which Moses affirms as a way to live. But…

Passage Read: Romans 12-13 Meditation Verse: 13:3 I don't know of many governing authorities who will praise someone for doing good, though they all should desire for their citizens to do good. There are awards and such for those who do good, but it usually…

Passage Read: Romans 14-15 Meditation Verses: 15:17-19 Paul has cause to boast in Christ, and it is what Christ has accomplished through him, in particular resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, and the miraculous signs and wonders through the Holy…

Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1 Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18 Anyone who argues with sound doctrine, with the teachings that have been entrusted to the church through those who were Apostles of Christ, anyone who believes himself or herself to be wiser than…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 2-3 Meditation Verses: 2:4-6 Paul didn't depend on wise words or polished speech, but on the power of the Spirit. The Spirit worked through him to confirm him as a man who was backed by real power. He preached the Gospel,…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 4-5 Meditation Verses: 5:9-11 There are two standards: one for how we treat brothers and one for how we treat unbelievers. The brother we hold to a high standard of righteous behavior, because he has claimed to believe in Christ and…