Episodes

7m ago

If you want to give a gift to God this Christmas, walk off the assembly line of sin and don’t go back. Take up your place, instead, in the picket line of love.

1d ago

Forgiven, we are indestructible. Satan’s plan was to condemn God’s followers in God’s own courtroom. But now, in Christ, there is no condemnation.

2d ago

Distrust God’s mercy, and all is lost. But conquer here, and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

3d ago

God put our sins on his Son and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just.

4d ago

God delights to show his power through apparent defeat. He sometimes retreats in order to win strategic victories.

5d ago

Jesus came that we might have Life, now and forever. Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

6d ago

The meaning of Christmas is that God takes salvation, puts it in your heart, and seals you as his child.

Dec 13

Our High Priest is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. No Old Testament priest could ever say that.

Dec 12

Jesus came to orient all our attention on himself, ministering for us first on Calvary as our final Sacrifice and then in heaven as our final Priest.

Dec 11

In dying, Christ de-fanged the devil. How? By covering all our sin. This means that Satan has no legitimate grounds to accuse us before God.

Dec 10

Giving gifts to Christ is like fasting — going without something to show that Christ is more valuable than what you are going without.

Dec 9

Let this Christmas be the time when you ponder what it means — what it costs — to worship and follow Jesus, the Messiah.

Dec 8

God influenced the stars in the sky to get a little handful of foreign magi to Bethlehem so that they would worship his Son.

Dec 7

Christmas proves how Jesus is Messiah — a King, and Promise-Fulfiller — for all the nations, not just Israel.

Dec 6

The key that unlocks the treasure chest of God’s peace is faith in the promises of God.

Dec 5

God could have seen to it that Jesus have a room at his birth. But that would have been a detour off the Calvary road.

Dec 4

Do not think, because you experience adversity, that the hand of the Lord is shortened.

Dec 3

For the mind of faith, a promised act of God is as good as done.

Dec 2

The only people whose soul can truly magnify the Lord are people like Elizabeth and Mary. So, this Advent, imitate their lowliness and cheerful humility.

Dec 1

This Advent, bend the efforts of your imagination to make the wonder of Jesus’s arrival visible for your children.

Nov 30

No matter how dirty with sin you are, through Christ you can see the light of God’s glory and believe.

Nov 29

Our greatest problem is alienation from God. The only solution is the blood of Christ.

Nov 28

At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. But genuine gratitude glorifies God because it admits that we need him.

Nov 27

The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is.

Nov 26

Our salvation is as secure as Christ’s priesthood is indestructible. His deity and resurrection from the dead secure his indestructible priesthood for us.

Nov 25

A life that gives glory to God for his grace and a life of deepest gladness are the same life. And what makes them one is thankfulness.

Nov 24

When Christ died for us, he did not buy the freedom from having to hold fast, but the enabling power to hold fast.

Nov 23

It is as unlikely that God will break his word of promise to bless us as it is that he will despise himself.

Nov 22

Getting ready to feast on all God’s word is not first an intellectual challenge; it is first a moral challenge.

Nov 21

A thankful spirit is others-exalting and glad-hearted. Therefore, pray for a great awakening of humble gratitude.

Nov 20

Death is gain because Christians will then be perfect, pain-free, rested, at home, and with Christ.

Nov 19

Because we have a Great High Priest, the throne of God is a throne of grace.

Nov 18

The word of God is our only hope. It is sharp, living, and active. Therefore, be of good cheer in your battle to believe.

Nov 17

Don’t be a fatalist. Be a Christian. Change is possible. God is alive. Christ is risen. The promises are true.

Nov 16

Take up the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and fight the good fight — to live by faith in future grace.

Nov 15

When you feel discouraged and anxious, cling to God’s promises to be with you and uphold you.

Nov 14

When you marvel at the wonders of creation, do not marvel at the processes of chance but at the creativity of God.

Nov 13

The Bible’s warnings are written that you might believe and endure, and have life.

Nov 12

Satan cannot destroy us. In fact, God turns all his attacks finally against him and for us.

Nov 11

Becoming a Christian and being a Christian happen in the same way: by hoping in Jesus.

Nov 10

When anxiety blurs our vision of God’s glory, it does not mean that we are faithless. It means our faith is being attacked.

Nov 9

One day, we will see God’s glory, and marvel at it in such a way that he will be glorified in us for all the world to see.

Nov 8

It is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy of fellowship with him.

Nov 7

There are precious experiences of the love of God that require that we fight pride, seek humility, and cherish the nearness of God.

Nov 6

Loving acts are genuine to the degree that they are not done begrudgingly.

Nov 5

Being a Christian is a very serious business, though not a sour business. We are simply blood-earnest about being happy in our great salvation.

Nov 4

What you thought was a mere struggle with an anxious disposition might really be a far deeper struggle with trusting God.

Nov 3

It is truer in suffering than anywhere else that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Nov 2

Whether we focus on the riches of the reward or the refining effects of suffering, God’s purpose is that our joy in suffering be sustained.

Nov 1

We exhibit the sufferings of Christ when we ourselves suffer for those we are trying to win.

Oct 31

God designs suffering not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine.

Oct 30

Be satisfied in Jesus so that you do not get lured downstream by deceitful desires.

Oct 29

Suffering proves our allegiance to Christ’s goodness and reveals his worth as an all-sufficient prize.

Oct 28

Jesus himself makes up for every sacrifice he will ever call us to make. It is worth it to lose it all in order to gain Christ.

Oct 27

God has a people in every people group. He will call them through the gospel with Creator power. And they will believe!

Oct 26

“All things are possible with God!” — in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to both despair and pride.

Oct 25

God’s call is irresistible in the sense that it can overcome all resistance. It is infallibly effective according to God’s purpose.

Oct 24

We see the sun by means of seeing the rays of the sun. So also we see God the Father by seeing Jesus.

Oct 23

The Word that God spoke by his Son is the decisive Word. It will not be followed in this age by any greater word or replacement word.

Oct 22

When Christ redeems marriage, he does not dismantle loving headship and willing submission. He restores it.

Oct 21

Husbands and wives should seek to live after the distinctive model of God’s pure and glad design for Christ and the church.

Oct 20

The first priority in praying is to ask our heavenly Father to cause his name to be hallowed. In us. In the church. In the world. Everywhere.

Oct 19

The union between Christ and his bride is so close that any good done to her is a good done to himself.

Oct 18

Jesus did not want a dirty and unholy wife. Therefore, he was willing to die to cleanse her so that he could present her to himself.

Oct 17

You can steal to get; or you can work to get; or you can work to get in order to give.

Oct 16

It is a horrifying thing to use your God-given life to commit adultery against the Almighty.

Oct 15

One of the main reasons we so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer is simply that we don’t plan to.

Oct 14

God takes out our old proud hearts and gives new soft ones, which are easily humbled and crushed by the sin that remains.

Oct 13

The very heart of God’s glory is the fullness of grace that overflows in kindness to needy people.

Oct 12

God aims to be our servant, because he aims to get the glory as the Giver.

Oct 11

God is glorified when we turn away from ourselves to him in the confidence that he will provide the help we need.

Oct 10

The greatest news is that the cross upholds the worth of God’s glory, the honor of his Son, and the eternal salvation of his elect.

Oct 9

The good news is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his justice without condemning the whole human race.

Oct 8

All the omnipotent energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him.

Oct 7

Be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. Let God do that work. God loves to show his God-ness by working for us.

Oct 6

When we share in the happiness of God, we share in the very pleasure that the Father has in the Son.

Oct 5

When you lay down the burden of vengeance, God will pick it up.

Oct 4

Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever. One day, God’s delight in his Son will be in us.

Oct 3

God does not need us. Instead, his infinite self-sufficiency spills over in love to us who need him.

Oct 2

If none of God’s purposes can be frustrated, then he must be the happiest of all beings.

Oct 1

The quest for joy is not optional, but commanded.

Sep 30

Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship.

Sep 29

Take up the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and fight the good fight — to live by faith in future grace.

Sep 28

God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace by making sinners happy in him.

Sep 27

The truth of Christ frees us from the slavery of sin, for the freedom of holiness.

Sep 26

Confidence in God’s absolute control is the source and power of radical obedience to the call of God.

Sep 25

The Bible is no empty word. It is your very life — the foundation and kindling of your joy!

Sep 24

What sustained Christ in the dark hours of Gethsemane was the hope of joy beyond the cross.

Sep 23

When it comes to being a candidate for grace, your background has nothing to do with God’s choice. That’s good news.

Sep 22

You have a possession in heaven that is better, and lasts longer, than anything this world can offer.

Sep 21

God intends for particular promises to help you fight against particular anxieties.

Sep 20

The Lord has spoken: It is more blessed to love than to live in luxury! More blessed now, and forever.

Sep 19

In Jesus Christ we who are born of God have the unspeakable privilege of knowing Yahweh as our Father.

Sep 18

Only Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for us, can make us truly free.

Sep 17

Sit down to the feast of joy in Christ and worship the King of Glory. The banquet hall is very large.

Sep 16

To see God, and know him, and be in his presence is the soul’s final feast.

Sep 15

Two things have to be true if your joy is never to be taken from you. One is that the source of your joy lasts forever and the other is that you last forever.

Sep 14

If we live by faith in God’s promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive.

Sep 13

God will see to it that you are not tested in any given day more than you can bear.

Sep 12

God will certainly take his energy and creative skill, and use it to care for his children since they will live forever.

Sep 11

Jesus helps us to fight the good fight against unbelief and to be free from anxiety.

Sep 10

The way you fight the good fight for faith is by meditating on God’s assurances of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit.

Sep 9

If you treated your salvation no longer as a gift, but as a purchase, God would no longer be the free benefactor.

Sep 8

You can’t give anything to God or do anything for God that he hasn’t first given to you and done for you.

Sep 7

Fear not. Your adversaries can do no more than God grants. And he will grant you the faith you need. Those are gospel promises.

Sep 6

Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ because Christ is alive and is still loving us right now.

Sep 5

God loves us so much that he will not allow our preciousness to become our god.

Sep 4

In the old covenant, the gracious enabling power to obey God was not poured out as fully as it is since Jesus.

Sep 3

If you feel vulnerable, you can say to God, “Lord, help me. I’m not even sure how to pray.” Trust that he will respond and will help you.

Sep 2

This is one of the beauties of the biblical doctrines of grace: their worst devastations prepare us for their greatest delights.

Sep 1

God is never forced into a situation where he must do something in which he cannot rejoice.

Aug 31

The worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty, nor just from his meekness, but from the way these mingle in perfect proportion.

Aug 30

By all means work. But always look to the Lord for the decisive, supernatural work needed to fulfill his purposes.

Aug 29

Never grow weary of exploring and exulting in the inexhaustible privilege of being “in Christ Jesus.”

Aug 28

The Father’s infinite pleasure in his own perfections is the fountain of our everlasting joy and forgiveness.

Aug 27

The extent of Christ’s reign reaches to the smallest and biggest enemy of his glory in your life, and in this universe. It will be defeated.

Aug 26

God rejoices in the works of creation because they point us beyond themselves to God himself.

Aug 25

The sweetest experience of God’s love is conditional on our transformation into the kind of people whose emotions and choices and actions please God.

Aug 24

Day and night are saying one thing: God is glorious! Turn away from the creation as your supreme satisfaction, and delight yourself in the Lord of glory.

Aug 23

God is love precisely because he relentlessly pursues the praises of his name in the hearts of his people.

Aug 22

If God loves us enough to make our joy full, he must not only give us himself; he must also win from us the praise of our hearts.

Aug 21

God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in him are the same pursuit.

Aug 20

The Bible is a window that opens onto the sunrise glory of the risen Christ.

Aug 19

Christ’s resurrection is God’s declaration that we cannot work our way to glory, but that he intends to do the impossible to get us there.

Aug 18

You will always be better off to obey than to disobey Jesus, even if that obedience costs you your life.

Aug 17

Authentic speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul. Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy.

Aug 16

If we are to be sexually pure, God must have the supreme place in our feelings and thoughts.

Aug 15

All the other gifts of the gospel — forgiveness, justification, propitiation, eternal life — exist to make fellowship with God possible.

Aug 14

The death of the Son of God is outrageous enough, and the glory of God that it upholds is great enough, that God is vindicated to forgive our sins.

Aug 13

The power of God to fulfill your resolves will come to you as you trust in the future grace of his promises.

Aug 12

When we see the face of Christ, we see the face of God. And we see the glory of his face when we hear the story of the gospel of his death and resurrection.

Aug 11

Grace is not only God’s disposition to do good for us when we don’t deserve it. It is also a power that makes good things happen in us.

Aug 10

We know more of the mystery of our redemption than David did. We know Christ. But we lay hold of the mercy in the same way he did.

Aug 9

The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.

Aug 8

Stand in awe and be at peace, knowing that no natural event is outside of God’s wise and good purposes, and perfect control.

Aug 7

God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God. Images of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation.

Aug 6

God is totally committed to the perseverance and eternal security of his blood-bought children.

Aug 5

Yahweh is a proper name (like Peter) built out of the word for “I am.” It teaches us that God absolutely is.

Aug 4

Between eternity past in God’s predestination, and eternity future in God’s glorification, none is lost.

Aug 3

God will honor the work of his Son by raising our bodies from the dead, and we will use our bodies to glorify him forever.

Aug 2

God has justified us. There is only future grace in front of us. Satan cannot overturn that decree.

Aug 1

Sometimes God makes seemingly strong people weaker so that his divine power will be the more evident.

Jul 31

Suffering must not drive you from God. Instead, it should drive you from everything but God.

Jul 30

Faith is like muscle tissue: if you stress it to the limit, it gets stronger, not weaker. When your faith is tested, the result is greater capacity to endure.

Jul 29

Our sovereign God says there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church.

Jul 28

Strengthen your heart and renew your courage by fixing your gaze on the invisible truth you see in the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face.

Jul 27

If you don’t fight lust with a seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer forever.

Jul 26

The heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer.

Jul 25

The way to thwart the devil is to strengthen the very thing he is trying most to destroy — your faith.

Jul 24

Jesus is interceding for us today that our faith might not fail. Our endurance in faith and joy is finally and decisively in the hands of God.

Jul 23

When God’s word feeds faith’s appetite for God, it weans our hearts away from the deceptive taste of lust.

Jul 22

Trusting God’s future grace comes by hearing the word. Therefore, preaching the word to ourselves is all-important in overcoming spiritual depression.

Jul 21

The Bible is replete with saints struggling with sunken spirits. But God includes such testimonies so that we might use them to fight the unbelief of despondency.

Jul 20

Prayer is the great link of faith between the soul of the saint and the promise of God’s future grace.

Jul 19

God promises not merely that we will find grace “to help in time of need,” but that the grace is well-timed by God.

Jul 18

Moment by moment, God supplies the strength in which we serve. He does this because the ongoing, inexhaustible supplier of power gets the glory.

Jul 17

Whatever added signs and wonders God may show to amplify our witness to Christ, they will come through his grace and power.

Jul 16

Believe the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will and work for his good pleasure.

Jul 15

Paul prayed for grace for the day, trusted that it would come with power, and then acted with all his might.

Jul 14

You may think you need to save your life in order to do your ministry. On the contrary, how you lose your life may be the capstone of your ministry.

Jul 13

Costly acts of love don’t just happen. They are impelled by a new appetite — the appetite of faith for the fullest experience of God’s grace. We want more of God.

Jul 12

The glory of Christ is magnified when we are more satisfied with his future grace than we are with the promises of sin.

Jul 11

When we don’t believe all the promises of God, we won’t receive the full measure of the Spirit.

Jul 10

“Works” longs for the joy of being glorified as strong. “Faith” longs for the joy of seeing God glorified as strong.

Jul 9

When he was in anguish, Jesus rested his soul in the sovereign wisdom of God.

Jul 8

Faith in God’s forgiveness means savoring the truth that a forgiving God is the most precious reality in the universe.

Jul 7

All the wrongs that have been done against us by believers were avenged in the death of Jesus. Look to the cross of Christ.

Jul 6

No one has ever lived who was more worthy of honor than Jesus; and no one has been dishonored more. But he triumphed by entrusting himself to God.

Jul 5

Your very soul is in danger if you hold on to an attitude of unforgiving bitterness. Leave it to the wrath of God.

Jul 4

Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever. That is not our experience now, but it will be one day.

Jul 3

It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with a gloomy, unhappy God.

Jul 2

As the source of every good pleasure, God himself pleases fully and finally. It is therefore astonishing how little effort is put into knowing God.

Jul 1

Even if we know that God is good to us, we may believe that his goodness is constrained. But Jesus is at pains to help us not feel that way.

Jun 30

The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the saints hostage. Hell cannot blackmail heaven into misery.

Jun 29

Faith in God’s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.

Jun 28

What can sustain the will to die for others, when you are innocent? Jesus banked on love and future joy.

Jun 27

The experience of future grace often depends on whether we will take refuge in God, or whether we will run for cover to other shelters.

Jun 26

There is a fear that is slavish and drives us away from God, and there is a fear that is sweet and draws us to God.

Jun 25

What’s at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for contentment in future grace is eternal life.

Jun 24

Whenever we sense the slightest rise of covetousness in our hearts, we must turn on it and fight it with all our might using the weapons of faith.

Jun 23

God is glorified when the power to be holy comes from humble faith in future grace.

Jun 22

The fight for good works is a fight to believe in future grace. Therefore, learning to fight for holiness by faith in future grace is supremely important.

Jun 21

The essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Faith embraces God — not just his promised gifts — as our treasure.

Jun 20

Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. We trust in God’s ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

Jun 19

When we hear God’s promises and trust him with courage, fearing the reproach brought upon God by our unbelief, then he is greatly honored.

Jun 18

Prayer ascribes to God the right and honor to be the free and sovereign God that he is to choose and to save sinners.

Jun 17

The prayer of the upright that delights God comes from a heart that at first feels precarious in the presence of God. It trembles at his word.

Jun 16

The Lord is pleased not by those who treat him as a needy watering trough, but as an inexhaustible, all-satisfying spring.

Jun 15

With God the honeymoon never ends. He is infinite in power and wisdom and creativity so that there will be no boredom for the next trillion ages of millenniums.

Jun 14

God’s anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger. He is infinitely energetic with unbounded and unending enthusiasm to do us good.

Jun 13

God did not spare his own Son, because it was the only way he could spare us and still be a just and holy God.

Jun 12

Not only are spiritual gifts a work of God’s free grace in our lives, but so also is the very faith with which we use those gifts.

Jun 11

In order to live the radical lives Christ calls us to live, we must embrace him as the only one who can truly satisfy our souls.

Jun 10

Our hearts exploit our minds to justify what our hearts want. Our deepest desires incline our minds to perceive and think in a way that will make our desires look right.

Jun 9

If we recognize our sin, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

Jun 8

Worship is all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God.

Jun 7

The faith that justifies and the faith that sanctifies are not two different kinds of faith.

Jun 6

The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended. We have been reconciled to the Judge of the universe.

Jun 5

Be devoted to glorifying the dependability of God. Lives of faith are the great mirror of his faithful love and provision.

Jun 4

Open your eyes to the better country, the city of God that he has prepared for us, and let yourself desire it with all your heart. God will not be ashamed to be called your God.

Jun 3

Faith glorifies God because it is a future-oriented confidence in God’s integrity and power and wisdom to follow through on all his promises.

Jun 2

We don’t become heirs of Abraham’s promises by working for God but by being confident that God works for us.

Jun 1

Why does faith not nullify the grace of God? Because faith calls all attention to grace and magnifies it, rather than nullifies it.

May 31

The worship of daily obedience is not at bottom a burdensome giving to God, but a joyful getting from God. That is the true service that God demands.

May 30

Faith nullifies boasting and glorifies grace. Wherever faith looks, it sees grace behind every praiseworthy act. So it cannot boast, except in the Lord.

May 29

God has wise and holy purposes when he does not answer our prayers as we want. Trust him. He knows what he is doing.

May 28

The sovereign grace of God can turn the unplanned place and the unplanned pace into the happiest ending imaginable.

May 27

We can know that our sins are taken away and that we will be safe in the judgment, if we trust Christ in such a way that it makes us eager for his coming.

May 26

Patience is indeed a fruit of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit empowers us (with all his fruit) through hearing with faith.

May 25

What feels to us like a waste is what God plans. He works through the most hopeless circumstances.

May 24

Our election is unconditional in the strictest sense. Neither our faith nor our obedience is the basis of it. It is free and utterly undeserved.

May 23

When we sit down to calculate the cost of following Jesus — when we weigh the “worst” and the “best” — he is worth it. Abundantly worth it.

May 22

Jesus knows all his sheep by name; that is, he knows them individually and intimately.

May 21

God is so eager to work for us that he goes around looking for more work to do for people who will trust him.

May 20

When you love Christ, you don’t take much thought for your life in this world. Rather, you live for the glory of God’s grace.

May 19

What makes the whole Trinity rejoice together? The free, electing love of God to hide the true spiritual identity of Christ from the intellectual elite and to reveal it to babes.

May 18

Don’t replace Christ this summer with trifles. Seek the things that are above. Flight from Christ into Christless leisure makes the soul parched.

May 17

Consider these five digital dangers and some accompanying resolutions to avoid and redeem them.

May 16

God’s electing love is absolutely free. It is the gracious overflow of his boundless happiness guided by his infinite wisdom.

May 15

Trust God. Commit your way to him. Roll onto him your anxieties, frustrations, and plans — indeed, your very life.

May 14

Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.

May 13

How did you come to be a Christian? Join Charles Spurgeon and joyfully confess, “I ascribe my change wholly to God!”

May 12

When God becomes our treasure, we treat our adversaries out of our own fullness with the all-satisfying glory of God.

May 11

You have heard echoes of God’s glory everywhere; tune your heart to the original music. The best place to get your heart tuned is at the cross of Jesus Christ.

May 10

God is pursuing with omnipotent delight a worldwide purpose of gathering a people for his name from every tribe and language and nation.

May 9

This is the essence of what it means to love God: to be satisfied in him — not just his gifts, but God himself, as the glorious person that he is.

May 8

Faith overcomes our inborn hostility to God and his will, and frees us to keep his commandments.

May 7

God will gladly receive anything from us that shows our dependence and his all-sufficiency. Therefore, we can gladly cast all our anxieties on him.

May 6

The only joy that reflects the worth of God and overflows in God-glorifying love is rooted in true knowledge of God.

May 5

Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, not our own efforts or imagination or family upbringing. Therefore, the call to joy is a call to earnest prayer.

May 4

Gratitude looks back to past grace received and feels thankful. Faith looks forward to future grace promised and feels hopeful.

May 3

Praying for forgiveness should be based not only on an appeal to God’s mercy, but also on an appeal to his justice in crediting the worth of his Son’s obedience.

May 2

The goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations. He wants us to know he loves us.

May 1

God requires good works not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ alone), but as an evidence of it.

Apr 30

In this life of sin and pain, how shall we fight for joy? Here are fifteen ways.

Apr 29

The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

Apr 28

Our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us. That is the great exchange — and it becomes ours not by works but by faith.

Apr 27

It could not be otherwise but that Christianity be a singing faith. The founder sang. We are a singing people because we are the children of a singing God.

Apr 26

When we speak of being a God-centered people, remember, this is because we are joining God in his God-centeredness.

Apr 25

The point of Paul’s conversion happening the way it did is to make Christ’s incredible patience vivid for you.

Apr 24

When we live by faith, rooted in God’s forgiveness, we are freed from the lingering, paralyzing effects even of shame we deserve to feel.

Apr 23

Christians care about all suffering — especially eternal suffering. That’s the greatest danger every city faces.

Apr 22

Not being afraid shows that you treasure God as your generous Shepherd, Father, and King.

Apr 21

The key to joy is faith in God’s future grace — that is, being satisfied in all that God promises to be for us.

Apr 20

Cherish the goodness of the Lord, fear straying from him, flee from every sin, and take refuge in him.

Apr 19

This is the gospel: Even though you have sinned greatly, nevertheless there is a future and a hope. Fear not!

Apr 18

The One with infinite power in the universe reaches down to personally touch and transform us.

Apr 17

Faith in Christ is not just assenting to what God is for us, but also embracing all that he is for us in Christ.

Apr 16

We won’t bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow’s troubles.

Apr 15

Come to God in prayer, to confess your sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection and provision.

Apr 14

God delights in having his name known and honored. The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be your name.”

Apr 13

Sheer sowing produces reaping. You must remember this, even when your tears tempt you to give up.

Apr 12

Trust Christ, no matter what. Go with him, no matter where. You cannot lose in the end.

Apr 11

When you are cast into the cellars of affliction, remember that the great King keeps his best wine there.

Apr 10

The biblical criterion for misplaced shame and for well-placed shame is radically God-centered.

Apr 9

It is good not to talk very long about God without talking to God. Frequently interrupt your talking about God by talking to God.

Apr 8

When Christ died and rose again, Satan was defeated. Jesus struck the decisive blow at Calvary.

Apr 7

Don’t just do good things for your enemies. Desire their best, and express those desires in prayer, even when they’re nowhere around.

Apr 6

Jesus is not just alive from the dead, but he is alive as the King who will reign forever — of his kingdom there will be no end.

Apr 5

Salvation is secured for all who are written in the book of life, not because of their deeds, but because Christ was slain for them.

Apr 4

Sometimes God will strengthen your faith directly. But most of the time, he does so through another person.

Apr 3

O God, help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.

Apr 2

If you live inside the massive promise of Romans 8:28, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest.

Apr 1

In the Father, you are under God’s care and protection. In the Son, you are under God’s charge and authority.

Mar 31

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

Mar 30

Our perseverance doesn’t rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve. It rests decisively on God’s work to keep us trusting him.

Mar 29

God will not spare any effort to give you all that Christ died to purchase — all things, all good, and all bad working for your good.

Mar 28

When others abandon you, strengthen your heart with God’s inexorable oath: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Mar 27

Because Christ rose from the grave, God’s children are forgiven. No one can successfully bring a charge against those who are in Christ.

Mar 26

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us.

Mar 25

When we trust Jesus, his presence and promise is so satisfying that we are not dominated by the alluring pleasures of sin.

Mar 24

Hear God say to you in all your troubles, “I will deliver you. You will triumph in the end. You will be more than a conqueror.”

Mar 23

Knowledge doesn’t guarantee godliness. But it seems that ignorance guarantees ungodliness. The power that leads to godliness is given through knowing God.

Mar 22

When temptations come, arm yourself with this thought: When my Lord suffered and died to free me from sin, I died to sin!

Mar 21

Whatever else gives way, whatever else disappoints, whatever else fails, God’s all-encompassing promise of future grace can never fail.

Mar 20

If there is any hope for eternity in the presence of God, we need a Redeemer, a Substitute, a Savior. Christ died and rose to be that hope.

Mar 19

Good news! Eternal life is a free gift to all who will trust in Christ as Lord and Savior and supreme Treasure of their lives.

Mar 18

The salvation Jesus obtained through his blood was everything it takes to save his people, not just part of it.

Mar 17

Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace — for Christ’s sake.

Mar 16

Christ can promise universal victory because he is sovereign. He knows the future because he makes the future.

Mar 15

Since Satan’s doom is sure, and he knows it, we can always remind him of it when he tempts us to follow him.

Mar 14

God is so powerful and so gracious that in the end he will turn ruthless nations to revere him. He cannot fail.

Mar 13

Because of Christ, we say Amen to God in our prayers to show that God gets the glory for the future grace we are counting on.

Mar 12

With all the power in the universe and with the absolute right to do as he pleases with what he made, God is for us.

Mar 11

The mercy and the sovereignty of God are the twin pillars of your life. They will stand by your deathbed, and with strong and tender hands lift you to God.

Mar 10

Your prayers are the aroma of heaven, sweet smelling before the throne of God and before the Lamb.

Mar 9

Pride is a form of unbelief. Faith admits need. Pride won’t. Faith banks on God. Pride won’t. Faith casts anxieties on God. Pride won’t.

Mar 8

A mustard seed of faith is infinitely closer to being a mountain of faith than it is to being no faith. There is an infinite difference between a spark and no spark.

Mar 7

How can you experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Meditate day and night on the promises of God.

Mar 6

You cannot sink so low in despairing of your own resources that God does not see and care. He is at the bottom waiting to catch you.

Mar 5

Turn from self and come to Jesus as your source for true joy. His fullness will satisfy your itch of emptiness.

Mar 4

There are no lapses in God’s commitment or in his joy in doing good to his children — to those who trust him.

Mar 3

The evidence of God’s power in our lives is not the absence of our willing, but the strength and joy of our willing.

Mar 2

When some fear or craving threatens to lead us into sin, we are to take the sword of the Spirit and kill it.

Mar 1

Pilate’s authority over Jesus was subordinate to God’s authority over Pilate. So, Jesus did not fear.

Feb 28

God declares us righteous, which gives us unshakable security in the face of tremendous suffering.

Feb 27

The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. His life counted. His suffering was meaningful.

Feb 26

God’s wrath was once on us. But because he made us alive, all that wrath is removed. He is now 100% for us.

Feb 25

Take heart. If you have faith in Jesus, God himself declares, “You are greatly loved.”

Feb 24

The clearest answer in Acts to the question why a person believes the gospel is that God opens the heart.

Feb 23

Those who suffer for Christ will receive the Holy Spirit’s power and rest at their greatest hour of need.

Feb 22

The fullness of Jesus Christ is a divine, accessible, glorious, delivered, blessed, true fullness.

Feb 21

Jesus Christ is exuberant with omnipotent service for the sake of all who trust him.

Feb 20

Because of Jesus’s resurrection, he now has the glory for which we were made. Our ultimate destiny is to see him as he is.

Feb 19

When it’s forty degrees warmer in your freezer than it is outside, the message is clear: Don’t mess with God.

Feb 18

Christ said Paul was going to Rome. And that was that. No ambush can stand against the promise of Christ.

Feb 17

Oh, how sweet are the designs of God in the sovereign salvation of hardened, hopeless sinners!

Feb 16

Do you desire God? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.

Feb 15

Every step Jesus took on the Calvary road meant, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Feb 14

Jesus is the end for which the universe was made, and the means that makes that end possible to enjoy.

Feb 13

When you desire the city of God above everything else on the earth, he is not ashamed to be called your God. Your life pleases him.

Feb 12

It is a most striking thing how personal and national suffering drew Abraham Lincoln into the reality of God, rather than pushing him away.

Feb 11

Amazingly, Paul connects our liberation with Jesus as our Master, and he connects our new slavery with Jesus as our Messiah.

Feb 10

Living and dying by faith means having new desires and seeking new satisfactions.

Feb 9

Take all the things that drive this world, and ponder how much better and more abiding God is.

Feb 8

Submitting to God enables us to have the supremely satisfying experience of not being God, but admiring the Godness of God.

Feb 7

God surely has reasons for waiting to give you the breakthrough you have sought for decades. Keep asking in hope.

Feb 6

Because Jesus died in our place, he guaranteed that every good deed will prosper — sooner or later.

Feb 5

The main task of all the ministries of the church is helping people see the greatness of what Christ has purchased for everyone who will value it above the world.

Feb 4

Suffering has a great sin-killing effect. The more pure we are, the more clearly we see God.

Feb 3

We should emphasize that God loves and forgives for his own glory because the Bible does, and because it makes clear that God loves us with the greatest love.

Feb 2

God forgave us when we first believed in Christ. Then, from that broken, joyful, grateful, hopeful experience of being forgiven, we offer forgiveness to others.

Feb 1

Christians are included in the Davidic covenant. What David received, we will also receive in Christ Jesus.

Jan 31

Don’t let your ignorance of the micro reasons for suffering cause you to overlook the massive help God tells us in his word of his macro purposes for us.

Jan 30

Irresistable grace does not mean grace cannot be resisted. It means that when God chooses, he can and will overcome that resistance.

Jan 29

There is no hope for God’s people unless he causes them to return from their leaping into sin and unbelief.

Jan 28

Feeling rotten about your sin is not the same as repenting from it. But it can lead there.

Jan 27

The same God who feeds billions of birds every hour around the world will take care of you.

Jan 26

We get the help; God gets the glory. That arrangement keeps us humble and happy, and keeps him supreme and glorious.

Jan 25

Times of suffering and deliverance are both God’s stages of care for you. He has not left you or forsaken you.

Jan 24

Jesus will take care of you when you take care of others. That’s why there were leftovers after Jesus fed the multitudes.

Jan 23

Jesus provides an ever-present, ever-living witness to the removal of the Father’s wrath from us.

Jan 22

When Jesus says, “I will grant him to sit with me on my throne,” he promises us a share in the rule of all things.

Jan 21

Jesus anchored the happiness of suffering saints in the reward of heaven. And he anchored the happiness of successful saints in the same.

Jan 20

If we don’t call to mind what God has said about himself and about us, we will languish. Never forget that our God is the God of the impossible.

Jan 19

Every little thing you do that is good is seen and valued and rewarded by the Lord. And he will pay you back for it.

Jan 18

Yield to the sovereignty of God in all the details of life, and rest in his infallible promises to show himself mighty on your behalf.

Jan 17

Receive Christ, welcome Christ, embrace Christ — not just as your fire insurance policy, but as your eagerly awaited Treasure and Friend and Lord.

Jan 16

Be patient and loving as despairing people wake up from their dark night and regret their hasty words.

Jan 15

What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead? This is the meaning of grace.

Jan 14

Our emotions are governed in large measure by what we consider — what we dwell on with our minds.

Jan 13

When the command of God comes with the creating, converting power of the Holy Spirit, it gives life. And we believe and rejoice and obey.

Jan 12

Freedom from greed comes from the deeply satisfying faith in God’s future grace.

Jan 11

If God exists, then he is the measure of all things, and what he thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think.

Jan 10

When God judges believers in the end, he will forgive us all our sins and grant us life everlasting.

Jan 9

God is not the God of some grace. He is the God of all grace — including the infinite, inexhaustible stores of future grace that we need to endure to the end.

Jan 8

Christ promises to work for us, and to be for us so much that, when our missionary life is over, we will not be able to say we’ve sacrificed anything.

Jan 7

God gives both the sustaining grace we need in times of trouble, and the suffering which makes us depend on his grace.

Jan 6

This is God’s will for you and this is why Christ died: that you would draw near to God.

Jan 5

Satan is helpless to do the one thing he wants to do most: damn us. Christ bore our damnation.

Jan 4

Does your faith make you eager to forsake sin and make progress in holiness? That’s the kind of faith God requires.

Jan 3

The strength of your faith does not uproot trees. God does. The object of your faith is more important than the quantity of your faith.

Jan 2

If you are a Christian, death is no longer a punishment for sin. Your sin has been put away by the death of Christ. Christ took the punishment.

Jan 1

Be thankful for the past grace from the last year, and be confident in the future grace for the new year.

Dec 31, 2024

The lifetime of this year passes before our eyes, and we face the inevitable question: Did we live it well?

Dec 30, 2024

When God works in our hearts by the blood of Christ, we feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to him.

Dec 29, 2024

Flee from the wrath of God, tremble with joy that you are saved, and rescue others along the way.

Dec 28, 2024

Study the glory of God. Treasure it in all things and above all things. Then study your soul. Know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory.

Dec 27, 2024

God did not create humans in his image to be aimless, like lifeless leaves blown around in the backyard of life. He created us to be purposeful.

Dec 26, 2024

Christ’s death was judgment on him because he bore our sins (not his own), and it was mercy toward us who trust him.

Dec 25, 2024

Jesus offers you a clear purpose for living, hope that your failures will be forgiven, and help in your fight against sin.

Dec 24, 2024

Jesus appeared in the world for two reasons: to help us stop sinning, and to satisfy God’s anger when we do sin.

Dec 23, 2024

Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he purchased. Don’t put the gift on the shelf unopened.

Dec 22, 2024

Dec 22, 2024

The whole Bible is written that you might be awakened to the wonder that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world.

Dec 21, 2024

Jesus’s birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person.