Devotional
Jesus Wept
…earlier. And He wept anyway, standing at the tomb of a friend, watching Mary and the others cry. This settles something before the rest of the week begins. Grief is not a lack of faith or a failure to trust the…
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Studies, reading plans and every single day within them, alongside devotionals and articles. Search by title, book of the Bible, passage or topic.
Bible studies (35)
Chapter study
Genesis 22: The Mountain Where God Revealed the Gospel
…far away and a list of names, the last of which is Rebekah. No summary, no moral. The story simply continues, and the promise keeps moving through births rather than through altars. What does God add in Genesis 22:16-17…
Chapter study
John 15: The Vine, the Branches, and the Friends of God
…anything according to his will, he listens to us. John's own later summary of the same teaching. Confidence in prayer is tied to God's will, which is the ground of the confidence rather than a limit on it. Read the…
Chapter study
Romans 8: No Condemnation, No Defeat, No Separation
…made like the Son who went through it first. Genesis 50:20 Joseph's summary: evil intended, good accomplished, both stated plainly. Acts 2:23 The crucifixion as God's counsel and men's wickedness at the same time. 2…
Dig Deeper
Does John 15:7 promise that God will give me whatever I ask?
…anything according to his will, he listens to us. John's own later summary of the same teaching. Confidence in prayer is tied to God's will, which is the ground of the confidence rather than a limit on it. Read the…
Dig Deeper
Does Romans 8:28 mean everything that happens to me is good?
…made like the Son who went through it first. Genesis 50:20 Joseph's summary: evil intended, good accomplished, both stated plainly. Acts 2:23 The crucifixion as God's counsel and men's wickedness at the same time. 2…
Reading plan
Hope: An Advent Reading Plan
…a long held prayer. Luke 1:26-38 Obedient yes The angel Gabriel tells Mary she will bear the Son of God, an announcement that would upend her whole life and reputation, and Mary's response is a quiet act of trust: let…
Reading plan
The Gospel of John in 21 Days
…power sit side by side in the same scene. John 12 Costly worship Mary anoints Jesus with expensive perfume shortly before his death, an act of worship that cost her something real, and Jesus describes his own coming…
52 Week Journey
Week 16: Obedience and Love
…transaction that earns love. It looks at Abraham, Israel at Sinai, Mary at Nazareth, the rich young ruler, and the apostle John's own later letter, because the theme runs the length of the whole book and none of these…
52 Week Journey
Week 45: Promises Fulfilled in Christ
…cancelled. It is a promise arrived. 2 Corinthians 1:20 Paul's summary statement: however many are the promises of God, in Christ they are yes, and through Christ the church says Amen to God's glory. The Seed of the…
Devotional
A Friend Sticks Closer Than a Brother
…The comparison to a brother is deliberate. Family ties were a primary social bond in the ancient world, and this proverb says that a genuine friend can equal or surpass even that. Many shallow companions can do more…
Devotional
A Reasonable Fear of Debt
…no one anything, except to love one another, Paul's New Testament summary of financial and relational obligation. Is there a financial decision in your life where honesty about debt's real power has been missing? Review…
Devotional
A Ruler Whose Kingdom Never Ends
…will be no end, upon the throne of David. Luke 1:32-33 Gabriel tells Mary her son will receive the throne of his father David and reign forever. Matthew 1:1 Matthew opens his gospel by naming Jesus son of David, tying…
Devotional
A Throne Established Forever
…endure forever like the sun before him. Luke 1:32-33 The angel tells Mary the Lord God will give her son the throne of his father David, and his kingdom will have no end. What failures in your own life have made a…
Devotional
Caleb Still Ready at Eighty-Five
…own speech in this chapter (14:8, 9, 14), Scripture's own repeated summary of what made his life different from the generation that died in the wilderness. Endurance to the end, in his case, is described as unbroken…
Daily reading
Daily Study day 9: Provision seen after obedience
…Carry what the chapter says about his provision rather than a summary of Abraham. Father, you asked Abraham for the thing he loved and you provided in his place. Where I am walking without seeing, hold me to the next…
Devotional
Death and Life in the Tongue
…words spoken out of season. This verse sits as something like a summary statement over that whole body of teaching, stating the range of outcomes rather than a single case. The Hebrew wisdom tradition treats speech as a…
Devotional
Established, Not Overthrown
…gospel relate without collapsing one into the other? Write a short summary in your own words of how grace establishes rather than cancels God's law, and keep it where you will reread it. Christ alone kept the law…
Devotional
Every Deed Brought into Judgment
…then. Amen. The verse just before this one gives the Preacher's summary command: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (12:13). After chapters describing the vanity of chasing meaning…
Devotional
Faith Comes by Hearing
…requires a preacher, and preaching requires sending. Verse 17 is the summary of that chain, so its subject is not private devotional habit but the way God's word travels to people. That has two consequences. First, no…
Devotional
God Does Not Tempt
…produce endurance and maturity rather than sin. 1 John 2:16 John's summary of what is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, the same three lures as Eden. When you are tempted,…
Devotional
God Is Love
…character tested by love toward people. John 3:16 The Gospel's own summary of the same event, God's giving of His Son 'that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' Romans 3:25 Christ presented…
Devotional
Humble Yourselves Under God's Hand
…and He will exalt you, the same principle stated by James. Luke 1:52 Mary's song: He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. Where are you tempted to force your own exaltation rather than…
Devotional
I Have Finished the Course
…WEB Paul writes this from prison, expecting execution, and his summary of his life uses three completed verbs: fought, finished, kept. There is no hedging or uncertainty in his account of what his life amounted to. The…
Devotional
Lazarus, Come Out
…John has already told us in verse 5 that Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Jesus weeps at the tomb in verse 35, even though he already intends to raise Lazarus moments later. His grief and his power over death are…
Devotional
Let It Be to Me
Luke 1:38 Mary said, "Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." The angel departed from her. WEB Mary has just heard something that will cost her reputation, her engagement, and…
Devotional
My Sheep Hear My Voice
…you are missing or a relationship you can grow in? Write a short summary of one thing you sense God has been saying to you this week through Scripture, and commit to one obedient response. John 10:11 and 15 tie hearing…
Devotional
Not One Word Has Failed
…after the land has been distributed to the tribes. It is a summary statement, and its claim is total: nothing failed of any good thing God had spoken. This is a promise already kept in Israel's own history, offered as…
Devotional
Paul's Last Fight
…tense and complete. This is not a resolution for the future, it is a summary looking back, from a man who could finally say the fight, the course and the faith had all been carried through to the end. Finishing is…
Devotional
The God Who Sees Me
…reach every place, even darkness, according to this psalm. Luke 1:48 Mary praises God for looking on the humble state of His servant. Where in your life do you most need to remember that God sees you? Name one situation…
Devotional
The Power of the Tongue
…ancient wisdom tradition considered ordinary conversation one of the primary arenas where character shows itself and where damage or blessing is most often done. The phrase power of the tongue uses a Hebrew word, yad,…
Devotional
The Will That Is Already Revealed
…justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God, an Old Testament summary of already-revealed will. What has God already made clear in Scripture that you have been treating as if it were still unclear or optional?…
Devotional
This Is Love for God
…as light in content but light in burden. This is the theme's summary, written by the same hand that recorded John 14. Father, let obedience feel to me the way John says it should, not as a weight I carry alone but as…
Devotional
Today This Scripture Is Fulfilled
…in one Nazareth synagogue. 2 Corinthians 1:20 Paul's theological summary of everything this week has traced: all the promises of God are yes in Christ. If Christ stood before you today and said this promise is fulfilled…
Devotional
Trust and Lean Not
…him, and he will make your paths straight. WEB This is the summary underneath every other proverb the week has considered. Speech, work, friendship, timing and money all become wise or foolish depending on this deeper…
Bible topics (7)
Biblical concept
King and kingship
…the line survived the exile and arrived at one man, and Gabriel tells Mary that God will give Him the throne of His father David. He then redefines the office without abandoning it. The King washes feet (John 13:3-5),…
Biblical concept
Kingdom of Heaven
…they name the same thing. Heaven here stands for God himself, a customary way of speaking reverently. It does not mean a kingdom located only in the sky, since Matthew 6:10 prays for God's will to be done on earth as it…
Biblical concept
Oil and anointing
…poor. Gospels Jesus claims Isaiah 61 in Nazareth, and is anointed at Bethany for His burial. Letters Believers are anointed and sealed by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:21-22, 1 John 2:20, 27). Olive oil was one of the…
Biblical concept
Sacrifice and offering
…birds instead of a lamb, and flour where even birds were beyond reach. Mary and Joseph bring the two birds in Luke 2:24, which quietly tells you the family's means. The peace offering ended in eating together in God's…
Biblical concept
Salvation
…Shares a root with the name Yeshua, Jesus. The name given to Mary's son by the angel in Matthew 1:21 is this word made into a person: he shall save his people from their sins. Greek σωτηρία soteria salvation,…
Biblical concept
The Cross
…than merely the end of the story. Letters Paul makes the cross the summary of his message, the ground of reconciliation with God, and the pattern for a believer's own life of self-denial. Revelation The Lamb who was…
Biblical concept
Vineyard and vine
…5:7 ends with a play on words that survives translation only as a summary: God looked for justice and found bloodshed, He looked for righteousness and heard a cry. Genesis 9:20 Noah plants a vineyard, and the first…
Questions and answers (18)
Bible question
How do I know God's will for my life?
…unclear, and clarity came on the way rather than before he set out. Mary, told what would happen and not why Luke 1:26-38 She was given news that would cost her reputation and rearrange her whole life, and she was told…
Bible question
Why did Jesus rise from the dead?
…his wounds. The one who conquered death kept the marks of dying for us. Mary Magdalene at the tomb John 20:11-18 She came to care for a corpse, found the tomb open and assumed the body had been stolen. Grief made her…
Bible question
Does God hear my prayers?
…song about God lifting the poor and humbling the proud is the pattern Mary takes up when she carries Christ (Luke 1:46-55). The God who hears the overlooked is the God who came as one of them. David, who kept praying…
Bible question
Can the Bible be trusted?
…online? Most listed contradictions are differences of detail, order, summary or emphasis, which is what independent accounts look like. A smaller number are genuinely difficult, and saying so is better than forcing a…
Bible question
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
…at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. WEB Read the earliest summary of the claim, then one account of a bodily appearance, then the first counter explanation. All three are in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 For I…
Bible question
How can I grow spiritually?
…ye, except ye abide in me... for without me ye can do nothing.' The primary image for growth is organic connection to Christ, not independent exertion. Pruning is part of growth, not a sign of failure John 15:2 'Every…
Bible question
How do I get saved?
…as two separate requirements to complete in sequence. Paul's own summary in verse 10 makes clear that heart-belief and mouth-confession describe the same faith, inward and outward, rather than a checklist. The…
Bible question
How do I recognize false teachers?
…the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. The primary charge to guard sound teaching falls on elders, which is why healthy churches have real oversight rather than leaving every believer to police…
Bible question
How do I trust God when life is difficult?
…acts. batach Hebrew to lean on, to feel secure, to be confident The primary Old Testament word for trust is physical. It is the posture of a man putting his weight on a staff. Trust in Hebrew is not an opinion held…
Bible question
Is Jesus God?
…as God and as personally distinct. The doctrine is the church's summary of what the texts say together. Deuteronomy 6:4 Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. Matthew 28:19 One name, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.…
Bible question
What does it mean to be born again?
…have recognised it. The conversation ends with John 3:16, not with a summary of religious duties After describing an internal, sovereign, Spirit-worked birth, John moves straight to God's love and the call to believe on…
Bible question
What does it mean to fear the Lord?
…by whether they have this rightly or not. Solomon, credited as the primary author of Proverbs, drawing also on the sayings of the wise His son, and through him every young reader entering adult life and decision-making…
Bible question
What does the Bible say about worry?
…are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her. Her work was real and her request reasonable. Jesus names the many things and…
Bible question
What is faith?
…believed about God's promise. Hebrews 11:32-34 The chapter's closing summary lists ordinary believers who through faith subdued kingdoms and obtained promises, extending the pattern beyond famous heroes. James 2:24…
Bible question
What is the Gospel?
…word for word. This means verses 3 and 4 are almost certainly a summary that was already old and settled within twenty years of the crucifixion, not something Paul composed on the spot. Corinth was a wealthy,…
Bible question
What must I do to be saved?
…contrast with the rich young ruler. Galatians 2:16 Paul's own summary that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.
Bible question
Who is Jesus?
…doctrine of who he is, and the passage will teach you more than a summary of it can. Take the next question in order Is Jesus God, then why he is called the Son of God, then why he came, then the cross and the…
Bible question
Why did Jesus come to earth?
…coming meant to specific people, which is more instructive than a summary of aims. Zacchaeus in Jericho Luke 19:1-10 A wealthy chief tax collector, despised by his own people, climbed a tree because he could not see…
The Sunday Study
One deep study, every week.
Verse-by-verse teaching with historical context, and a prayer to close. Nothing else in the email.