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

Christ takes people who were far away and brings them near. Christ takes people who were separated and makes them family. Christ takes people who were spiritually dead and makes them alive. Then the Holy Spirit begins forming those people together into a place where the presence of God can be seen in the world.   Read More

We may sometimes wish that power looked more spectacular. But resurrection power often works quietly before it works visibly. It breaks the power of sin. It teaches us to forgive. It forms patience where anger once ruled. It creates generosity where fear once held tightly. It makes a divided group of people into the Body of Christ.   Read More

The gospel isn't God's program for polishing up the old life. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has begun something new. The Holy Spirit is already bringing that new creation to life among people who belong to Christ. And that new creation becomes visible when a church lives differently.   Read More

God’s grace comes first. The Spirit is already at work. Christ has already set us free. And because grace is at work, we can respond. We can surrender old desires. We can practice obedience. We can choose reconciliation over rivalry, service over selfish ambition, gentleness over anger, and love over the need to prove ourselves. Over time, what began as obedience becomes increasingly characteristic of who we are. That is sanctification.   Read More

Grace does more than change our status before God. Grace begins changing who we are. The Spirit who assures us that we are God’s children is also at work shaping us into the likeness of the Son.   Read More

Everything has been moving toward Christ. That's why Paul’s warning is so strong. Going backward to the law as the basis of belonging would not be spiritual progress. It would mean treating something temporary as though it were the destination.   Read More

It is possible to believe the gospel correctly and still live in ways that contradict it. We may confess that salvation is by grace while quietly deciding who belongs most comfortably among us. We may say that every believer is part of the Body of Christ while gravitating only toward people who look, think, speak, worship, vote, work, or live like we do. We can proclaim an open door while maintaining invisible boundaries inside the room.   Read More

As we begin Galatians, Paul gives us something worth holding onto through the entire letter: Don't add to the gospel. Don't subtract from the gospel. And don't confuse the fruit of grace with the price of grace.  Read More

Is Christ's grace shaping the way we respond to weakness? Is God's love shaping the way we see other people? Is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit shaping the way we live together?   Read More

God’s grace is sufficient today. Not sufficient because suffering is good. Not sufficient because weakness doesn’t matter. Sufficient because Christ remains present and Christ’s power is not limited by our weakness.   Read More

The Corinthians have been measuring Christian leadership using the standards of the culture around them. Paul wants them to measure everything by Christ. And once Christ becomes the standard, strength begins to look different.   Read More

What does success look like? What makes someone important? Whose approval matters? What makes a church strong? What makes a leader worth following? What determines whether our lives are going well?   Read More

When grace is shaping us, our hands gradually become more open. We begin to see our money, possessions, time, and opportunities differently. They’re no longer things we must protect at all costs. They become gifts entrusted to us that can participate in what God is doing. And when we release them faithfully, the harvest may reach farther than we ever see.   Read More

Grace turns people toward God. Grace loosens our grip on what we possess. Grace teaches us to notice the needs of others. Grace moves us from good intentions toward completed faithfulness. Grace builds unity across differences. And grace teaches the church to handle what has been entrusted to us with integrity.   Read More

God doesn't reveal sin so that we remain crushed beneath it. The Holy Spirit brings conviction because grace is already calling us toward something better. God exposes what is destroying us so it can be surrendered, forgiven, healed, and transformed.   Read More

God’s grace does more than forgive what has been. The Holy Spirit works within us so that even suffering, disappointment, criticism, and opposition become places where Christlike character can take root. Paul’s circumstances were often beyond his control. His faithful response within those circumstances revealed whose life was shaping his own.   Read More

The holiness of Jesus moves toward broken people with truth and grace, calling them into restored relationship with God and with one another. That is the life Christ is forming in us. The old world says protect yourself, defend your side, remember every offense, and keep people in the categories where you placed them. New creation says something different.   Read More

We follow a crucified and risen Lord. So our lives will sometimes bear the marks of the cross: weakness, sacrifice, suffering, surrender. Yet the cross is never separated from resurrection. Even while death appears to be doing its work, the life of Jesus is at work too. That changes how we understand our weakness.   Read More

Paul points to the Corinthians themselves. And considering everything we’ve read about this church, that’s a bold move. They’ve struggled with division, pride, sexual immorality, worship, spiritual gifts, the Lord’s Supper, and their relationship with Paul himself. Yet Paul can still look at this complicated community and say, in effect, Look at what God has done here.   Read More

Some wounds require time, wisdom, boundaries, and patient rebuilding of trust. Paul isn't asking the church to pretend nothing happened. He's asking them to recognize what God is doing now instead of keeping a repentant person permanently trapped in what happened then. Paul even warns that refusing restoration gives the enemy an opportunity. A church can be damaged by ignoring sin, but it can also be damaged by refusing grace.   Read More

Paul says the Holy Spirit is already at work within us as God’s seal and the guarantee of what is still coming. The God who raised Jesus has not abandoned the work of new creation. God is forming us, strengthening us, and leading us toward the life Christ has opened for us. That means our suffering doesn’t have to become wasted pain.   Read More

“Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in love.” (vv. 13–14) We could easily emphasize the first four and overlook the fifth. Be alert. Stand firm. Be courageous. Be strong. Those sound like fighting words. But Christian strength is always governed by Christian love. Standing firm doesn't give us permission to become cruel. Courage doesn't require arrogance. Strength doesn't justify domination. Faithfulness to truth cannot be separated from becoming like Jesus. Everything should be done in love.   Read More

We may not know exactly how God will gather all those acts of love, obedience, service, creativity, compassion, and witness into the kingdom that is coming. Paul doesn’t explain that. He gives us something better than an explanation. He gives us a promise. Your labor in the Lord is not wasted.   Read More

Sometimes we speak about salvation almost entirely in terms of what happens when we die. Paul’s vision here is much larger. The Christian hope is not escape from God’s creation. It is God’s victory over everything that has corrupted it.   Read More

Whoever we are, whatever gifts God has entrusted to us, Christian worship isn’t a competition for the microphone.   Read More

We don’t need to manufacture evidence that God is real. We trust God because we have experienced God’s trustworthiness. We have received grace. We’ve been forgiven. We’ve seen lives changed. We’ve experienced the Holy Spirit forming us into people who love differently, forgive differently, serve differently, and hope differently. So live from there.   Read More

Christian maturity doesn’t require us to choose between heartfelt worship and thoughtful worship. God desires the whole person. Mind and spirit. Understanding and affection. Truth and praise.   Read More

At the Lord's Table, social divisions were contradicting the gospel. Among the spiritual gifts, people were comparing importance and status. Paul's answer isn't to eliminate differences. It is to teach the Church how grace transforms the way different people belong to one another.   Read More

The Holy Spirit forms us into the likeness of Jesus not by making us identical, but by teaching very different people to love one another as members of the same Body. Pride gives way to service. Comparison gives way to gratitude. Independence gives way to mutual care.   Read More

Communion says something. When we gather around the Table, we proclaim that Jesus Christ gave himself for us. We remember a grace none of us earned. We receive together because every one of us comes empty-handed, dependent upon the same crucified and risen Lord. There’s no premium seat at this Table.   Read More

Our gifts come from God. Our place in the Body comes from God. Our freedom comes from God. The grace that makes us one people comes from God. That means nobody enters worship with permission to diminish someone else whom God has called, gifted, and welcomed.   Read More

Can I do this faithfully as someone who belongs to Jesus? Can I receive this with gratitude to God? Will my choice help someone else move toward Christ or make their discipleship more difficult? Does this reflect the God whose glory I want my life to reveal?   Read More

“No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people. But God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities. Instead, with the temptation God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it” (v. 13). This verse is sometimes shortened into the idea that “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” That isn’t what Paul says.   Read More

There is a tremendous difference between changing the gospel to suit people and changing ourselves so people can hear the gospel. One compromises the message. The other looks a lot like love.   Read More

Witness matters. Not because Christians are supposed to spend our lives anxiously managing everyone’s opinion of us. And not because holiness means constructing endless rules so nobody is ever offended. Witness matters because we belong to Jesus and we belong to one another.   Read More

Jesus is Lord. That was true yesterday. It is true today. It will still be true when tomorrow looks nothing like what we expected.   Read More

The gospel has already given believers an identity more fundamental than any status the world can offer. That is where this passage presses into our lives. We can easily imagine that faithful discipleship will begin after something changes. When I'm married. When my family situation improves. When I have a different job. When life becomes less complicated. When people finally understand me... the list goes on, and no matter what we insert here, grace asks: Why not now?   Read More

The gospel doesn’t save a religious corner of our lives while leaving the rest untouched. Christ claims all of us. And that means Paul’s teaching about sexual holiness cannot faithfully become ammunition for Christians to aim primarily at other people. Before these words are ever useful for judging the culture around us, they must be allowed to examine the Church—and each of us within it.   Read More

There's a significant difference between welcoming sinners and celebrating sin. The Church must always be a place where broken people can encounter the grace of Jesus Christ. If sinners aren't welcome, none of us belongs there. But grace doesn't leave us where it found us. The Jesus who forgives us also calls us to follow him, and the Holy Spirit works within us to make us holy.   Read More

What should Christian leadership—and Christian maturity—actually look like? “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries,” Paul writes (1 Corinthians 4:1). A steward was entrusted with something that belonged to someone else. The responsibility was not to build a personal following or increase personal status. The responsibility was faithfulness.   Read More