Bible Gateway Lent Devotional Day 6 Today's Prayer Psalm 38:1,2,4,21,22 O Lord, don't rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage!Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me.My guilt overwhelms me- it is a burden too heavy to bear.Do not abandon me, O Lord. Do not stand at a […]
Day 2 There are three things for which the Christian needs a regular time alone during the day: meditation on the Scripture, prayer, and intercession├ö├ç┬¬ In our meditation we read the text given to us on the strength of the promise that it has something quite personal to say to us for this day and […]
Day 16 "You are the salt"├ö├ç├▒not "You should be the salt"! The disciples are given no choice whether they want to be salt or not. No appeal is made to them to become the salt of the earth. Rather they just are salt whether they want to be or not, by the power of the […]
Day 17 Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveÔö¼┬íness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacraments; grace as the church's inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without a […]
Day 20 Only the obedient believe. A concrete commandment has to be obeyed in order to come to believe. A first step of obedience has to be taken, so that faith does not become pious self-deception, cheap grace. The first step is crucial. It is qualitatively different from all others that follow. The first step […]
Day 21 You complain that you cannot believe? No one should be surprised that they cannot come to believe so long as, in deliberate disobedience, they flee or reject some aspect of Jesus' commandment. You do not want to subject some sinful passion, an enmity, a hope, your life plan, or your reason to Jesus' […]
Day 28 The other service one should perform for another person in a Christian community is active helpfulness. To begin with, we have in mind simple assistance in minor, external matters. There are many such things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the lowest service. Those who worry about the loss of […]