Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

John 8:7   Jesus said, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” By this time, Jesus had become a deeply controversial person in Jerusalem, and the Pharisees and teachers of the religious law were looking for a way to trap him. They brought to him a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. Presumably they also caught a man at the same time but, interestingly, we hear nothi...

John 6:66-69  At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” Up until now Jesus seemed to have been attracting more and more followers. In John 4 we hear that he...

John 6:33-35  The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”  Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  When I was a boy, bread, so far as I can recall, was only offered to us in two forms, either brown or white....

John 6:8-9 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up.  “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” I’m sure we are all very familiar with Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the 5,000. It’s an amazing miracle and must have had a profound effect on everyone who witnessed it. But I’m particularly interested in what happened before the mira...

John 5:2-6     Inside Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.  One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” I love spending time in Jerusalem but it is often impossible to...

John 4:13-14 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” Jesus was in conversation with a Samaritan woman when he spoke these words. Everything about their meeting is surprising. First of all, it would have astonished everyon...

John 3:29-30 John the Baptist said, “It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at Jesus’ success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” John the Baptist knew his place. He knew that he was simply the one who was preparing the way, and that all the attent...

John 3:16-17 'For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.' I recall the first time somebody, other than my parents, told me that they loved me. I can remember everything about that moment. It was simply amazing...

John 3:3 Jesus replied to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus was an unlikely visitor to Jesus. He was a Pharisee, and we all know that Jesus was locked in a constant struggle with this group of Jewish leaders throughout his ministry. Perhaps that’s the reason he visited Jesus secretly, at night. He wanted to ask his questions...

John 2:23-25 'Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.' Whether we like it or not, the world knows a great deal about us. Organisations go to extraordinary lengths to store up...

John 2:15-16 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” The Gospels generally give us a picture of Jesus as b...

John 1:45-46 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Wherever you live, I suspect that there is a town not far away that has a dodgy reputation. For whatever reason the place is held in suspicion, an...

John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” I love the sheer simplicity of this verse. Jesus called Philip to follow him and he did! From this moment on, Philip’s life was defined by following Jesus, right up to the moment when he was crucified upside down in Hierapolis about 50 years later. I am sure that, throughout those years, he l...

John 1:40-41 'Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).' There used to be a lot of talk about friendship evangelism. This was seen as a way of bringing people to hear the good news of Jesus through using friendship. I never liked the...

John 1:26-27 John the Baptist told them, “I baptise with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognise. Though his ministry follows mine, I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.” We are familiar with the stories of Jesus, and have probably all seen a number of film portrayals of him. It’s hard for us to imagine that there was a time when people...

John 1:16-17 'From God’s abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.' People have very different understandings of God. Some see him as being a strict disciplinarian, like a divine policeman. They picture him wielding a truncheon and looking for an opportunity to use it...

John 1:10-12 'Jesus came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.' Rejection is always painful. If you meet a new group of people and feel unwelcome, it is an uncomfortable experience. But if you are rejected by those who are c...

John 1:6-8 'God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.' John was determined to help people see that Jesus, and only Jesus, is the light of the world. He himself had a really important part to play, but he wasn’t the light. He simply prepared peopl...

John 1:4-5 'The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.' There has been darkness on every page of human history. However, the last century saw darkness on a colossal scale. During the terrible dictatorships of Hitler, Stalin and Mao many tens of millions of people were killed,...

John 1:1 'In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.' Can I be honest? I listened to these words for years without really understanding what they meant. They are often used at Christmas carol services and they seemed very mysterious to me. John, who wrote them, would have been deeply saddened by my reaction; for him, and his readers, the meaning was obv...

Proverbs 26:14 'As a door swings back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in bed.'  The writer of Proverbs has a great deal to say about laziness. He is terrified of it, viewing it as the surest route to poverty. In a society without a welfare state, that could easily spell starvation and even death. Fighting the war with laziness starts at the very beginning of the day when we...

Proverbs 25:28 'A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.' It’s always tragic to see someone who is drunk. They stagger along the road with no clear sense of direction, their speech is slurred and you sense that they might fall over and hurt themselves at any moment. But there are many other less obvious examples of a loss of self-control. Some people lack self-control i...

Proverbs 25:25 'Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty.' This wonderful proverb doesn’t make much sense in our modern world when communications across the globe are instant. You could have a chat right now with someone in America, Australia or Mongolia – or all of them together! It’s an amazing world. However, I remember the days before such instant communications. When I lived...

Proverbs 25.20 NLT 'Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather or pouring vinegar in a wound.' Ouch! This is a painful proverb because the fact is that we all have the capacity to be insensitive. Singing cheerful songs is obviously a lovely thing to do but to impose this on someone who is depressed is the very last thing that we should ever...

Proverbs 25.19 NLT 'Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot.' What a wise saying this is! The importance of being able to trust reliable people cannot be exaggerated. It’s always important, but when we are going through a tough time it is absolutely crucial. I thank God for the privilege of working with people ove...