MONDAY Reading for Today: Mark 5:21-43 1 Corinthians 9:13-27 Psalm 83 Judges 4–5 1 Corinthians 9:13-27 Do you know someone who is training for a marathon or other athletic event? These people understand hard work. They see their goal and work for it as if their life depended on it. Some of them run through […]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “To follow Christ is to obey Christ.” The apostles had the privilege of literally “coming after” Jesus. For them, following Jesus meant geography, physicality, and proximity. But after Jesus’ resurrection their following of him became more like ours. Obedience outstripped physical presence. The lesson text today picks up where we left off […]
Most of us exaggerate now and then, using expressions that would be outrageous if taken literally. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!” “I have told you a million times not to do that.” Hyperbole isn’t meant to falsify or misrepresent the facts, but to intensify them. We exaggerate our points in order to […]
Use one or both of these questions to introduce the lesson: 1. Think of the last telephone call you have received from a charity seeking donations. How did you respond? What is your thought process when deciding whether to give financial support to a cause and how much to give? 2. What is a zealot? […]
From the first moment we see our children, we’re hooked. Our hearts swell with emotions and with the instinctual desire to protect, nurture, and provide for them. The Bible tells us children are a gift from the Lord (Psalm 127) and yet any parent knows that the job of raising and discipling kids in today’s […]
