Posts with the category “january”

Change Starts with Love
January 31st, 2023
The Bible never says you have to believe with all your heart, even though it says you must believe in your heart. But when it comes to loving God—that must be done with all your heart. I think God lea...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Two Hurdles Away from Moving a Mountain
January 30th, 2023
Theologian John Calvin said, “To know God as the Master and Bestower of all good things, who invites us to request them of Him, and still not go to Him and ask of Him—this would be of as little profit...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
God’s Generosity Goes Beyond What’s Fair
January 27th, 2023
Inevitably when someone well known dies, I get asked, “Do you think that person is in heaven?” Before I respond, I always think of John Newton, the eighteenth-century former slave ship captain who bec...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Do You Know Someone Who Needs to Be Saved?
January 26th, 2023
J. C. Ryle wrote, “The highest form of selfishness is a man content to go to heaven alone.” I don’t ever want to be content to go to heaven alone. I want to take as many as I can with me. But I have s...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
An Incredible Promise of His Presence
January 25th, 2023
When I was working toward my undergrad degree in corporate finance, the students would say cash is king. When I was doing my graduate work in theology, the students would say context is king. So many ...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
A Private “Why”
January 24th, 2023
If you had a chance to ask God a “why?” question, what would you ask him? Why did this bad thing happen to me? Why did my mom pass away? How about a personal failure question? That’s what we find in M...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Some Days Simon, Some Days Peter, and Some Days Satan
January 23rd, 2023
Poor Alexander. He was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Maybe you’ve read about his day? From the moment he woke up, one terrible thing after another horrible thing happened to him....  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Fighting to Get My Answer
January 20th, 2023
Abraham Lincoln famously stated, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.” In today’s reading, we find a woman who had abso...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
When Someone I Love Dies
January 19th, 2023
As he awaited his death as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, the famed theologian, pastor, and Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote a letter about losing people we love. He wrote, in pa...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Why Is It Hard for Me to Read the Bible?
January 18th, 2023
Every day as you read one chapter of the New Testament, the goal is more than just experiencing a feeling of accomplishment but to grow and become more like Christ. Sometimes when you struggle to find...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Taking My 18,000 Real Seriously
January 17th, 2023
While I am writing today’s devotional, a television show about Jack Ryan, the fictional CIA analyst, is trending online. Some knew him as Harrison Ford; for others, he was Chris Pine; and for us old f...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
How Exclamations Turn into Question Marks
January 16th, 2023
Conditions or circumstances can affect perspectives. What goes on in our lives can determine our points of view and how we define important things—most seriously, our view and definition of God. Some...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
God’s People Are Different and That’s Good
January 13th, 2023
I want to tell you the history of two groups of people who are in the New Testament—the tax collectors and the zealots. The tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes from fellow Jews for the Roman ...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
How Big Is Your Faith?
January 12th, 2023
Matthew 9 is a chapter that is spilling over with healing and faith. A paralyzed man is brought to Jesus by his friends in verse 2 and Jesus sees the faith of the friends and the paralyzed man walks. ...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Eight is Monday
January 11th, 2023
Her name was Agnes and she was from Albania. In 1928, at age eighteen, she went to Ireland and became a nun. Almost twenty years later, in 1946, she received what she described as a call within the ca...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Logs and Specks
January 10th, 2023
A concerned husband went to see the family doctor. “I think my wife is deaf,” he said. “She never hears me the first time I say something. In fact, I often have to repeat things over and over.” “Go ho...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
The Paycheck is Really Good—So Show Up
January 9th, 2023
In the first part of chapter 6, Jesus spoke about three personal disciplines that are part of every Christian’s life: giving, praying, and fasting. Note that I said, these three disciplines are part o...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Jesus’ Prescription for Happiness
January 6th, 2023
Several years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported a story on happiness in different nations around the world. The newspaper’s title gave away the happiness level of people living in the United State...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Why You Are a Target
January 5th, 2023
It seems Jesus can’t even towel off and get dressed after being water baptized in the Jordan River before Satan shows up and challenges what Jesus has heard. We ended yesterday’s reading in Matthew 3 ...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Hearing the Most Important Voice
January 4th, 2023
A little brother was jealous that his older brother was getting water baptized and he wasn’t. As his father instructed the older brother on what it meant and how special it was, the little guy left th...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Always One Step Ahead
January 3rd, 2023
Obedience to God is such a powerful tool. Obedience to God will always keep you one step ahead of the enemy. Obedience to God brings you blessing. And it brings protection and puts you in the right pl...  Read More
by Susan Stanley
Getting Rid of Your Labels
January 2nd, 2023
The whole of the New Testament starts with today’s reading in Matthew 1. This is the story of stories—and it starts off all wrong. Most adventure stories begin with the wondrous “Once upon a time” so...  Read More
by Susan Stanley

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