Devotionals

Matthew 16:24–26

Tom Landry, the late great head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was once quoted as saying something like this: “I have a job to do that is not very complicated, but it is often difficult: to get a group of men to do what they don’t want to do so they can achieve the one thing they have wanted all their lives.”

Coach Landry, in that seemingly contradictory statement, described what discipline is all about ... doing what we don’t want to do so we can accomplish what we’ve always wanted.

2 Corinthians 11:23–28

Imagine reading a ministry job posting like this.

Opening for full-time church planter and pastor. Please read the first-hand account of ministry experience from our former pastor:

Proverbs 27:5–6, 9

Galatians 6:7–10

It’s often best to get straight to the point. Are you facing a trial today? Consider some straight truth from God’s Word:

Lamentations 3:21–24

You’ve heard them. Those all-too-familiar cries of exasperation. Maybe a couple have crossed your mind today sometime between the too-early chime of your smartphone and the too-late racket of the neighbour’s pool party.

Going from bad to worse.

Jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Between a rock and a hard place.

Why can’t I get a break?

My mother told me there would be days like these, but she never said they would run in packs.

1 Corinthians 10:12–13

If you’re old enough to remember comedian Flip Wilson, then you also remember his famous line, “The Devil made me do it.” It was designed to be funny, not phoney. Whether he believed in an actual Satan is, for the moment, immaterial. All he was interested in was getting a laugh. But the thing that made it so effective was the real-to-life scenario Flip was acting out. It made everybody laugh out loud.

2 Samuel 6:13–14

The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastor’s conference. We had not met before, so all he knew about me was what he’d heard there. Stuff like ex-Marine, Texan by birth, schooled in a seminary, committed to biblical exposition, pre-mil, pre-trib, pro-this, anti-that. You know how all those scary labels go. But those were the labels he’d stuck on me.

I really think he expected your basic, squeaky clean preacher: dark suit; white shirt;tight-knot tie; pocket stuffed full of tracts; a five-pound study Bible; thunderous shouts.

1 Corinthians 1:24–28

Let’s return to a subject we thought about earlier this month ... the church. Why is it unique? One main reason: it is the church over which Jesus Christ says He rules as Head. He’s in charge.

Not General Motors. Not American Airlines or Google or the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Not the local fire station or local theatre or local police department or city library or county courtroom. Although important and helpful, these cannot claim Hisheadship. Only the church. With all its quirks and faults, it still ranks right up there at the top.

Psalm1:1–3

In the first three verses of Psalm 1, the psalmist describes the one who chooses to live a righteous life, the one who consciously resists the subtle inroads of compromise. You can’t turn on cable TVthese days without witnessing the vivid contrast between godliness and wickedness portrayed on the screen. You’re left with a choice: Which will it be?

Mark 1:16–20

One principle of spiritual leadership I’ve become convinced of over the years is that vision becomes contagious. Something down inside us admires a person who stretches our faith by doing things that are filled with vision. Initially, such actions might appear to be foolish. The vision that is communicated seems fraught with impossibilities.