Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“Do not grow slack but be fervent in spirit; He Whom you serve is the Lord.” –Romans 12:11 When you received the Holy Spirit, the devil immediately tried to extinguish the flame (1 Thes 5:19). At the same time, the Lord stirred into an even greater flame the Spirit in your life (2 Tm 1:6). Yield to the Spirit. Put on the lampstand of your life the gifts and fruit of the Spirit (Lk 8:16). The Lord will continue to light your fire. With Mary, go into the hill country (Lk 1:39) and give as a gift what has been...

“By obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves for a genuine love.” –1 Peter 1:22 We all want “genuine love,” true love, love that will last forever. Yet we all find that what we thought was love often proves not to be the real thing. Human beings are deceived about love probably more than about any other aspect of life. We can have genuine, true love only in Christ, Who is Love (see 1 Jn 4:16). We are prepared to give true love by being purified, especially in the context of obeying the Lord in being true, that is,...

“Peter was moved to say to Him, ‘We have put aside everything to follow You!’ ” –Mark 10:28 Like Peter, we are moved by selfishness, pride, and insecurity to tell the Lord about the sacrifices we’ve made to follow Him. We hope the Lord will “pat us on the back” and reward us. The Lord is willing to talk about the subject of sacrifice. However, He may bring up sacrifices we haven’t made. This gives the impression that we have not reached the pinnacle of sacrifice but have barely begun to sacrifice. Next, the Lord may bring up the subject...

“A man came running up, knelt down before Him and asked, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to share in everlasting life?’ ” –Mark 10:17 The young rich man was brought up by good God-fearing parents. He had kept all the commandments from his youth (Mk 10:20). He only needed to do one more thing. But he had to do that, or he would never enter God’s kingdom. “Jesus looked at him with love and told him, ‘There is one thing more you must do. Go and sell what you have and give to the poor; you will then have...

“Make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name ‘of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ ” –Matthew 28:19 As Christians, we not only believe in Three Persons in one God, but are baptized into, immersed into these Three Persons (Mt 28:19). When we wake up in the morning, the first word on our lips is in praise of the name of Jesus. Because Jesus is the only Way to the Father (Jn 14:6), we soon are thanking the Father for giving us another day, providing breakfast for us, and creating us. Because...