Fighter Verses

Psalm 20 is “a Psalm of David” written for the people of Israel to sing in anticipation of battle that they might put their confidence in Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the God who anointed their king. This God listens to his anointed. When his anointed calls, this God answers. And when […]

The text is simple: the blessed man doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. On the contrary, the blessed man meditates on the law of the LORD day and night. Going Deeper We would short-circuit the point here if we only walk away saying, “I want to be a blessed man so I should […]

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.—John 14:6 Take time this week to study, memorize, and meditate on this astonishing declaration of Jesus. Here are some study helps for you and your household: I AM—Using a concordance, look up scriptures where Jesus gave […]

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matthew 22:37-39 There are no commandments in the Bible more […]

…whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.—Matthew 20:26–28 When we face major life decisions, it is tempting to obsess over what we […]

Jesus said to them, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”—John 5:39–40 (cf. verse 19) The point of revealing something is to show off the object which is […]

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.—Romans 5:18–19 The “therefore” at the beginning of our passage is […]

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.—1 Corinthians 13:4-7 I […]

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.—Philippians 1:21 Some statements peel back the layers of life’s distractions and concentrate on what is ultimate. They ring with the clarity of truth in a way that few other statements do. Philippians 1:21 is such a statement. “To live is Christ.” Paul says things […]

Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. He knew his mission. The evangelist Luke captures Jesus’s relentless journey — that “he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Nothing deterred him. In their new book, Why Cities Matter, Stephen Um and Justin Buzzard discuss the significance of Jesus […]

Hebrews 12:2, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. It was the infamous 6:30. Six minutes and thirty seconds. In order to play baseball at […]

Jesus teaches us that following him means treasuring him above everything else. That is what he means by the short parable in Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and […]

Philippians 3:9, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— Paul has declared in Philippians 3:7–8 his all-surpassing desire to know Jesus. The glories of Christ out-weigh all the things […]

One reason Jesus is so glorious is simply because everything that is is because of him. He is the uncreated one to whom we owe all praise and worship and honor. In his book, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, John Piper explains: The first particular glory that upholds all the rest is the mere eternal […]

Philippians 3:7–8 , But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may […]