Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“I assure you, as often as you did it for one of My least brothers, you did it for Me.” –Matthew 25:40 The Lord says that you shall not “stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake” (Lv 19:16). The Lord says: “I assure you, as often as you did or did not provide for the needs of the least of your brothers and sisters, you did or did not do it for Me” (see Mt 25:40, 45). The Lord expects us to recognize the Lazaruses at our doors (Lk 16:19ff) and “love in deed and in truth...

“He stayed in the wasteland forty days…He was with the wild beasts.” –Mark 1:13 Mark’s Gospel was written around 70 A.D., and is believed to have been written in Rome. At that time in Rome, it was not uncommon for Christians to be thrown into an arena with hungry wild beasts, such as lions and tigers, to be martyred by being devoured by them. Can you imagine how the early Christians of Rome must have been encouraged to hear that Jesus dwelt in safety among the wild beasts? (Mk 1:13) Jesus not only survived being in the presence of the...

“Then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.” –Isaiah 58:14 We are on the fourth day of a forty-day journey through the desert of Lent. Our destination is the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. When we meet the risen Christ in a new way this Easter time, “light shall rise” for us “in the darkness, and the gloom shall become” like midday (Is 58:10). “Then the Lord will guide” us always and give us “plenty even on the parched land” (Is 58:11). “The ancient ruins shall be...

“Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” –Isaiah 58:5 Fasting is limiting our intake of food in obedience to God for the building of His kingdom. It may involve eating nothing, eating a little less, or eating plainer, less tasty foods. Although the Lord often calls us to cut back significantly in eating, fasting is not a matter of quantity but obedience. For instance, to fast severely when God is calling us to something else is not pleasing to Him. A Lenten fast is a little different than another fast. The Lenten fast is an...

“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life.” –Deuteronomy 30:19 On this second day of Lent, the Lord tells us that Lent is a matter of life or death. Because of what we let the Lord do in us last Lent, some babies, poor people, and elderly people are alive today who would have been killed in our culture of death. Conversely, it is possible that because of our resistance to God’s grace last Lent, some attacks on life which could have been stopped are continuing to plague us. Moreover, Lent is a...