Category: Memory Verse

“When He comes, however, being the Spirit of truth He will guide you to all truth.” –John 16:13 For many, this Easter season has been fantastic. Others have been discouraged. They may feel like St. Paul after his failure at Athens. When Paul started speaking to the Athenians about Jesus’ Resurrection, some interrupted and sneered at him. Others brushed him off, telling him to come back some other time (Acts 17:32). Although a few did become believers, this was the worst response in the Bible to Paul’s preaching of the Gospel. You may also feel like a failure. You may...

“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,...