Today's Readings: New Testament -
John 5:16-30
2 Corinthians 13
Old Testament -
Psalms 109
2 Samuel 5-7
Click on Text Links to Read Online
Focus Verses: John 5:24-26
24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself."
Insight:
Jesus was persecuted for more than breaking Sabbath laws. There were attempts and plots to kill him, not because he was a controversial teacher, but because "he was calling God his own father, and making himself equal with God" (John 5:18). He claimed to be the Son of God, the promised redeemer, the giver of eternal life, the one who would raise the dead, and the one who would judge on the final day.
Response & Action:
My faith is in Jesus. I accept his claims about himself. I believe he is the fulfillment of the promises found in the law and the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. The scriptures tell me that belief in Jesus is the way to cross over from death to life. My hope of life, purpose, and eternity are in Jesus. I will seek to do good, and to pursue his righteousness today and every day as I eagerly await the day of his appearing—the day when he will redeem all humankind and all of creation with his resurrection power.
O God, thank you for the life and redemption you have given through Christ Jesus, your Son. Thank you that I can cross over from death to life through faith in him. Give me the wisdom and the will to follow and serve him. Help me to live in such a way that my life becomes yet another testimony of the hope and life he came to give. Strengthen and transform me that I might know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Amen.
Spiritual Formation Verses: John 3:16-17
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Resources:
Faith & Doubt
by John Ortberg
