January 26, 2022 | Proverbs 1:20-33 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue One of our bicycles recently needed repairs. We checked the extended warranty, fully expecting that (as in the past) it had just expired. To our surprise and delight, the warranty still had two weeks to go, and we were able to get the bike fixed […]
January 25, 2022 | Proverbs 1:1-9 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue In his 1644 essay “Of Education,” English poet John Milton explained the purpose of learning from a Christian perspective: “The end, then, of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to […]
January 24, 2022 | Luke 2:41-52 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Our family had just arrived at the Kansas City Zoo. We gathered inside the gate…then had that sinking feeling almost all parents experience at some point: One of our children was missing. Perhaps he’d rushed ahead to see his beloved giraffes. We prayed and spread […]
January 23, 2022 | Psalm 73 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Mental health is an important dimension of our well-being that we sometimes don’t like to address. In any given year, an estimated 26 percent of adults have a diagnosable mental illness. During our lifetime, at least half of us will have a mental health issue, […]
January 22, 2022 | Genesis 50:15-21 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue In 1877, American abolitionist (and escaped slave) Frederick Douglass met his former master, Thomas Auld. Douglass had previously written strong condemnations of Auld’s cruel treatment of his slaves. But when they met near the end of Auld’s life, Douglass forgave him. They shed tears, were […]
January 21, 2022 | Jeremiah 35 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Sometimes no matter how great the teacher, we fail to learn the lesson. In today’s reading, God directed the prophet Jeremiah to use a family called the Rekabites as an object lesson (v. 13). Who were the Rekabites? During the reign of King Jehu, the […]
January 20, 2022 | Luke 22:24-32 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue When we think of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we tend to think of headline moments such as miracles and confrontations with the Pharisees. But mostly He invested in a close circle of followers, especially the twelve disciples. As A. B. Bruce wrote in The Training […]
January 19, 2022 | Galatians 2:11-21 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue What can we learn from our disagreements? In today’s passage, we’re given a front row seat to a conflict between Peter and Paul. But while their disagreement was great, so was the learning that resulted! Earlier, Paul had taught Peter and other leaders about God’s […]
January 18, 2022 | Ezekiel 33: 27-33 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Christians often define success in terms of numbers: the number of people converted, churches planted, church members in attendance, money raised, etc. Would you answer a ministry posting like this one? “Wanted: Person to speak for the Lord. All content provided. Failure guaranteed—no one […]
January 17, 2022 | John 3:1-15 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue “Born again” may be a familiar phrase to us (v. 3), but in its original context it was breathtaking, even shocking. How could a grown man be born a second time? After all, a newborn baby is completely needy and helpless—the exact opposite of a […]