Archive for August 2024

1 Cor. 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. That tiny country had been doing well on its own…

Phi. 2:3-4 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. The pre-salvation version of myself was pretty proud.  I considered myself to have high standards even about the most…

Heb. 10:23-27 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you…

Mk. 10:23-25 Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”  The disciples were amazed and bewildered by His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier…

Rom. 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. I remember the days before I knew Jesus, when spiritual conversations really looked more like intellectual ones.…

Lk. 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Perhaps my expectations had been a little too high, but I…

Mt. 10:37 Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. I thought I had built quite a nice life for myself in my early adulthood.  I had many friends on whom I thought…

Heb. 13:15-16 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. He had been a spiritual father to many, but there was one boy…

Rom. 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Martyrdom was not a foreign concept to him.  He had read of Christians who died in that way in the scriptures, and…

1 Jn. 5:6-10 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.  And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.  For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these…