- Today's Devotional
The Kingdom of God
Jesus teaches through parables—simple, everyday stories that reveal spiritual truth. He returns to one theme repeatedly: the kingdom of heaven, the reason he first called people to repent. Jesus compares the kingdom to a man who stumbles onto buried treasure and a merchant who finds a priceless pearl. Both sell everything to own their treasure. The point is not the price they pay but the worth of what they find. Jesus does more than describe the kingdom—he displays it. He heals the sick, drives out demons, and forgives sins. Each act previews the day when God’s kingdom comes in full, and he defeats death, disease, and darkness forever (Revelation 21:4; 22:5).
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- Devotional
Trading Up
Jesus leaves the crowds and steps into a house, where he shares these two parables with his disciples ( Matthew 13:36 ). Like the men in these parables, his disciples understand what it means to trade up. Peter, Andrew, James, and John have walked away from their fishing nets ( Matthew 4:18–22 ). Matthew, the man who will later record these words, has abandoned a profitable tax booth to follow Jesus ( Matthew 9:9 ). Their livelihoods, security, and plans have stayed behind. Yet in Jesus, they find what the man in the field finds: something worth more than everything they own. Jesus does not describe that choice as grim duty. The man sells everything “in his joy” ( Matthew 13:44 ). The disciples know that joy firsthand. They have traded up for life with Jesus.
- Devotional
The Kingdom of God
Jesus teaches through parables—simple, everyday stories that reveal spiritual truth. He returns to one theme repeatedly: the kingdom of heaven, the reason he first called people to repent. Jesus compares the kingdom to a man who stumbles onto buried treasure and a merchant who finds a priceless pearl. Both sell everything to own their treasure. The point is not the price they pay but the worth of what they find. Jesus does more than describe the kingdom—he displays it. He heals the sick, drives out demons, and forgives sins. Each act previews the day when God’s kingdom comes in full, and he defeats death, disease, and darkness forever ( Revelation 21:4 ; 22:5 ).
- Devotional
Repent
Jesus withdraws to Galilee after he hears that John the Baptist is in prison. He has fasted for forty days and faced temptation in the wilderness, and now it is time for his public ministry to begin. Matthew sums up Jesus’s message in a single sentence, starting with one word: repent . The Greek word describes a change of mind that turns a whole life around. The Jewish crowd knows this call well. For centuries, their prophets have urged them to repent and turn back to God. Now Jesus gives the reason: The kingdom of heaven—God’s rule and reign—has arrived in the person of the King himself.
- Devotional
The Secret of Contentment
Paul writes a passionate letter to fellow believers in Philippi while chained in prison. He knows these believers personally. He started the church there during his second missionary journey, about a decade earlier ( Acts 16 ). His letter of joy calls them to fix their hearts on Jesus and follow Jesus’s example of self-giving love. Paul also points to his own experience of finding supernatural joy and contentment in Jesus, whatever his circumstances. He knows both prosperity and poverty. Yet through both, he learned that Jesus is enough. This truth grounds his heart and steadies his joy in the best and worst of times...
- Devotional
Growing in Holiness
Paul writes a series of passionate letters to the church in Corinth. He pleads with these believers to align their lives with Jesus’s better way. A wide range of cultural pressures pull the church away from Jesus, so Paul offers a loving rebuke. After the church begins to turn back to Christ and his ways, Paul reminds them of their identity and how belonging to Jesus should shape the way they live. Drawing from Old Testament teaching, he reminds them that God’s people in Jesus are now the temple of God. As God’s temple, they must live pure lives that reflect the work he has done in them ( 2 Corinthians 7:1 ).
- Devotional
The Walking Temple
Mark’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’s coming as the long-awaited Savior and Son of God. Mark’s purpose is clear from its opening verse: to present Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of God” ( Mark 1:1 ). Yet the first person in the book to call Jesus the Son of God doesn’t appear until the end—and it’s by a Roman centurion! This soldier watches how Jesus dies and affirms Jesus’s identity as the Son of God. At Jesus’s death, the temple curtain tears in two “from top to bottom,” a sign of God opening the gates of heaven through Jesus’s work on the cross...
- Devotional
The Temple Buildings
God rescues his people from Egypt in dramatic fashion. Now the Israelites wander in the wilderness. Here, God meets them and reveals his plan to dwell among them. He gives Moses plans for a tabernacle—a portable temple fit for people on the move in the wilderness. Later, God instructs his people to build a temple in Jerusalem, which becomes the center of Israel’s religious life and worship. Both the tabernacle and the temple reveal God’s heart: to “dwell among them” ( Exodus 25:8 )...
- Devotional
The Garden Temple
God speaks the earth into existence. It teems with life and beauty. In the beginning, God dwells with Adam and Eve in the garden, and heaven and earth meet in perfect union. Though God gives Adam and Eve work to do, their first responsibility is to know him and walk with him. They are to enjoy God and rest in him. This garden temple represents the core calling of life—to know and enjoy God. God also tasks Adam and Eve with extending the blessings and beauty of their life with him in the garden outward to the rest of creation...
