Today's Reading Few things are more difficult to face than rejection--whether it comes from an adult child, a parent, a spouse, a friend with whom you've made yourself vulnerable, a co-worker, an employer, a teacher, or someone you've dated. "Our reading today includes the first of three days in Psalm 18." This psalm is written by David--an expert in rejection. "As a young man David experiences a meteoric rise in popularity after his victory over Goliath. He is made  Read More

Today's Reading Joseph is someone who obeyed God, acknowledges him even in the midst of hardship and yet was sold into slavery, imprisoned, treated unjustly, lied against and forgotten. Even with these outcomes Joseph chooses to continue to follow God. He is responsible for obedience but is not responsible for outcomes. The same principle is seen in the parable which Jesus tells in Matthew 13. He proclaims that his followers are responsible for sharing the message "about the kingdom"  Read More

Today's Reading As we read through the Bible sometimes we come to verses that make us scratch our heads in bewilderment. Matthew 12:31 may be one of those verses. We may find ourselves confused by the fact that there is one sin which cannot be forgiven and then worry that we have somehow committed this sin. The sin mentioned here is that of speaking "against the Holy Spirit." The key when we come to a verse that doesn't seem to make sense is to look at the broader context   Read More

Today's Reading Notice how our reading today in Genesis begins. It starts with God commanding Jacob to praise him. Many times our emotions drive our desire to praise God or to pull away from doing so. The character of God, not our emotions should not be the driving force in praise.  Who God is, should be the reason why we praise. When we wake in the morning, we should begin with praise. As we go to work, we should praise. As we experience the joys or hardships of work, we should praise.  Read More

Today's Reading "He who has ears, let him hear." This is a call from Jesus for people to listen to his message. Some people didn't understand what he was saying, others didn't want to understand but for those who would consider his words and move from hearing to understanding their lives would be radically altered. Jesus' audience had preconceived notions of what the Messiah should be like and Jesus didn't match it. Some may have had preconceived notions   Read More

Today's Reading Our Old Testament reading today begins with deceit and lies. Jacob is trying to sneak away from Laban (who has unfairly kept Jacob hard at work to profit himself rather than Jacob and his family), Rachel steals from her father and then lies about it, not to mention she steals household gods that we can assume she worships. We see failure after failure but God is at work in spite of these things and towards the end of our reading we can see that Jacob finally acknowledges thi  Read More

Today's Reading What do you value most? In our reading today, we see that people will do anything to acquire that which they consider to be of greatest value. Leah and Rachel value children above all else and because of this they are willing to scheme, allow their husband to commit adultery, give in to jealousy and rationalize a myriad of other sins. The pursuit of children has become their god and the obsession of their lives. Having kids may or may not be what you value above all else but  Read More

Today's Reading I find Leah to be one of the most intriguing figures in the Bible. She was married off to a man who thought he was marrying someone else but then somehow believed she could earn his love by having sons for him. This belief that she could earn Jacob's love would leave her sorely disappointed. It seems from Genesis 29:35 that she had learned her lesson and finally stopped trying to please her husband but instead chose to praise God. Yet as we will see from tomorrow's  Read More

Today's Reading As we saw with the sin of Adam and Eve, the consequences of sin are more than we can imagine. Genesis 27 reminds us once again how severe sin always is. The sin in this chapter starts with the favoritism of Isaac towards Esau and Rebekah towards Jacob. This created disunity in their family and eventually led to Jacob dressing up as Esau in order to steal his blessing. Notice how this sin ripples out into anger, possible murder and greater disunity in their family as Jacob is  Read More

January 11 Today's Reading There are great blessings in following Jesus but there is also a cost. In Matthew 8 we see a series of people claim they want to follow Jesus and each time we see Jesus put the cost in front of them. Are they willing to follow Jesus when it means that they have no place to sleep or call home? Are they willing to put their allegiance to Jesus above any earthly connections? These are not only the questions they had to answer but that we must answer for ourselves. I  Read More

Today's Reading In Genesis 24, we see that Abraham is coming to the end of his life. Abraham has faithfully followed God and obeyed Him with his life. For his faithfulness and belief in God, he has been blessed beyond measure. On his deathbed, Abraham has entrusted his faithful (senior) servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac, from Abraham's people, from his homeland (Gen. 24:1-5). Worried he will fail on his quest; God reassures the servant that his journey will be a success (Gen.   Read More

January 9 Today's Reading Abraham begins our reading by living in a way that reveals no trust or faith in God. He is so concerned that the people he is living among have "no fear of God"; that he lives without a fear or faith in God but rather a fear of the people. This causes him to lie about Sarah being his wife by claiming that she is only his sister. Yet despite Abraham's lack of integrity God continues to bless him and his family. God doesn't ultimately operate in res  Read More