“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8 (NIV) The disciples had…
Category: Devotionals
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law…
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” — Luke 12:15 (NIV) The tenth and final commandment occupies a unique position among the ten. Every preceding commandment addresses…
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” — Ephesians 4:15 (NIV) Truth only needs to exchange hands a few times to…
“So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” — Acts 24:16 (NIV) The eighth commandment’s ultimate goal is not merely the avoidance of literal theft, though that matters; it is the cultivation of a particular…
“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” — Proverbs 21:5 (NLT) If the eighth commandment names two wrong paths to prosperity, it equally implies the existence of right ones, paths that lead to…
“The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.” — Proverbs 20:23 (NIV) Theft, in its most literal and obvious form, is widely and uncontroversially condemned across virtually every culture and moral framework. Few people seriously argue…
“So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.” — Malachi 2:15 (NIV) Loyalty is frequently misunderstood as a passive state, something a person simply possesses by default until an active choice…
“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” — Ephesians 5:33 (NIV) Affair-proofing a marriage is not primarily a defensive project, focused exclusively on what must be…
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” — Psalm 51:10 (NIV) Psalm 51 occupies a unique place in scripture: it is the recorded prayer of a man who had already committed adultery,…