Daily Readings

September 07, 2023
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He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Ps. 147:3)


Yes, we have all been wounded in this battle. And we will be wounded again. But something deeper has also happened to us than mere wounds.


I...

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September 06, 2023
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The life we have is so far from the life we truly want, and it doesn’t take us long to find someone to blame. In order for our longings to be filled, we need the cooperation of others. I long for a loving embrace and a kind word when I get home....

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September 05, 2023
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When the Bible tells us that Christ came to “redeem mankind” it offers a whole lot more than forgiveness. To simply forgive a broken man is like telling someone running a marathon, “It’s okay that you’ve broken your leg. I won’t hold that against...

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September 04, 2023
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Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered. He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will...

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September 03, 2023
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Here’s what I am learning: A grateful heart is a heart that is free. An ungrateful heart is a heart that is bound. Gratitude inevitably leads to freedom. 


The root of the word gratitude is the Latin word gratis, which means free. If...

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September 02, 2023
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Certainly storytelling is one of the great pleasures in the kingdom. God clearly takes it very seriously—he made reality in the shape of a story. Would you like to write? Illustrate? Act? Produce? Perhaps we get to take workshops from the great...

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September 01, 2023
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The gospel says that we, who are God's beloved, created a cosmic crisis. It says we, too, were stolen from our True Love and that he launched the greatest campaign in the history of the world to get us back. God created us for intimacy with him....

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August 31, 2023
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This is the world [God] has made. This is the world that is still going on. And he doesn't walk away from the mess we've made of it. Now he lives, almost cheerfully, certainly heroically, in a dynamic relationship with us and with our world. "...

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August 30, 2023
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According to the Scriptures, the heart can be troubled, wounded, pierced, grieved, even broken. How well we all know that. Thankfully, it can also be cheerful, glad, merry, joyful, rejoicing. The heart can be whole or divided—as in that phrase we...

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August 29, 2023
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What will we do in heaven? The Sunday comics picture saints lying about on clouds, strumming harps. It hardly takes your breath away. The fact that most Christians have a gut sense that earth is more exciting than heaven points to the deceptive...

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August 28, 2023
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The biblical canon ends with Jesus making this final statement:

Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. (Revelation 22:12)

Reward, reward, reward — it...

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August 27, 2023
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Warfare prayer is not a “back-up” category when all else fails. It is not a specialty form of prayer for the uniquely called or gifted. Yes — there are some who become “experts” in this field, just as there are some who become especially trained...

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August 26, 2023
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In this desperate hour we have a crucial role to play. Of all the Eternal Truths we don't believe, this is the one we doubt most of all. Our days are not extraordinary. They are filled with the mundane, with hassles mostly. And we? We...

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August 25, 2023
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What Jesus primarily models for us is how to draw our life from the Father. This passage from Philippians — one of the earliest hymns of the faith — says that Jesus more than humbled himself when he came to earth. He emptied himself:

...

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August 24, 2023
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I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far – I will find you. —Nathaniel to Cora in The Last of the Mohicans


One of my favorite games growing up was "kidnapped and rescued." I know many little...

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August 23, 2023
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Mary broke the neck of the jar open and slowly poured some of the perfume on Jesus’s head and then poured the rest on his feet. Then she did something extremely intimate and scandalous. She unbound her hair and wiped his feet with it, even though...

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August 22, 2023
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That strength so essential to men is also what makes them heroes. If a neighborhood is safe, it's because of the strength of men. Slavery was stopped by the strength of men, at a terrible price to them and their families. The Nazis were...

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August 21, 2023
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Everything in you may be saying, “But you don’t understand. I want to eat that whole box of chocolates (or sleep with my boyfriend, or let my anger really fly). That’s what really seems like life to me right now.” God says, “I know you...

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August 20, 2023
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“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the...

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August 19, 2023
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Let me take you back now to the last cup of tea, Luke’s parting, and the ending of our family’s childhood era. It was the Saturday of his high school graduation. We had been through two others before and knew the ritual well. I believe in rituals...

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