Studies, reading plans and every single day within them, alongside devotionals and articles. Search by title, book of the Bible, passage or topic.
Chapter study
…and the redemption of the body The unbreakable purpose of God The inseparable love of God in Christ romans-8-what-does-in-christ-mean What does it mean to be in Christ, and how does a person get there? The whole promise…
Chapter study
…under detailed law, and Genesis 4 told them that the gift is never separable from the giver. God regarded Abel and his offering. A nation with an altar needed to hear that early, and the prophets would spend centuries…
Chapter study
…comfort Abide occurs eleven times in this chapter, more than in any comparable stretch of the New Testament. John rarely repeats a word by accident; here the repetition functions almost liturgically, forcing the ear to…
52 Week Journey
A parable sets one thing beside another: a sower beside a hearer, a seed beside a kingdom, a lost coin beside a found sinner. Jesus taught this way constantly, and the form itself was part of the message. Parables…
Dig Deeper
…man crosses a road, spends his own money and arranges further care. The parable makes neighbour a verb. James 2:14-17 says a faith that sends a brother away without food or clothing is dead, and 1 John 3:17 asks how…
52 Week Journey
…“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” WEB A Friend Loves at All Times Proverbs describes friendship by its endurance, not its ease. Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all…
52 Week Journey
…The disciples ask to be taught, and Jesus answers with a pattern, a parable and a promise. Everything this week grows out of that request. Lord, Teach Us to Pray Prayer is learned, and the disciples knew it. Luke 11:1…
52 Week Journey
…of fish, a king who washes feet. This week follows the kingdom through parable and promise: what it is like, who enters it, how it grows, what it costs, and where it ends. The kingdom of God in Scripture is never only a…
52 Week Journey
…repentance from a prophet's call to a king's collapse, through a parable that gives it a face, to the promise that confession meets forgiveness rather than condemnation. It ends not at the moment of turning but at what…
52 Week Journey
…skills. Matthew 18:21-35 Peter's question about limits meets Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant, where a debt too large to repay is cancelled by the king and then withheld from a fellow servant. Ready to Forgive…
Devotional
…ties it to 2 Samuel 12, when Nathan confronts David with the parable of the poor man's lamb. David's response there, I have sinned against Yahweh, is four words in Hebrew, the shortest confession in Scripture, and Psalm…
Devotional
…an older man running was undignified, yet the father runs anyway. The parable's emphasis falls on the father's eagerness, not on the exact adequacy of the son's repentance before he arrives. God's welcome does not wait…
Devotional
…received immeasurable mercy and refused to extend a fraction of it. The parable measures forgiveness given against forgiveness received, and finds the servant's accounting badly out of proportion. The debt we are…
Devotional
…places justice as the fitting conclusion to a psalm about God's incomparable glory. Revelation 20:11-13 pictures a final judgment before a great white throne, where the dead are judged according to what they had done,…
Devotional
…one I had in mind. Amen. In Luke's version this teaching follows the parable of the friend at midnight, and the reason he receives is his shamelessness in asking. Jesus is not comparing God to a reluctant neighbour. He…
Devotional
…different total amounts, since both doubled what they were given. This parable sits in Matthew 25 alongside the ten virgins and the sheep and the goats, all three concerned with readiness and faithfulness while a master…
Devotional
…is in Christ, he is a new creation. Paul's evangelistic urgency is inseparable from what he has just described as reconciliation, God reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against…
Devotional
…Corinthians 15:3, Christ died for our sins). Victory over death is inseparable from victory over sin's claim, which is why verse 57 gives thanks to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 25:8…
Devotional
…in much. WEB Jesus states a principle that runs straight through the parable of the dishonest manager just before it: character shows up in small transactions as reliably as in large ones. A person is not honest by…
Devotional
…boundaries. It is a refusal to let forgiveness be rationed, since the parable that follows immediately grounds the command in a debt already forgiven that was itself beyond counting. Jesus answers a counting question by…
Devotional
…“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” WEB Everything else in the creation account up to this point has been called good. This is the first thing called not good, and it is…
Devotional
…4:30-32 He said, “How will we illustrate God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we picture it? It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on…
Devotional
…who, on finding one of great value, sells all he has and buys it. Both parables describe the same response to the kingdom from different angles: one man stumbles onto it, the other has been searching, but both respond…
Devotional
…answer He gives is short. The pattern in verses 2 to 4 is followed by a parable about a man banging on a door at midnight and a promise that the Father gives the Spirit to those who ask. Jesus teaches prayer as…
Devotional
…to love your neighbor, and judgment without mercy. Matthew 18:32-35 The parable of the unforgiving servant, forgiven a great debt yet unwilling to forgive a small one. Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they…
Devotional
…does not consist in the abundance of possessions, spoken before the parable of the rich fool. Is there a level of income or possession you have told yourself would finally be enough? Has a past version of that level…
Devotional
…tempted to idleness while waiting for Christ's return. Luke 18:1-8 The parable Jesus told about a persistent widow, to the end that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. What good work have you been doing that…
Devotional
…and told them, 'Conduct business until I come.' WEB Jesus tells this parable specifically because the crowd supposed the Kingdom of God was going to be revealed immediately, according to verse 11. He corrects that…
Devotional
…only my calm. Amen. Mark places this immediately after a chapter of parables about the kingdom, several of which describe things growing or working unseen, a seed planted, a mustard seed spreading. The storm miracle…
Devotional
…in store, not something I hope to borrow at the last hour. Amen. The parable ends with Jesus' own application in verse 13: watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour. The oil is not explained allegorically…
Devotional
…asked whether seven times was enough forgiveness. Jesus answers with a parable whose first move is to show Peter, and us, the size of the debt we ourselves have already been forgiven, before any question of forgiving…
Devotional
…delayed task today rather than tomorrow, however small. Jesus told the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, commending the servants who put their master's money to work and condemning the one who buried his out…
Devotional
…Luke 15:1-2 The Pharisees' complaint that sets up the whole chapter of parables. Luke 15:22-24 The father's commands: the best robe, a ring, sandals, and a feast, given before the son finishes speaking. Isaiah 55:7 Let…
Devotional
…in your own words. Firstfruits language makes Christ's resurrection inseparable from ours. Because he was raised, 1 Corinthians 15:22 promises that all who are in Christ will be made alive.
Devotional
…it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ WEB The parable of the sheep and the goats places ordinary acts of care, feeding, clothing, visiting, at the center of judgment. Nobody in the parable is…
Biblical concept
…I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Jesus tells the parable of the tenants in a vineyard (Mark 12:1-9) with Isaiah 5 in the room. He repeats Isaiah's details, the hedge, the pit for the press, the…
Biblical concept
…and Jeremiah 2 of a noble vine gone wrong. Gospels Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard and its tenants, then names himself the true vine. Letters Fruit language continues, and the Spirit is named as its source. A…
Biblical concept
…true at once, and Scripture never asks us to choose between them. The parables in Matthew 13 slow the picture down further. The kingdom grows like a seed nobody can rush, hides like leaven working through dough, and is…
Biblical concept
…as plainly as parallel texts ever do. This matters for how Matthew's parables of the kingdom should be read. When Matthew 13 says the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, or leaven, or a merchant seeking fine…
Biblical concept
…that someone had pressed and paid for, which is why the lamps in the parable of the ten virgins turn on whether there was oil to spare, Matthew 25:3 to 4. In the tabernacle and temple the lampstand burned continually…
Word and phrase
…the truth about where they are standing, which is why repentance is inseparable from believing the gospel rather than a hurdle to get past on the way to it. The Greek word behind repentance, metanoia, points to the mind…
Christian Living
…or tests out, in practice. That means the search for guidance is inseparable from the surrender of the previous verse, where the body is laid on the altar. God's will is discerned by the person who has already agreed to…
Bible question
…Spirit is never wasted. Persistence in prayer Luke 18:1 Jesus tells a parable to teach that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Daniel 10:12 Daniel's words were heard from the very first day, though the answer…
Bible question
…who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants. Jesus opens the parable of the unforgiving servant with a settling of accounts, which is exactly the picture Paul assumes in Ephesians. Forgiveness always begins with…
Bible question
…others. The Pharisee and the tax collector Luke 18:9-14 Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. The Pharisee stood and thanked God he was not…
Bible question
…The disciples ask Jesus to 'increase our faith,' and he answers with a parable about a mustard seed and a servant doing his duty. The reply redirects them from asking for a bigger measure to simply doing the next…
Bible question
…use. Persistence is taught, not discouraged Luke 18:1-8 Jesus told a parable so that people would always pray and not give up. Persistence differs from the much speaking of Matthew 6:7: one keeps coming to a Father, the…
Bible question
…widow, and loving the stranger. Fear of the LORD in Scripture is inseparable from how a person treats the vulnerable. The Messiah himself is marked by this fear Isaiah 11:2-3 Of the branch from Jesse's stock, Isaiah…
Bible question
…renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple. This follows two parables about counting the cost, Luke 14:28-32. He is not recruiting by minimising. Renounce is a word of release of ownership, and the disciples in…
Bible question
…about bad manners. The reason given is a definition of life, and the parable that follows shows a man whose plans ended that night. Psalms 73:25-26 Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire…
Bible question
…“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” This is the only thing in the unfallen creation called not good. Before sin ever entered the world, God had already named isolation…
Bible question
…the problem as not being rich toward God, verse 21, and prefaces the parable by saying life does not consist of possessions, verse 15. Nothing is said against the harvest itself. Zacchaeus Luke 19:1-10 He was a wealthy…
Bible question
…is deliberately short range. Worry chokes the word Matthew 13:22 In the parable of the sower, the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word so it becomes unfruitful. Luke 21:34 warns against a…
Bible question
…death entirely in himself. Matthew 25:46 Jesus ends the sheep and goats parable with everlasting punishment for some and life eternal for others, describing two permanent destinies rather than one shared fate. Paul's…
Bible question
…appeared, personified almost as Christ himself appearing. Grace is inseparable from the incarnate Son, not a force operating independently of him. Paul's thorn in the flesh was not removed even though he asked three…
Bible question
…which is why Scripture always names the destination. It is inseparable from faith Mark 1:15 Repent and believe are commanded together. Acts 20:21 speaks of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ as…
Bible question
…public act by which that turn was confessed in the earliest church, inseparable in the apostles' preaching from repentance and faith, not a separate meritorious work performed to earn what faith had not already secured.…
Bible question
…people object to it. Seek comes before save. Luke 19:10, and the three parables of Luke 15 all involve searching. Scripture presents God as taking the initiative before anyone asks. He read his job description out of…
Bible question
…of Scripture's most vivid pictures of suffering that is not wasted, comparable to Paul's language elsewhere about tribulation producing patience. Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we…
Bible question
…Son. John 1:18 and John 1:14 use the same word, and Mark 12:6 has a parable where the owner sends one more, a beloved son, after the servants. Scripture distinguishes his sonship from ours in kind, not only in degree.…
The Sunday Study
Verse-by-verse teaching with historical context, and a prayer to close. Nothing else in the email.