Archive for June 2021
Raising Kids Who Worship
Today’s guest post is by Shelly Wildman. Shelly is the author of First Ask Why: Raising Kids to Love God Through Intentional Discipleship. She and her husband Brian are parents to three adult daughters. Shelly formerly taught writing at Wheaton College and currently runs Walkabout Tours, which takes small groups of women on spiritual retreat and tours…
Read MoreJune 26-30, 2021
In keeping with the Bible reading plan we are using, the last days of each month are designated as “free days.” June 26-30 then are intended to allow you to catch up on reading you may have missed or to study passages more in depth that intrigued you during the first 25 days of the month.…
Read MoreLuke 7:1-10: Great Faith
2 Kings 24-25, Psalm 122, Luke 7:1-10, Philippians 4:14-23 Luke 7:1-10: This well-known story of the centurion’s faith is remarkable for several noteworthy reasons that those wishing to center their lives upon Christ may pay careful attention to. First of all, the centurion, a powerful military man, with the power of life and death at his command,…
Read MoreLuke 6:43-49: A Firm Foundation
2 Kings 22-23, Psalm 121, Luke 6:43-49, Philippians 4:8-13 Luke 6:43-49: As Jesus comes to the end of his famous sermon, he uses two illustrations to make two practical and profound concluding exhortations. First, he explains how it is that we are to obey Jesus without obedience itself being the defining characteristic, in a legalistic sense, of what…
Read MoreLuke 6:37-42: Speck and a Log
2 Kings 20-21, Psalm 120, Luke 6:37-42, Philippians 4:1-7 Luke 6:37-42: Jesus now comes to address the thorny question of human relationships—our tendency, in particular, to judge one another, to feel superior to each other, and to cast aspersions about each other’s moral performance and spirituality. In some ways, verse 37 these days is the most famous…
Read MoreLuke 6:27-36: Love Your Enemies
2 Kings 18-19, Psalm 119:169-176, Luke 6:27-36, Philippians 3:15-21 Luke 6:27-36: This famous teaching is as controversial now as it was then. Should it be taken literally? Are we truly intended to “love our enemies”? If someone takes our cloak, are we meant to also give them our tunic? Are we meant to give to everyone who begs…
Read MoreLuke 6:17-26: Blessings and Woes
2 Kings 16-17, Psalm 119:161-168, Luke 6:17-26, Philippians 3:10-14 Luke 6:17-26: The so-called “sermon on the plain” or “on a level place” is in all likelihood an abridgment of the same “Sermon on the Mount” that Matthew’s Gospel records (which itself is likely to be an abridgment of the original discourse). In this sermon, as people come…
Read MoreLuke 6:1-16: Sabbath and Prayer
2 Kings 14-15, Psalm 119:153-160, Luke 6:1-16, Philippians 3:1-9 Luke 6:1-16: The action in this section first of all centers around the “Sabbath.” The Sabbath day, of course, was a primary distinctive of the Old Testament religion. Because God made the world, as Genesis chapter 1 describes it, and rested on the seventh day, so God commanded that…
Read MoreLuke 5:33-39: New Wine and New Wineskins
2 Kings 12-13, Psalm 119:145-152, Luke 5:33-39, Philippians 2:19-30 Luke 5:33-39: On the surface, this is a fairly prosaic question about fasting. Jesus is in the middle of a feast (5:27-31) with tax collectors and “sinners,” and the disparity between that behavior and the more ascetically minded John the Baptist, and even that of the Pharisees, is quite…
Read MoreLuke 5:27-32: I Have Not Come to Call the Righteous
2 Kings 10-11, Psalm 119:137-144, Luke 5:27-32, Philippians 2:12-18 Luke 5:27-32: A beautiful story—but in its essence is quite a challenge to the religiosity of our (and any) age. Jesus calls Levi to follow him. So far, so familiar—except for the rapidity of Levi’s response (and that, with him leaving everything to follow Jesus); little about this initially…
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