Today’s Walk in the Word

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.               —1 Corinthians 9:25 Self-control. Self-discipline. Ugh! Who wants to think about that? You do if you want to win—because you can’t win without it. No athlete consistently wins without it. No musician achieves excellence without it. No weight-loss […]

Encourage one another and build each other up.  —1 Thessalonians 5:11 I recently read of a small town where everyone went walking on Sunday afternoons. They called it “going marveling.” They looked for unusual rocks, shells, flowers, four-leaf clovers—marvelous things. What a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon—going marveling. I went marveling myself Sunday. […]

In quietness and trust is your strength.                             —Isaiah 30:15 Desert Storm fighter pilot Jeff Patton felt like he was flying his F-15 in a bottle of ink. He was sure he was in a climbing right turn, but his instruments indicated […]

Your very lives are a letter [from Christ] that anyone can read by just looking at you.                      —2 Corinthians 3:3 There are talented people with high-level media expertise in most of our churches today. We use their proficiency to transmit the message. With print, radio, […]

We continually remember [you].            —1 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul had fond thoughts of the Thessalonians, saying he remembered, “your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope” (1 Thes 1:3). Calvin called possession of these three qualities “a brief definition of true Christianity.” Each […]

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.     —Psalm 139:1 Cheryl had been married to Bobby Love for forty years when the FBI arrested him. Bobby’s real name was Walter Miller. He had been incognito for nearly a half-century after escaping from a North Carolina prison. Cheryl knew nothing about his […]

The Spirit himself intercedes for us. —Romans 8:26 I first learned Romans 8:26 from the American Standard version: “we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us . . .” The New International Version—my translation of choice—has it: “We do not know what we ought to pray […]

It is by grace you have been saved.               —Ephesians 2:8 Do you ever wonder if you’re good enough to go to heaven? You aren’t. That’s why you must depend on God’s righteousness, not yours. “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed” (Rom 1:17). Not a […]

We have not stopped praying for you.                      —Colossians 1:9 In Colossians 1:11, Paul prayed that the Colossians would possess three qualities: Endurance, which no circumstance could defeat. Patience, which no person could defeat. Joy, which neither circumstance nor person could defeat. Endurance pertains to circumstances. […]

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?                                    —Romans 8:35 There are at least five areas of detachment that interrupt human relationships. Distance detachment—an airport goodbye, where a tearful beauty clings to her deployed soldier sweetheart. Death […]