Click for a PDF version Monday Read John 16:1-11 The Advocate This week’s devotional focuses on a few verses from Jesus’ extended discourse with His disciples in the Upper Room prior to His crucifixion (John 13:1—17:26). The first eleven verses of John 16 provide the immediate context of this week’s verses and help us...
Click for PDF version Monday Read Mark 1:1-11 The Gospel of Mark begins with these words: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The term for gospel (“euangelion” in the Greek) means “good news,” and that good news is the proclamation that God has taken action on our behalf...
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Ephesians 5:1-2 In Ephesians 5:1-2, Paul continues his instructions for Christian living that we are to follow Christ’s example. For example, in Luke 7:36 Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee for dinner. Jesus goes to the house of one of the people who is against...
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Genesis 11:27-12:2; Matthew 2:1-12 Anyone doubting that God’s ways are infinitely higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9) need only consider the strange call of Abram (Abraham) by God. Abram was born nearly 300 years after the Great Flood, nine generations removed from Noah. He hailed from “Ur of...
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Ephesians 4:1 (in several different versions) Our Calling “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.” (Ephesians 4:1 NLT) Paul was a prisoner, living out a time of house arrest...
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Ephesians 3:1 “For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—” (Ephesians 3:1) Christ has a purpose in our hard places. Paul went through many hardships throughout his ministerial life. The letter of Ephesians is considered one of his “prison...
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Ephesians 2:11-22; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 As believers, we are called to unity in Christ—union and community are common themes throughout Paul’s epistles. In Ephesians 2:11-12, Paul reminds Gentile believers in Ephesus of how they were former outsiders alienated from Christ and thereby hopelessly stumbling toward God’s judgment....
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Ephesians 2:5; Ezekiel 36:26; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Heart Transplant “[God] has made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions.” (Ephesians 2:5) Is it possible that God can do this, that He can “raise us from the dead” as Jesus raised Lazarus (John...
Click for a PDF version Monday Read Ephesians 1:1-4 God’s Vision for His Church “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” (Ephesians 1:4) From the very beginning, God envisioned a people united in Christ. His purpose was not just for individual...
Click for PDF version Monday Read Romans 12:1-5, 8:15 Peculiar Communities ARE UNIQUE We should remind ourselves that the preferred definition of “peculiar” is not “strange” or “odd”; the dictionary says that its primary meaning is “to belong exclusively to.” There can be few terms more appropriate, therefore, to describe the people of God,...
