Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“All this I tell you, that My joy may be yours.” —John 15:11 Jesus promises us we can have His joy, the joy of God enthroned in heaven. We receive this joy by keeping God’s commandments as Jesus kept the Father’s commandments (Jn 15:10). This may come as a surprise to many because we think joy depends on doing our own thing rather than God’s thing. However, let the facts speak for themselves. Possibly never before has a culture been so preoccupied with feeling good, pleasure-seeking, and selfish pursuits. Yet we are very discontent. Alienated youth, depression, drug and alcohol...

“No more than a branch can bear fruit of itself apart from the vine, can you bear fruit apart from Me.” –John 15:4 The first words God said to newly created humanity were: “Be fertile and multiply” (Gn 1:28). Among Jesus’ last words before His Ascension were: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name ‘of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’ ” (Mt 28:19). Immediately before His Ascension, Jesus commanded us to be His witnesses “even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus expects us to...

“His disciples quickly formed a circle about him, and before long he got up and went back into town.” –Acts 14:20 Paul’s persecutors attempted to kill him by stoning. They “dragged him out of the town, leaving him there for dead” (Acts 14:19). The circle of disciples raised the dead. We need to form a prayer-circle around “the living dead” in our midst (1 Jn 3:14). Anyone who does not know Jesus is spiritually dead, reaping “the wages of sin” (Rm 6:23). Some churches are dead (Rv 3:1). Some marriages are dead. We can circle these people, churches, and couples,...

“On one occasion he was listening to Paul preaching, and Paul looked directly at him and saw that he had the faith to be saved.” –Acts 14:9 Would you have the courage and the assurance to yell at a person in a wheelchair: “Stand up! On your feet!”? (Acts 14:10) By that bold command, St. Paul healed a crippled man who had never walked a step in his life (Acts 14:8). Paul didn’t always have such boldness. For example, for several days, he put up with the disruptive behavior of a girl with a clairvoyant spirit (Acts 16:16). “Finally Paul...

“God will, in turn, glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him soon.” –John 13:32 We’re in the midst of a fifty-day Sunday, the Easter season. If we can’t rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we must be dead ourselves. Because His tomb is empty, we have life to the full (Jn 10:10). “Because He lives, we can face tomorrow.” For He shall wipe every tear from our eyes, “and there shall be no more death or mourning, crying out or pain, for the former world has passed away” (Rv 21:4). “This means that if anyone is...