They did not know what to say to him. —Mark 14:40 In Gethsemane, Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to stay awake and pray. Within minutes, they were sawing logs. When Jesus woke them, “they did not know what to say to him.” Before the […]
Dear friends, let us love one another. —1 John 4:7 “Back in my legalistic days,” he began.” He spent the next several minutes branding his present position as “progressive”—labeling his past as legalistic, narrow, sectarian, and mean; then several more minutes taking
I give half of my possessions to the poor. —Luke 19:8 Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett established the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give more than half of their wealth away. Commendable largesse. They weren’t the first to that party.
Do not worry about tomorrow. —Matthew 6:34 In Abraham Lincoln’s lawyering days, he often had to negotiate dangerous rivers en route to court appointments. One evening, he overnighted at a tavern where he met a circuit-riding evangelist. When Lincoln anxiously asked him about the treacherous Fox River—which he would
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[We] are justified freely by his grace. —Romans 3:24 Marion Anderson, arguably history’s most accomplished contralto, sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a crowd of more than 75,000; was the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera; was
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Give me this mountain. —Joshua 14:12 John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, once said that by their mid-thirties most people have stopped acquiring new skills and new attitudes. That should give us grayheads pause. Are we still learning, still growing, still stepping up to new
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As he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. —1 Peter 1:15 In 1882, William Longstaff heard a sermon on 1 Peter 1:15-16: “As he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”
Think of ways to encourage one another. —Hebrews 10:24 Best-selling author Philip Yancey noted that “C.S. Lewis once likened his role as a Christian writer to an adjective humbly striving to point others to the Noun of truth. For people to believe that Noun,” wrote
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Jesus’ teachings were often clothed as questions. His hearers—at least those who would listen—became self-taught, as they examined themselves under the searchlight of those questions. Most of the questions he asked are as pertinent and penetrating today as they were when he first asked them; thus the title of this piece is “Questions Jesus Asks”
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God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father! —Galatians 4:6 The Aramaic word, Abba, is an intimate term that was used by Jewish children in addressing their father. It came to have broader application: each Christian has
