Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Hebrews 6.1 NLT 'So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.' If you saw a group of learned professors of mathematics earnestly talking about the fact that two and two make four, you might think it rather strange. You would imagine that they would have moved on to more complicated matters. That is not to s...

Hebrews 5.11 NLT 'There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.' Ouch! The writer of Hebrews doesn’t pull his punches. He is frustrated with the spiritual dullness of his readers and he let’s them know it. He had hoped that they would have developed much more in their faith so that they could,...

Hebrews 5.8-9 NLT 'Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.' The High Priest was the most important person in the Jewish faith. He traced his family line back to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his life and ministry are descri...

Hebrews 4.16 NLT 'Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.' I have only spoken with the Queen on one occasion. I had attended a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and afterwards there were refreshments. I was chatting with a couple of friends and suddenly saw the Queen...

Hebrews 4.12 NLT 'For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.' If you thought that the Bible was just another piece of literature you have totally missed the point. The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us and he does it with devastating po...

Hebrews 3.13 NLT 'You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.' I still vividly remember the warnings that my mother used to give me when I was a child. They had to do with what I ate, how I crossed the road, the people I spoke to, the way I cycled my bike and so on. I suspect that we all have similar memories....

Hebrews 3.6 NLT 'Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.' Confidence is important in every part of life isn’t it? I find it interesting that many people who are supremely confident in one area of life have no, or very little confidence, in another. We can probably all think of an area where w...

Hebrews 2.18 NLT 'Since Jesus himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.' For many years I have suffered from back pain. That means that I have much in common with the majority of you because we are told that 60 to 70 percent of people have back pain at some point in their lives. I find that people are very caring and sympathetic but there is al...

Hebrews 2:14 NLT Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. The fact that Jesus was fully human was of crucial importance to the writer of this  letter. Salvation depended upon it. In the first chapter, the writer spo...

Hebrews 2:1 NLT So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. We can be sure that this letter was written to Christians from a Jewish background and that it was written to a particular church. Later in the letter we learn that the believers had suffered for their faith soon after they came to faith in Christ, but now they had become complacent and lazy....

Hebrews 1:3 NLT The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. As you probably know, we don’t have any of the original manuscripts of the New Testament. But we do have many very early cop...

Hebrews 1:1-2 NLT Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.   These opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews declare that God has always spoken to people. He did it in the Old Testament as...

Jonah 3.10 and 4.1 NLT 'When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.' So far as Jonah was concerned it was bad enough to have to go to Nineveh at all, with its terrible reputation for sin. But at least he was given the r...

Jonah 3.1-3 NLT Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. Jonah had learnt his lesson. He had tried running away from God and spectacularly failed in the attempt, and so when the Lord called h...

Jonah 2.1-2 NLT Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!” The thought of spending three days and nights inside a large fish is well beyond my imagination. And the book of Jonah doesn’t do anything to satisfy our curiosity! This is no newsp...

Jonah 1.1-3 NLT The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. Most Bibles will have the title “Holy Bible” on the cover and that could easily give the impression that it is a book stacked fu...

Proverbs 20.29 NLT 'The glory of the young is their strength; the grey hair of experience is the splendour of the old.' Tension between the generations is not new. Aristotle in the 4th century BC once commented, “When I look at the younger generation, I despair of the future of civilisation.” Long after Aristotle’s day, in the year 1237, a monk named Peter gave his reasons for despair when he look...

Proverbs 20.20 NLT 'If you insult your father or mother, your light will be snuffed out in total darkness.' Family relationships were of central concern to the writer of Proverbs. The incredibly harsh language that he uses in this particular proverb shows his complete contempt for those who insulted their parents. No punishment was too great for those who were able to sink to such depths. Later in...

Proverbs 19.28 NLT 'A corrupt witness makes a mockery of justice; the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.' Justice is a persistent theme throughout the Bible, because it is one of the characteristics of God. He loves justice. This is beautifully described in Deuteronomy 32.4 “He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how ju...

Proverbs 19.18 NLT 'Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.' The word discipline has a harsh ring to it, but the writer of the Proverbs is clear that it is absolutely essential for every parent to know how to do it. He saw discipline as the way in which parents show love to their children. In chapter 22 verse 6 he wrote, “Direct your children on to the ri...

Proverbs 18.4 NLT 'Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook.' If you look at the history of many villages or towns you will find that they originally grew up because they were close to a river, brook or spring. The source of water gave them life and here Proverbs says that it is just the same with wisdom. Wisdom brings life wherever it goes and so wise peop...

Proverbs 17.5 NLT 'Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.' Every society has poor people and Jesus affirmed that that would always be the case. But that doesn’t mean that we should be unconcerned for the poor. The whole Bible encourages us to take the needs of the poor seriously and do everything we can to support them. Leviticus...

Proverbs 17.4 NLT 'Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander.' The Book of Proverbs was written more than 2,500 years ago, but the issues that it tackles are so up to date that you could imagine it was written yesterday! Today’s verse reminds us that there have always been gossips. There are many references to gossips in Proverbs and it is clear that the writer is d...

Romans 16.3-5 NLT 'Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home.' This final chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans contains greetings to a number of specific people, and this gives us a...

Romans 15.30 NLT 'Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.' It is an incredible privilege to belong to the Christian family. As soon as you become a Christian you have brothers and sisters who are part of your new worldwide and eternal family. I t...