WELCOME Welcome to Week 01 of the First Comes Love Reading Plan. This reading plan is designed to partner with Compassion Christian Church’s sermon series of the same name, which you can find information about right here. We all start with innocent notions of love that our world can quickly shatter; turns out relationships are more complicated than a nursery rhyme In the First Comes Love series we’re going to examine the biblical understanding of love by focusing on topics like friendship, singleness, loneliness, marriage, sex and family. In this reading plan, we will spend time in stories and teachings that will deepen our own understanding of the Bible’s instruction in these areas.  Read More

Highlight This passage does not make grief easier or lighter by any means, but to know “we do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (v 13) should bring encouragement. It is a reminder that our hope is in Jesus. That the power He and the Holy Spirit have over this world is greater than death. That as a follower of Christ - hope is that Jesus died, was raised to life, and lives today. Therefore, the loved one that knew Christ and will live in eternity with Jesus. And one day, so will all who believe and hope in Jesus.  Read More

Highlight Peter is writing to a group of people who are experiencing hardship on multiple fronts. The Roman occupied world has begun to persecute Christians. Jewish religious leaders have continuously persecuted Christians. And families have turned their back on those members who have converted to Christianity. These people are in desperate need of encouragement. Therefore, Peter reminds them of their living hope.  Read More

Day 08 - April, 03Read Ephesians 1HighlightVerse 13-14 “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” The inheritance Paul is speaking about is not the possession of something we get later. It is the active and current work the Holy Sp...  Read More

Highlight Greek tradition believed that a human was divided into body and soul. It was thought that the soul was imprisoned in the body until it died, then the soul was released into the spiritual realm and free from its prison. Therefore this belief of body and soul was in a way - at war - with the Apostles teaching of a resurrected body. It is not known if the Corinth church was claiming that Jesus had not been raised from the dead. But it is clear that they claimed there would be no resurrection of the dead. Paul addresses this idea right away in this chapter. He lays out a beautiful argument for why the tradition is inaccurate. Then how Jesus’ physical resurrection catapults a future resurrection for all believers in both body and spirit.  Read More

Highlight Rhetorical questions are sometimes my favorite questions, because they are often used to get you thinking about something you had not considered. Paul is using this technique to ask the church in Rome if they should keep on sinning for grace to increase (v. 1). He then goes on to answer his own question in a fairly dramatic way - “By no means!” (v.2). To continue sinning and to justify that sin because it means “grace will abound even more” is a ridiculous concept to Paul. He argues that when you have accepted Jesus at his word and actions and have been baptized. You have proclaimed that you too will die to sin and be washed with the same spirit. Now it does not mean you won't be tempted and completely sinless. But now you live in the truth and do your best to walk in obedience to God and not in sin for more grace to be given to you.  Read More