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 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 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 […]
January 16, 2022 | 2 Samuel 12:1-14. DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue The first job listed on David’s resume was as a shepherd guarding the family sheep (1 Sam. 17:34–35). He knew that it took a great deal of time, effort, and watchful care to raise a flock. In Psalm 23, David describes us as sheep […]
January 14, 2022 | Ezra 17:1-10 DEVOTIONS This Month’s issue One of the most moving scenes in the Old Testament is when Ezra the priest reads the Law to the returned exiles (Nehemiah 8). He stood on a high wooden platform so all could see and hear. The Levites circulated, instructing the people about the […]
HOW PRIDE BLINDS February 17, 2020 | Esther 5:9b–14 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue If you were to name the “Top Ten Egotists of All Time,” whom would you include? One such list features Billy the Kid, one of the most lethal men in the Wild West, and John Wilkes Booth, the stage actor who shot […]