The Joy of Answered Prayer
Read: 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 We pray most earnestly night and day. (v. 10) The problem-plagued moon mission of NASA’s Apollo 13 gripped the world for seven anxious days in April of 1970. No moment was more anxious than the six minutes of radio silence as the capsule reentered the atmosphere. Would the three astronauts survive? Imagine […]
The Real Deal
Read: 1 Thessalonians 2:13-20 You received the word of God . . . as what it really is. (v. 13) In verse 13, Paul weaves together ideas about God’s word, his preaching, and the response of the Thessalonians. He makes the stunning claim that in receiving what they heard from his preaching, they were in fact receiving the Word […]
Near and Dear
Read: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 We have been . . . entrusted with the gospel. (v. 4) My grandson Elias was born earlier this year. His lungs were not getting enough oxygen, so he spent two weeks in the NICU. While visiting him, we met some extraordinary volunteers. Known as “The Rocking Grandmas,” these women give their time to hold […]
Affliction and Joy
Read: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 You received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit. (v. 6) I was moved last winter by a request from a family without a permanent home. They wrote a letter requesting our devotional be sent to an address where they could retrieve it. The wife shared, “The […]
Upside Down
Read: Acts 17:1-9 These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. (v. 6) How did you react the first time you understood the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus? Joy? Worship? Guilt? Fear? Rebellion? The one thing the gospel doesn’t do is leave anyone the same. The men in the mob […]
World-Changing Prayer
Read: Revelation 8:1-5 He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. (v. 3 NIV) When I’m struck by the thought of world-changing prayer, I come back again and again to these words in Revelation 8. Here’s how they begin: “When he […]
The Lamb and His Great Multitude
Read: Revelation 7:9-17 There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. (v. 9 NIV) When I muse on what it will be like at last when we are with the Lord and his people, no passage sums […]
Worthy is the Lamb
Read: Revelation 5:1-14 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain.” (v. 12 NIV) When I find myself longing to worship Jesus, to see him in the fullness of his glory, to pour out my heart to him, the vision given to the apostle John in Revelation 5 seems to […]
When Believers Die
Read: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. (v. 18 NIV) In the early days after Jesus’ resurrection, many believers seemed confused about the situation of their loved ones who had recently died. Where were they? What could be the hope of their grieving loved ones who remained? The apostle Paul sensed this […]