Studies, reading plans and every single day within them, alongside devotionals and articles. Search by title, book of the Bible, passage or topic.
Bible Memory collection
Everything the Bible later says about worship, work, dignity and rest rests on these opening claims about who made the world and what human beings are. Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The sentence assumes God and explains everything else, which is the opposite…
Bible Memory verse
God's kindness, patience and tolerance are meant to lead us toward repentance, not to be treated with contempt. It reframes God's patience. Delay in judgment is an invitation, not an indication that God has stopped caring. 2 Peter 3:9 Joel 2:13 Luke 13:3-5 Kind Father, your patience is not…
Bible Memory verse
Paul considers present sufferings not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. It is a considered judgment rather than a denial of pain, made by a man who was beaten and imprisoned. 2 Corinthians 4:17 1 Peter 5:10 Revelation 21:4 Lord, weigh my suffering against your glory and…
Chapter study
Read Genesis 4:1-16 slowly before reading anything below. The chapter is short, and most of what this study points out is visible in the text itself. Hold three things apart as you read: what Scripture states, what it…
Chapter study
Psalm 1 does not pray and does not praise. Nobody is addressed as God anywhere in it. It teaches, which is why it belongs with the wisdom writing of Scripture even though it stands at the head of the songbook. Read it…
Chapter study
Romans 8 is quoted more than it is studied. Most believers can recite verse 28 and verse 38 and have never traced the argument that makes either of them true. Paul is not writing a collection of encouraging lines. He…
Dig Deeper
Romans 8:32 He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? The argument runs from the greater to the lesser. If God has already given the…
Dig Deeper
Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Work together, not are good. And the promise is addressed to a specific group,…
Dig Deeper
Genesis 4:9 Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” The question is asked by a man who has just killed the brother in question. 1 John 3:16-18 By this we…
Bible study
The chapter that holds the Christian life from beginning to end Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.…
Dig Deeper
Genesis 4:10 Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground. The blood is given a voice, and it cries to God rather than to Cain. Hebrews 12:24 to Jesus, the mediator of…
Dig Deeper
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The verdict is attached to a location, not to a performance level.…
Dig Deeper
Genesis 4:13-15 Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a…
Dig Deeper
Genesis 4:3-5 As time passed, Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering, but he didn’t…
Verse study
πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς ἀγαθόν panta sunergei eis agathon Greek Sunergei is where we get synergy. The verb does not say the ingredients are good. It says they are being worked together toward one end by someone with a…
Verse study
הֲשֹׁמֵר אָחִי אָנֹכִי hashomer achi anochi Hebrew The word for keeper is used of guarding and watching over, including the garden in Genesis 2:15. How Cain uses it The question comes attached to a lie. Cain says he…
Verse study
ὅς γε τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ οὐκ ἐφείσατο hos ge tou idiou huiou ouk epheisato Greek Ouk epheisato, did not spare, is the same phrasing the Greek Old Testament uses in Genesis 22:16 of Abraham not withholding Isaac. An…
Verse study
οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα oute tis ktisis hetera Greek Ktisis means anything created. Since only God is uncreated, the phrase excludes everything that exists apart from God Himself. Why death and life come first Death…
Verse study
חַטָּאת רֹבֵץ chattat robets Hebrew A participle of lying down or lying in wait, joined to the ordinary word for sin. The picture A door is a boundary. Something at a door is outside it and close to it. The image says…
Verse study
A sentence, not a feeling Katakrima is a courtroom word. Paul is not saying that believers stop feeling guilty. He is saying that the sentence which their guilt deserved has already been carried out. That distinction…
52 Week Journey
Judgment and mercy are not opposites fighting for control of God's character. Scripture holds them together in the same sentences, sometimes the same verse, refusing to let either one cancel the other. God judges sin…
Verse study
אוֹת oth Hebrew A sign or token, used of the rainbow, the sabbath and the signs given to Moses. Purpose given, description withheld The verse says the sign was so that anyone finding him would not strike him. That is…
Devotional
Psalm 96:13 Let all the trees of the woods sing for joy before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the truth with his peoples. WEB The psalm ends not…
Devotional
Ecclesiastes 3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; WEB The Preacher lists weeping and mourning alongside laughing and dancing, as things that have their proper time under…
Devotional
Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil. WEB After a book that has tested pleasure, wisdom, work and wealth and found each one…
Devotional
Matthew 12:36-37 I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. WEB Jesus is not…
Devotional
Jonah 4:2 He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow…
Devotional
Exodus 34:6-7 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving…
Devotional
James 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. WEB James writes this after warning against favoritism, and the principle he states cuts both ways: those who show…
Devotional
Leviticus 19:15 “‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness. WEB The command cuts both ways.…
Devotional
Genesis 18:25 May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do…
Devotional
1 Kings 11:4 For it happened, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father was. WEB Solomon began his…
Devotional
Genesis 18:32 He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.” WEB Abraham is interceding for Sodom, a…
Devotional
Genesis 7:23 Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those…
Devotional
Jeremiah 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says Yahweh: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and…
Devotional
Romans 12:19 Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.” WEB Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:35 to instruct believers…
Devotional
Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel, and bind it in bundles to burn it; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” WEB The…
Devotional
Romans 3:25-26 whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; to demonstrate his…
Reading plan day
Isaiah is told to comfort God's people and to prepare the way of the Lord, making a straight highway in the wilderness. The prophet who once announced judgment now announces the coming of comfort and restoration.…
Reading plan day
The chapter's most quoted lines ask you to trust the Lord with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding. Leaning is the key image: it is not that thinking is forbidden, it is that your own judgment is not…
Biblical concept
The cross was a Roman method of execution, and it is the place where Jesus died. The Gospels describe the event in careful historical detail: the charge, the soldiers, the nails, the hours, the words he spoke. The New…
Christian Living
Matthew 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” WEB matthew 25 Jesus spoke of judgement more plainly than anyone else in Scripture, and He did it as the One who came to…
Bible question
John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is…
Bible question
2 Corinthians 5:8 We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. WEB On a question no one can research, God's word must speak first. 2 Corinthians 5:6-8…
Bible question
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” WEB Three sentences of stated purpose, two from Jesus and one from Paul. Read them before any explanation, and notice that each one names the…
The Sunday Study
Verse-by-verse teaching with historical context, and a prayer to close. Nothing else in the email.