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Love One Another

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Scripture: John 13:34-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Devotion: Jesus here issues a clarion call for a new way of love among believers. In a world where love is often reduced to sentiment or convenience, Jesus calls us to a higher standard. We are to love as He has loved us. Jesus showed His love for us by healing the sick, raising the dead, and loving us enough to go to the cross to pay the debt we could not pay. This command challenges us to examine our lives. How do we treat others? The way we live our lives reveals how closely we follow Jesus. Jesus here states the undeniable fact that the world will take notice when Christians truly love one another in a way that points to the One we follow. The context here is Jesus in the upper room with His twelve disciples before the Passover meal. Just prior to this teaching, Jesus ...
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Taste And See

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Scripture: Psalm 34:8 (NIV) 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Devotion: This psalm begins with the imperative verb, taste. It is both a command and an invitation to come, see, and experience all that God has to offer. The psalm’s author, David, calls on God’s people to go beyond just a head knowledge of God and really experience the good fruit that comes from a heart knowledge of God. The verse also speaks to those who are not yet in the kingdom by revealing that God is not distant and uninvolved with life. God can be known, and He is waiting for us to reach out and taste and see that the Lord is indeed very good. David uses the verbs "taste" and "see" to engage our senses. The Spirit inspired David to write those words because they make us move beyond dry learning of facts about God into the realm of experience that takes us deeper into a personal relationship with God. Many learned people know a lot abou...
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About Anger*

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  Matthew 5:21–26 stands within the section of the Sermon on the Mount often called the "antitheses," where Jesus repeatedly says, "You have heard that it was said... but I say to you." He is not correcting Moses or setting aside the Law of God. As He has just declared in verses 17–20, He came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it, and He insists that the righteousness of His disciples must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. What Jesus does in this passage is press the sixth commandment, "You shall not murder," down to its true depth. The Pharisees had reduced the commandment to a bare prohibition of the physical act of killing. Jesus reveals that God's Law was never merely about outward conduct; it governs the heart. He begins by citing the familiar teaching: murder is forbidden, and the murderer is answerable to judgment. Then He escalates matters in a way His hearers would have found startling. Anger nursed against a brother, Jesus says, alr...
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Encourage One Another

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Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 (NIV) For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Devotion: When Paul reminds the Thessalonian believers that God has not destined His people for wrath but for salvation, he is offering more than theological clarity—he is offering comfort for weary hearts. These early Christians lived with pressure, uncertainty, and the constant temptation to lose courage. Yet Paul lifts their eyes to the steady purposes of God and calls them to strengthen one another with this truth. We are not wandering through life hoping for mercy; we are held by a God who has already secured it. And because this is true, we can encourage, build up, and walk beside one another with confidence and hope. These verses make it clear that our redempti...
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The Golden Rule

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Scripture: Luke 6:31 (NIV) Do to others as you would have them do to you. Devotion: The Golden Rule stands as one of Jesus’ most beautifully simple yet deeply challenging commands. It is easy to admire these words, harder to embody them, and essential for anyone who desires to walk faithfully with Christ. In a world marked by impatience, division, and self‑protection, Jesus calls His people to a different way—a way shaped by empathy, humility, and intentional kindness. The Golden Rule is not merely a moral guideline; it is a reflection of God’s heart, inviting us to treat others with the same grace we ourselves depend on every day. Many other religious systems express something like the Golden Rule as Jesus did here. Jesus is the only one who expresses it as a positive command. It is rooted in the Father's goodness and expresses what a good God desires for His people. The command is not complicated, yet we find it difficult to live out in our daily lives. The rule causes ...
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God’s Comfort

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Scripture: Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Devotion: This verse meets us in the places we would rather avoid—the valleys, the shadows, the moments when fear feels close enough to touch. David does not pretend the valley isn’t real; he refuses to walk it alone. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” God’s comfort is not theoretical. It is His steady presence, His guiding hand, His rod and staff assuring us that darkness does not have the final word. In every valley, God draws near. We must all acknowledge the reality of the dark valley spoken of in this verse. Every one of us has lived with disappointment, sickness, and even the death of someone close to us. Anxiety and fear are all around us as we walk through life. I recently had a health scare, and it turned out to be nothing serious. I still experie...
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Give to God

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Scripture: Matthew 22:18-23(NIV) But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed. So, they left him and went away. Devotion: In these verses, Jesus exposes the trap set by those who hoped to force Him into a political corner. Instead, He reminds them—and us—that true allegiance belongs to God alone. Coins may bear Caesar’s image, but our lives bear the image of our Creator. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” is not just a clever escape; it is a summons to examine what we are withholding from the God who made us. Why did the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with this dilemma? The answer is for their own political...
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