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The Gospel: verses to memorise
The announcement itself, in the words the apostles used.
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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 verses (1)
Bible studies (25)
Reading plan
Hope: An Advent Reading Plan
…It arrives through an imperial census, a birth with no room for it, shepherds as the first to hear, and foreigners kneeling before a child. God kept his word exactly, and almost nobody would have drawn it that way. Each…
Reading plan day
Hope: An Advent Reading Plan, day 21: Good news for the least
The announcement of Jesus' birth is given first to shepherds, people with little status or reputation in their society, which fits a pattern all through Scripture of good news reaching the overlooked before it reaches…
Chapter study
Genesis 22: The Mountain Where God Revealed the Gospel
…Genesis 12. It opens with a request for the only son and ends with the announcement that the only son will not be taken. Genesis often marks the end of a life's journey by returning to its beginning. Abraham's walk with…
Chapter study
Psalm 23: The LORD Our Shepherd
…who knew shepherding as ordinary work, who knew kings were called shepherds of their nations, and who knew the Lord as the shepherd of Israel as a whole. The startling word for the first hearers was not shepherd. It was…
Chapter study
Romans 8: No Condemnation, No Defeat, No Separation
…and it fell on Him. Verse 1 is not the removal of a sentence but the announcement that the sentence has been served elsewhere. How a person comes to be there Romans has already answered this before chapter 8, and it is…
Bible study
Psalm 23: The Shepherd Who Goes Before You
…royal title. Kings of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon all called themselves shepherds of their people. For an Israelite to sing that the Lord himself is his shepherd is a quiet act of allegiance: no earthly king holds this…
Dig Deeper
What does it mean to be in Christ, and how does a person get there?
…and it fell on Him. Verse 1 is not the removal of a sentence but the announcement that the sentence has been served elsewhere. How a person comes to be there Romans has already answered this before chapter 8, and it is…
Dig Deeper
What were the rod and the staff actually used for?
…God is here, and God is able. Either one alone would be thin comfort. Shepherds in the ancient Near East carried a club or heavy stick for defence and a longer staff for walking and handling animals, and this two-tool…
Dig Deeper
Why does David call God his shepherd rather than his king?
…itself tells us this, so it needs no outside support. It also shows shepherds sleeping with the flock, counting animals and defending them from predators, as David tells Saul in 1 Samuel 17:34 to 35. It is often said in…
Verse study
The LORD is my shepherd (Psalm 23:1)
…that turns shepherd into my shepherd. A reader can affirm that God shepherds His people and still believe that He is not particularly attending to them. This line refuses that distance. The flock is not an abstraction…
52 Week Journey
Week 22: The Church
…laid, which is Jesus Christ. WEB Watch Over the Flock The church needs shepherds, and shepherds are warned. Acts 20:28 Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you…
52 Week Journey
Week 46: The Kingdom of God
…the same way. Mark 1:14-15 Jesus begins His public ministry with an announcement, not a suggestion: the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Everything this week grows out of that opening line. The Time Is…
Devotional
A Ruler Whose Kingdom Never Ends
…specific promises made, then read Luke 1:26-33 beside it. The angel's announcement to Mary in Luke 1:32-33 quotes the language of 2 Samuel 7 almost directly, declaring Jesus the heir of David's everlasting throne.
Devotional
Every Eye Will See Him
…will mourn over him. Even so, Amen. WEB John opens Revelation with this announcement before the visions even begin, as though setting the key for the whole book. The coming he describes is not private or local. Every…
Devotional
Let It Be to Me
…way it was for Mary. Amen. Luke places this scene right after Gabriel's announcement to Zechariah, who responds with doubt and is silenced (1:18-20). Mary responds to a far stranger claim, a virgin conceiving by the…
Devotional
No More Tears
…faces, the source of Revelation's image. Revelation 7:16-17 The Lamb shepherds them to springs of living water, and God wipes away every tear from their eyes. 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy to be abolished is death,…
Devotional
The Compassion of Christ
…that moved straight into action. Ezekiel 34:1-6 God's charge against shepherds who let the flock scatter. The background to Matthew's phrase. Mark 1:40-42 Moved with compassion, He touched a leper, which no one did.…
Devotional
The LORD Is My Shepherd
…to provide. Amen. Ezekiel 34 pictures the failure of Israel's human shepherds, the kings and leaders who fed themselves rather than the flock, and God declares in verse 15 that He himself will shepherd His sheep. Psalm…
Devotional
The Name Above Every Name
…here: the God who is, who sees, who provides, who commands armies, who shepherds, and who is holy, is confessed in Philippians 2:11 as Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father.
Devotional
The Time Is Fulfilled
…of God is at hand. Not a timetable, not a set of predictions, but an announcement that God's long-promised reign was breaking in through Him. The response called for is repent and believe, two sides of one turn: away…
Devotional
The Wedding Supper of the Lamb
…Revelation 19:6-9 The full scene: the bride made ready, and the announcement of the wedding supper of the Lamb. Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus' parable of the wedding feast, with an invitation extended widely and a response…
Devotional
Watch Over the Flock
…is a charge given by the Spirit, not a career choice. Lord, raise up shepherds after Your own heart for Your church, and keep them watchful over themselves and faithful to the flock You bought with Your blood. Amen.…
Devotional
Water Into Wine
…ordinary crisis, running out of wine, and Jesus met it without any announcement to the wider crowd. The steward tastes the wine and does not know where it came from, but the servants who drew the water knew, John says…
Devotional
Your Kingdom Come
…as a mustard seed and grew hidden among wheat and weeds ends in an announcement that leaves nothing unclaimed and no rival throne standing. The kingdom's final form is public and total, not private and partial. Christ's…
Reading plan day
Hope: An Advent Reading Plan, day 15: 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 it be to me according to your word. Luke 1:38…
Bible topics (9)
Biblical concept
Shepherd
…carrying lambs. Ezekiel 34:11-16 God takes the flock back from the shepherds who fed themselves. John 10:11 The shepherd who does not run, because He lays down His life. David's years with sheep are not background…
Topic study
Hope: The anchor that holds when everything else gives way
…serpent. The first word of hope is not advice about attitude. It is an announcement of a person who is coming. Abraham: twenty five years of waiting Genesis 15:5 Abraham is given a promise of descendants and then given…
Biblical concept
Kingdom of God
…God's rule, not a territory. Mark opens the ministry of Jesus with the announcement that the kingdom of God has come near, and calls for repentance and faith as the response. Scripture speaks of it as present and as…
Biblical concept
Kingdom of Heaven
…Israel to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the same announcement Jesus himself takes up in Matthew 4:17. Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is…
Biblical concept
Priest
…permanently, and we draw near through Him. The church's ministers are shepherds and teachers, and every believer belongs to the priesthood Peter describes. Hebrews 7:24-25 1 Timothy 2:5 1 Peter 2:5 When you pray, you…
Biblical concept
Redemption
…acting as redeemer, out of slavery in Egypt. Exodus 6:6 God's first announcement of himself as redeemer, setting the pattern for every later use of the word. Ruth 4:9-10 Shows the kinsman redeemer in action, a real…
Biblical concept
Son of God
…and the same words come again at the transfiguration. In both cases the announcement comes from the Father, not from Jesus claiming it for himself, which matters: the identity is given and confirmed from outside rather…
Biblical concept
The Good Shepherd
…Ezekiel 34 is a scathing chapter for exactly this reason. Israel's shepherds, meaning its kings and leaders, are condemned for feeding themselves rather than the flock, for not strengthening the weak, healing the sick,…
Place in Scripture
Wilderness
…genuinely empty country by afternoon. It was not entirely uninhabited. Shepherds grazed flocks there in season, and fugitives hid there, which is why David spends years in it while Saul hunts him (1 Samuel 23-24).…
Questions and answers (5)
Bible question
How do I recognize false teachers?
…in and that some would arise from among themselves. God's provision was shepherds who watch and the word of his grace which is able to build up. Protection from false teaching comes through faithful teaching and…
Bible question
What is the Gospel?
…anything Christian. Scripture uses it far more precisely. It means the announcement of a historical event with consequences, in the way a herald announces that a battle has been won. And the question matters because…
Bible question
Who is Jesus?
…their sins. Luke 2:11 A Savior, who is Christ the Lord, announced to shepherds. 2 Samuel 7:12-13 The promise of an everlasting throne to David's offspring. Was Jesus a man or was he God? Scripture says both, and never…
Bible question
Who wrote the Bible?
…and Revelation identify their writers. Amos tells us he was among the shepherds of Tekoa, Amos 1:1, and Nehemiah writes in the first person. Some books are anonymous, and Scripture does not hide it Hebrews 13:22-25…
Bible question
Why did Jesus come to earth?
…is true but incomplete, and it makes his teaching, healing and kingdom announcement look like filler before the real event. Luke, writing an ordered account for Theophilus a Gentile reader, in a world of Roman power and…
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.