Highlight This is the only Psalm to specifically be identified as “for the Sabbath Day.” What does that mean? Well…we don’t often look at it as a privilege to worship…to offer our worship to God. How many times have we entered into a service or started our day, carrying the weight of something that’s really hard to put down? How often do we stop and focus solely on who God is and what He has done for us?   Read More

Highlight This Psalm was written by David after he was forced to flee his homeland because of Saul’s anger against him. Now, as a fugitive from Saul, David goes to the Philistine city of Gath. But he is soon found out and brought before King Achish. Those events are recorded in 1 Samuel 21:10-22:1. He pretends to be insane so that Achish will think he is just foolish and not a danger to the Philistines. It had the effect he wanted…Achish dismissed David.  Read More

Welcome Welcome to Thanksgiving Week. This reading plan is designed to partner with Compassion Christian Church’s Thanksgiving Week standalone message, which you can find information about right here. This week our reading will focus on finding the hope that God’s presence can bring to our lives and the thanksgiving that we can live with each day as a response to His presence. We will see through the Wisdom of the Psalms how to live in thanksgiving.  Read More

Highlight Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, gives a very short summary of a massively impactful ministry. Paul spent approximately three years in Ephesus, an uncommonly long time in one place for his ministry style. For two years, Paul met in the lecture hall of Tyrannus (‘Tyrant’) and taught about Jesus. Simple and consistent, but the ripple effect was profound. According to Luke, this ministry led to the entire province of Asia hearing the good news of Jesus. This is important because we are told that Paul didn’t leave Ephesus. He had a daily ministry in the same place. Yet the church spread across an entire region of the ancient world. This is the picture of what the church should be doing, sharing the burden and joy of evangelism rather than leaving the work to ‘the professionals.’ If that was the case, then Ephesus may have been impacted through the ministry of Paul, but it would have stopped at the city limits. Instead, it is the role of all of us who “have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you.” 1 Peter 2:9  Read More

Highlight Paul describes his own arrival to Corinth in 1 Corinthians 2:3 as him coming “in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.” This missionary journey that Paul has been on has not gone at all as he originally expected. He has met fierce opposition and been forced to leave converts in previous cities earlier than he wanted. Taking Paul’s own words from 1 Corinthians, it’s safe to say that Paul was feeling dejected, frustrated, maybe even depressed. And who does Paul immediately meet up with? Aquila and Priscilla, two ethnically Jewish Christians who had been thrown out of their homes in Rome because of unrest in the city blamed on Jews. This doesn’t read like the start of the formation of a dream team.  Read More

Highlight The Great Commission of Matthew 28 tells followers of Jesus that as we are going we are to make disciples, and in Acts 17 we see Paul doing just that. Paul is in Athens, a place he never intended to visit but the persecution in Macedonia had left him no choice. It was not his plan to go to Athens and share the gospel, but circumstances had taken him there and wherever Paul goes the Great Commission goes with him. Yet in Athens we see not only Paul’s intentionality to share the gospel, but also his intentionality on how he shares the gospel.   Read More