Posts with the category “bible-reading-plan-2026”

The world looked at the cross and saw defeat. God revealed victory. The world saw weakness. God revealed self-giving love powerful enough to redeem creation. The world measured wisdom by status, rhetoric, influence, and power. God revealed wisdom through a crucified Messiah. And the same Spirit who revealed Christ to the Corinthians continues forming the Church today. This is one reason discipleship can't simply be the accumulation of Christian information.   Read More

The Corinthians had many issues Paul needed to address. But before dealing with any of them, he brought them back to the center. We probably need the same reminder. Jesus is not one loyalty among many. Jesus is the center from which every other part of our lives must find its proper place.   Read More

We need enough humility to listen and enough wisdom to recognize error. We need enough grace to distinguish between disagreements Christians can faithfully live with and teachings that actually pull us away from Jesus and the gospel. And notice where Paul's confidence finally rests. Not in the church becoming clever enough to identify every danger. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” The church must remain watchful, but victory belongs to God.   Read More

Faithfulness doesn't require us to know exactly how the whole story will unfold. Sometimes God places a destination on our hearts that gets us moving, while the work God accomplishes along the way becomes far more important than we could have anticipated.   Read More

God’s promise through Israel was always moving toward blessing the nations. Jesus, the Messiah from David’s family, has fulfilled those promises, risen from the dead, and opened the family of God to people from every nation. The church in Rome was living evidence that God keeps promises. So are we.   Read More

Holiness is never only about what I am free to do. The Holy Spirit forms us into people who love God and neighbor so deeply that we willingly consider how our choices affect the people around us. Sometimes grace gives us freedom. Sometimes love teaches us to restrain that freedom for someone else’s sake. That's not weakness... it's Christlikeness.   Read More

We don't have to mirror the anger around us. We don't have to join every fight. We don't have to treat neighbors as enemies because the world has divided them into opposing camps. We don't have to grasp for power as though everything depends upon us winning...   Read More

After eleven chapters describing the mercy and faithfulness of God, Paul finally turns and says, in effect: Now live like people who have received that mercy...   Read More

Paul has looked at Israel and the nations, promise and unbelief, judgment and mercy, covenant and grace. He sees a story far larger than anything human beings could have planned. Then he remembers whose story it is. “Everything is from him and through him and for him. To him be the glory forever. Amen” (v. 36). There is freedom in that confession.   Read More

Our place in the tree should make us grateful, not arrogant. Who have we decided is probably beyond God's reach? Whose unbelief, resistance, failure, or distance from God have we begun treating as permanent?   Read More

The Law wasn't a failed experiment that Jesus replaced. Israel’s story, its promises, and its hope were moving toward the Messiah. Jesus is where the road has been leading. And now, Paul says, God’s saving grace has come near.   Read More

We aren't shaped by mercy simply so that we can enjoy having received mercy. We are shaped into people through whom God’s mercy can reach the world. That fits the larger story Paul has been telling from the beginning of Romans. Grace creates a new people. The Spirit forms them into the likeness of Christ. And then God sends them into the world as living evidence of what new creation looks like. The Potter is still working.   Read More

Christian assurance is not confidence that nothing painful will happen. It's confidence that nothing painful gets to have the final word. The world still groans. Sometimes we still groan with it. But the Spirit is present in the groaning. God is still working. Christ is still interceding. Grace is still forming us.   Read More

We say no to sin because the Spirit is enabling us to say yes to God. We surrender what doesn't belong in a holy life because God is already at work forming something new within us. This is the cooperation with grace that lies at the heart of our Wesleyan understanding of sanctification. God acts, and we respond. The Spirit leads, and we follow.   Read More

The person in Romans 7 knows the good. Wants the good. Even delights in the good. And still cannot produce the good. It's a sobering diagnosis of the human condition, but it's also an important word for anyone seeking holiness.   Read More

Holiness isn't about earning God's approval through better behavior. We already stand in grace because of Christ. Holiness is learning to live consistently with the new life we've been given. Grace doesn't excuse sin; it frees us from its mastery. Every act of obedience is another step away from Egypt and another step toward the life God has always intended for His people.   Read More

Holiness is possible because grace is powerful. Not because we become disciplined enough to repair everything Adam’s rebellion damaged. Not because we finally become good enough to outrun sin. But because the reign has changed. We belong to Christ.   Read More

Because we have peace with God, we also have access to God. Paul says we now "stand in grace." The picture is one of being welcomed into God's presence—not as strangers hoping to avoid rejection, but as children who belong in their Father's house. The relationship no longer depends on whether we feel close to God on a particular day. It rests securely on what Christ has already accomplished. That truth becomes especially important when life is difficult.   Read More

Abraham’s story points beyond itself to Jesus. Christ was handed over because of our sins and raised so that we might be declared right with God. The resurrection is God’s announcement that sin and death have been confronted, the promise has been fulfilled, and all who trust in Christ are welcomed into the covenant family.   Read More

There is no room for boasting, but there is plenty of room for gratitude. We don’t have to prove that we belong. We don’t have to establish our superiority. We can receive grace with open hands and welcome others on the same terms by which we were welcomed.   Read More

We’re accustomed to earning, proving, achieving, and repaying. We often bring that same instinct into our relationship with God. We try to demonstrate that we deserve forgiveness, promise to do better, or balance yesterday’s failures with today’s good behavior... But grace cannot be earned.  Read More

One of the hardest obstacles to grace is the belief that we can somehow earn it. We compare ourselves to others. We point to our accomplishments. We remind ourselves that we've done more good than bad. But God's standard is not comparison with other people. God's standard is God's own holiness.   Read More

An entrusted gift is never meant to end with the person who receives it. It is given so it can be faithfully delivered to someone else. Israel wasn't chosen simply to enjoy God's blessings. They were chosen so the nations would come to know the God who had called them.   Read More

The gospel is not primarily about changing our label. It is about God changing us. The Christian life is not built on external performance but on the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. The same God who forgives our sin also renews our hearts, writing His law within us so that obedience increasingly flows from love rather than obligation.   Read More

Paul's words are not meant to single out Israel for condemnation. They expose a temptation that exists in every generation of God's people. It is possible to know Scripture without allowing Scripture to shape us. It is possible to defend sound doctrine while neglecting a transformed heart. It is possible to wear the name of Christ while living in a way that makes others question whether the gospel has any power at all.   Read More

Nothing will be overlooked. Nothing will be misunderstood. Even the hidden motives of every heart will be known. That truth can feel unsettling until we remember who the Judge is.  Read More

One of the easiest ways to avoid confronting our own hearts is to compare ourselves with someone else's failures. As long as we can point to someone who seems worse than we are, we begin to feel justified. But God's judgment is never based on comparison. It is based on truth.   Read More

Three times Paul repeats the same sobering phrase: "God gave them up." God does not force people into obedience. In love, God calls, warns, pursues, and invites. But when people continually reject the Creator in favor of created things, there comes a point where God allows them to experience the natural consequences of that choice.   Read More

At its heart, idolatry isn't simply bowing before an image. It's allowing anything less than God to shape our identity, direct our desires, or define our hope.   Read More

The world continues to offer competing promises of security, identity, and hope. The gospel still declares something better: Jesus is Lord, and through Him God is making all things new.   Read More

Paul doesn't begin by telling them what they lack. He doesn't present himself as the expert arriving to correct an inferior church. He recognizes that God is already at work among them. Paul has something to offer, but he also expects to receive something.   Read More

Sometimes we reduce the gospel to what happens when someone accepts Christ. Praise God, the gospel does transform us. It forgives our sins, makes us new, and invites us into God's family. But before the gospel changes our story, it announces God's story. God acted in Jesus. Christ died. Christ rose. Christ reigns. Those events changed history before they ever changed our hearts.   Read More

We aren't reading the conclusion of God's story. We're reading the chapter that invites us into it.   Read More

We sometimes assume difficult circumstances mean God's plans have been interrupted. Acts reminds us they may simply have taken a different route. A delay, a disappointment, or an unexpected hardship doesn't mean God has abandoned His purposes. Sometimes those very moments become the place where His grace is most clearly displayed.   Read More

Our lives often feel like that broken ship. There are seasons when God's promises are the only solid thing left to hold. Plans collapse. Circumstances shift. We cling to whatever pieces remain, wondering if we'll ever make it to shore.   Read More

We don't always know how the storm will unfold. We don't always understand why obedience sometimes leads into rough seas instead of calm ones. But we do know the One to whom we belong.   Read More

Paul's encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road changed everything, but it wasn't just a change of religion. It was a revelation that the God he had always sought to serve had acted in history through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The promises weren't canceled. They were fulfilled.   Read More

Sometimes God calls us to wait patiently because only God can act. Other times, grace invites us to participate—to take the next faithful step, trusting that God's power is already at work before us. We never advance God's kingdom by our own strength, but neither are we passive observers. God's grace both initiates and enables our response.   Read More

We often want God to remove every misunderstanding, correct every false accusation, or ensure that others recognize our motives. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn't. Paul would spend another two years in custody after this hearing, despite the weakness of the case against him. Yet, Luke never portrays Paul as defeated. His freedom was limited, but his witness was not.   Read More

Paul could not have arranged this rescue himself. He couldn't persuade the conspirators to abandon their plot. He couldn't command an army to escort him to Caesarea. His safety rested entirely in God's hands... it always had.   Read More