We start our Reading Plan with Jesus’ parable about parables. At times throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, he would attract groups of people who would gather to hear him teach about the Kingdom of God. That crowd would be filled with different groups of people who were bringing different expectations.  Read More

Welcome to Week 1 of the Cost of Living 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. In the summer of 2023, a national survey asked people to list their top sources of stress and 75% of people listed money as their #1. Money never seems to be far from our minds or absent from the conversations we have with our spouses and friends. This isn’t unique to modern Americans, it has been a common experience for people since civilization has existed. Jesus was aware of this reality, so he devoted time to talking about how our hearts and minds interact with money. Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived, and much of his teaching was centered around made up stories called parables. John Macarthur defines a parable as an ingeniously simple word picture illuminating a profound spiritual lesson. In Jesus’ parables we can find a hint of how he understood the way our thinking can focus on money: about a third of the forty parables Jesus told have something to do with earthly riches, treasures, coins, or currency of one kind or another. To support our series on money, this reading plan will look at those 14 parables.  Read More

Highlight Here Paul gives us a picture of how it is possible for a follower of Jesus to forgive completely. Paul lists out several people who have disappointed and hurt him. Alexander the metalworker, in particular, has wounded Paul but Paul doesn’t instruct Timothy or anyone else to seek revenge. After all, ‘The Lord will repay him for what he has done.’ (v14) Tim Keller says, “Nothing is clearer in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, than that God will do justice and that he cannot shrug, wink at, or ignore any sin or evil.” Christians can be comforted by the fact that no wrong that has ever been committed against us will just be overlooked. God is angered by the evil that destroys the things that He loves - his creation and the human race he made for his glory and our happiness.  Read More

Highlight We must remember that this chapter that we are reading right now contains the last recorded words of Paul. His circumstances could not be worse: he is in a jail cell under a death sentence. Tradition of the early church tells us that very soon after this letter was sent off, Paul was beheaded for his faith by Emperor Nero. Paul knew his death was imminent, which can be seen in the perfect tense of the verbs he is using. ‘Have fought,’ ‘have finished,’ and ‘have kept’ all indicate that Paul sees his ministry as having been completed. Yet with that knowledge, he celebrates two things. First, that his life was glorifying God, shown in the fact that he views his very life as an offering of worship to Him. Second, that God is faithful and true and through the free gift of grace Paul will be in His presence soon. Are our lives on a trajectory to say the same things in our final words? Do we look forward to Heaven like Paul?   Read More

Highlight This chapter contains one of the great texts in the Bible about the divine inspiration of Scripture and what it is for. The word Paul uses is one of his own inventions (meaning that scholars have not found any other uses of this word in Greek earlier than this letter from Paul): theopneustos or ‘God-breathed.’ The term is genius, because it conveys the inspiration of God over all of Scripture while not denying that Scripture was written by human hands. God being the source tells us all that we need to know about Scripture because we know His character. He does not lie, so the Bible is true. He loves us, so His Word to us is for our benefit.   Read More

Highlight As Paul mentors Timothy in this chapter (and encourages Timothy to mentor others!), he uses three examples to help Timothy understand what virtues are required for him to persevere in his faith. The examples are a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. In the soldier Paul highlights the virtue of single-mindedness: half-hearted effort is not enough. In the athlete Paul highlights the virtue of obedience: there are choices that will destructively undermine our ministry if we aren’t careful. In the farmer Paul highlights the virtue of diligence: a farmer’s work is not always glamorous but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the effort. Paul includes hints with all three examples that there are rewards awaiting us in Heaven. Beyond warfare is victory, beyond competition is a crown, and beyond labor there is a crop!  Read More