Read: Mark 4:35–5:1 Let us go over to the other side. Mark 4:35 A comfortable plane ride was about to get bumpy. The voice of the captain interrupted in-flight beverage service and asked passengers to make sure their seatbelts were fastened. Soon the plane began to roll and pitch like...

Read: Ruth 2:1-11 Why have I found such favor in your eyes? Ruth 2:10 Ruth was a foreigner. She was a widow. She was poor. In many parts of the world today she would be considered a nobody—someone whose future doesn’t hold any hope. However, Ruth found favor in the...

Read: Philippians 3:12-16 One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Philippians 3:13 I like Reepicheep, C. S. Lewis’ tough little talking mouse in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Determined to reach the “utter East” and join the great lion Aslan [symbolic of Christ],...

Read: Revelation 21:1-7 There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Revelation 21:4 James Oglethorpe (1696–1785) was a British general and member of Parliament who had a vision for a great city. Charged with settling the state of Georgia in North America, he planned the city...

Read: James 1:22–27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress. James 1:27 “My mother gave us chili peppers before we went to bed,” said Samuel, recalling his difficult childhood in sub-Saharan Africa. “We drank water to...

Read: Psalm 119:97-104 How sweet are your words . . . , sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103 Recently I came across an article describing what constitutes great literature. The author suggested that great literature “changes you. When you are done reading, you’re a different person.” In that...

Read: Luke 10:38-11:4 Give us each day our daily bread. Luke 11:3 I learned to recite the Lord’s Prayer as a boy in primary school. Every time I said the line, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11), I couldn’t help but think about the bread that we got...

Read: Galatians 6:1-10 At the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 In Debbie’s new home, she discovered an abandoned plant in a dark corner of the kitchen. The dusty and ragged leaves looked like those of a moth orchid, and she...

Read: Genesis 3:1-8 He said to the woman, “Did God really say . . . ?” Genesis 3:1 “I don’t think God is good,” my friend told me. She had been praying for years about some difficult issues, but nothing had improved. Her anger and bitterness over God’s silence grew....

Read: Psalm 139:1-18 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. Psalm 139:2 Veteran news reporter Scott Pelley never goes on assignment without his travel essentials—a shortwave radio, camera, indestructible suitcase, laptop computer, phone, and an emergency locator beacon that works anywhere. “You...

Read: John 4:4-14 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” John 4:34 It was high noon. Jesus, foot-weary from His long journey, was resting beside Jacob’s well. His disciples had gone into the city of Sychar to buy...

Read: 1 Peter 1:1-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him. 1 Peter 1:8 Like others in the blogging community, I’d never met the man known to us as BruceC. Yet when his wife posted a note to the group to let us know that her husband had...