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
…or you are like someone who looks in a mirror and forgets what he saw. 1 Samuel 15:22 Samuel tells Saul that God delights in obedience more than in sacrifice, and that to obey is better than the fat of rams.
Bible Memory verse
Samuel tells Saul that God delights in obedience more than in sacrifice, and that to obey is better than the fat of rams. It exposes religious activity used as a substitute for actual obedience, a trade we still make. Micah 6:6-8 Hosea 6:6 Isaiah 1:11-17 Lord, I will not offer you activity in place…
Chapter study
…of testing armour before a battle in 1 Samuel 17:39, where David tries Saul's armour and finds he cannot walk in it. Nothing sinful is implied. Something is being put under load to see how it carries. What the test was…
Chapter study
…so the warning is about patience and nearness rather than sudden assault. The charge attached to the picture God does not stop at describing the danger. He says Cain is to rule over it. The pressure is real and the…
Chapter study
…not by itself guarantee perseverance. Acts 9:15 God tells Ananias that Saul is 'a chosen vessel unto me,' another instance of God's initiative preceding a person's own decision to follow. The initiative for salvation…
Chapter study
…By the time he writes this, he has been anointed in secret, hunted by Saul, hidden in caves, betrayed by people he trusted and made king over a nation that had already tried to kill him. He has also failed badly, and…
Dig Deeper
…of testing armour before a battle in 1 Samuel 17:39, where David tries Saul's armour and finds he cannot walk in it. Nothing sinful is implied. Something is being put under load to see how it carries. What the test was…
Bible study
…though its wilderness imagery may reflect earlier years of exile from Saul. Psalm 23 sits between Psalm 22, the psalm of the forsaken sufferer quoted by Jesus on the cross, and Psalm 24, the psalm of the King of glory…
Dig Deeper
…standard by which rulers are measured. 2 Samuel 5:2 In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out and in. Yahweh said to you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be prince…
Verse study
…so the warning is about patience and nearness rather than sudden assault. The charge attached to the picture God does not stop at describing the danger. He says Cain is to rule over it. The pressure is real and the…
Verse study
…something trailing behind. The Hebrew is aggressive. It is the verb for Saul hunting David through the wilderness and for Pharaoh's chariots after Israel. Everywhere else in David's story, something was chasing him.…
Verse study
…not by itself guarantee perseverance. Acts 9:15 God tells Ananias that Saul is 'a chosen vessel unto me,' another instance of God's initiative preceding a person's own decision to follow. The initiative for salvation…
Devotional
…that scattered believers from Jerusalem (8:1-4), and right before Saul's own conversion in chapter 9. Luke seems to be showing that scattering did not stop the gospel; it spread it, first through an unnamed group…
Devotional
…with. The verb resist is a military term, standing firm against an assault rather than retreating. Paired with flee, the picture is of a genuine contest with a genuine outcome, not merely a feeling of victory. James…
Devotional
1 Samuel 18:1 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with David’s soul, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. WEB Jonathan is Saul's son and the presumed heir to…
52 Week Journey
…it. 1 Samuel 18:1 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with David’s soul, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. WEB Iron Sharpens Iron Good friendship changes…
Biblical concept
…everyone doing what is right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). Kingdom Saul, David and Solomon, then a divided line measured reign by reign against the LORD's commands. Prophets A shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah…
Biblical concept
…crowd's hopes turned so quickly at his trial. Kingdom Samuel anoints Saul and then David, and the word enters Israel's vocabulary. Prophets A coming ruler is promised from Bethlehem, from David's line, with a government…
Biblical concept
…and so mark them out as chosen for a task God had given. Samuel anoints Saul and then David, and in David's case Scripture says the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him from that day forward (1 Samuel 16:13), tying the…
Biblical concept
…and from thieves, and there was nobody else coming. David tells Saul plainly that he went after the lion and the bear and struck them, because a lost lamb was his loss to answer for (1 Samuel 17:34-36). He carried two…
Place in Scripture
…is built and carried through it. Kingdom David hides in it from Saul, and Elijah collapses under a broom tree and is fed by an angel (1 Kings 19:4-8). Prophets The wilderness becomes the place of God's new road and of…
Bible question
…prayed for his killers with his last breath. One of the men present was Saul. Forgiveness prayed in the worst moment is possible when a person is looking at Christ. It is also never wasted, as Saul's later life proved.…
Bible question
…to the king's table 2 Samuel 9:1-13 He was the crippled grandson of Saul, the family David had every political reason to remove. He called himself a dead dog when he was summoned. David gave him land, servants and a…
The Sunday Study
Verse-by-verse teaching with historical context, and a prayer to close. Nothing else in the email.