Daniel 6:1-28; 2 Peter 3:1-18; Psalm 119:129-152; Proverbs 28:21-22 What happens when following God makes your life more difficult? Will you value obedience to God or comfort and conformity as worth living for? This is the choice that God’s people have had to make throughout the ages.Daniel was faced with a choice to pray to the king or pray to the one true God. The consequence of his choice was p...  Read More

Daniel 5:1-31; 2 Peter 2:1-22; Psalm 119:113-128; Proverbs 28:19-20 Judgment is coming. We may want to plug our ears and pretend that it’s not, but when Christ comes back on the Day of the Lord, he will bring both deliverance and judgment, wrath and salvation. So, are you and those around you ready?Daniel was blunt in his assessment of what was coming to Belshazzar. “God has numbered the days of y...  Read More

Daniel 4:1-37; 2 Peter 1:1-21; Psalm 119:97-112; Proverbs 28:17-18 Every time I go for a run everything within me wants to stop. Running is hard and I always question why I am doing it. No one is chasing me, so maybe I should stop! A similar sensation may happen to us when we are following God. There may be moments when it seems difficult when we wonder whether it is worth it or if we can even kee...  Read More

Daniel 2:24-3:30; 1 Peter 4:7-5:14; Psalm 119:81-96; Proverbs 28:15-16 There is an old hymn that proclaims, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it." This describes the fickle nature of our human condition. One second, we are deeply committed to God and the next we are distancing ourselves from him.This fickleness is exemplified in Nebuchadnezzar. After Daniel interprets his dream in chapter 2, he praise...  Read More

Daniel 1:1-2:23; 1 Peter 3:8-4:6; Psalm 119:65-80; Proverbs 28:14 What do your friends and neighbors associate you with? Do they know your favorite sports teams, political commitments, and favorite restaurants? What about the God you have given your allegiance to? Our ultimate desire in life should be that everyone associates us with Christ.Daniel and his friends were exiled to Babylon but chose t...  Read More

Ezekiel 47:1-48:35; 1 Peter 2:11-3:7; Psalm 119:49-64; Proverbs 28:12-13 Where do you look for life? Where do you turn for peace, joy, and satisfaction? When you are feeling down where do you turn for happiness? There is an unending series of options in our culture where we can turn, but only one place that will provide what we are looking for, God.Ezekiel describes a stream of water that flows fr...  Read More

Ezekiel 45:13-46:24; 1 Peter 1:13-2:10; Psalm 119:33-48; Proverbs 28:11 When we gather on Sunday mornings to worship, it is meant to be an encouragement and catalyst to a life of worship. This hour once a week is meant to teach us how to live as a worshiper through the rest of the week.God calls the nation in Ezekiel to come and worship him through animal sacrifices in the temple. This still futur...  Read More

Ezekiel 44:1-45:12; 1 Peter 1:1-12; Psalm 119:17-32; Proverbs 28:8-10 What do you pay attention to? You may be fixated on the news, sports scores, or the weather channel, but we all pay too much attention to things that are meaningless and insignificant. God calls us to pay more attention to him than anything in the world.God calls Ezekiel in 44:5 to “look carefully, listen closely, and give atten...  Read More

Ezekiel 42:1-43:27; James 5:1-20; Psalm 119:1-16; Proverbs 28:6-7 What does a blessed life look like? We often think that rich people are blessed, and poor people are not. Yet true blessing is not found in wealth or material possessions but in our connection to God.Ezekiel describes the greatest blessing we have as experiencing the presence of God. The temple was intended to be a place where human...  Read More

Ezekiel 40:28-41:26; James 4:1-17; Psalm 118:19-29; Proverbs 28:3-5 In the final paragraph of today’s reading from James, we can picture a businessman standing over a map—pointing out a spot to his associates:  Here is where the Romans are developing a new community.  We need to invest quickly in trade and land speculation.We’ll make a fortune in the first year.  But then James breaks in:There is ...  Read More

Ezekiel 39:1-40:27; James 2:18-3:18; Psalm 118:1-18; Proverbs 28:2 A critical skill in reading the Bible is correlation. Correlation is what allows us to take the pieces of the Bible and put them together into one seamless puzzle. Since all of the Bible is true and God-breathed, it never contradicts itself and all fits together. In Ezekiel, we read about the destruction of the armies of Gog and Ma...  Read More

Ezekiel 37:1-38:23; James 1:19-2:17; Psalm 117:1-2; Proverbs 28:1 When have you felt deep despair? Is there a time when you didn’t feel like you could go on? A time when you felt like throwing in the towel.Ezekiel is given a picture of a seemingly hopeless Israel. The nation is pictured as a pile of dead bones, and it seems there is no future for the nation. Then God tells him to prophesy over the...  Read More