Open the Bible UK Daily

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Philippians 1:23 Now, some have seized on the fact that the Bible sometimes describes death as sleep (1 Cor. 15:51) and have suggested that the souls of believers go to sleep when they die. Please remember that what sleeps is not the soul, but the body. The body is laid to rest until the resurrection. But the soul is very much aliv...

Today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 What was death like for the thief? And what does the experience of a Christian believer look like immediately after death? Jesus promised that the thief would be with Him, and He said that it would be today. In other words, Jesus was Jesus died before the thief, and He committed His spirit into the hands of the Father. So, when the thief died, he...

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34 Today the thief is in heaven and the reason is not that he was without sin or that he lived a good enough life. The thief is in heaven because Jesus paid the price for his sin and gave him eternal life. What Jesus did for the thief, He is able to do for you. But remember, there were two thieves, and while one was saved, the other w...

"You will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 This is the promise of the Saviour to every person who places their trust in Him. So turn to Him, ask of Him, and take Him at His word. Trusting Jesus will involve trusting Him in three very challenging circumstances: Trusting Jesus in the darkness Immediate after the thief trusted Jesus, “there was darkness over the whole land” (23:44). This darkness...

“Remember me when you come into your kingdom." Luke 23:42 This was an audacious request. The thief did not say, “I know I’ve made some mistakes, but nobody’s perfect, and I’ve done a lot of good things in my life.” He said, “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds” (23:41). This man asked Jesus with honesty and humility. He faced the fact that he was a sinner. He had sinned against God and ag...

The robbers who were cruciied with him also reviled him in the same way. Matthew 27:44 One thief continued to hurl insults at Jesus, but a change came over the other. The Bible calls this change repentance. Every change has a beginning, and the story of the thief shows us where repentance begins. The thief had been hurling abuse at Jesus, but then a stillness came over his soul as he thought about...

Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. Luke 23:32 The day you die may be a long way off, but nothing is more certain… it will come. One day you will wake up and it will be your last day on earth. What will happen to you then? The story of the thief on the cross tells us how we can be sure about heaven. We are not told much about this man, except that while he wa...

He was... a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. ISAIAH 53:3 John Stott comments so helpfully on the sufferings of Jesus in a moving passage from his book called The Cross of Christ: I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross... In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples... and stood respectfully bef...

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? PSALM 13:1-2 The mind of Christ was saturated with these psalms. He would have recited them in the synagogue. He used them. He experienced them. And He is with us when we pray them. So, w...

I have trusted in your steadfast love. PSALM 13:5 David is not feeling the love of God. He has been quite candid about that: “How long will you hide your face from me?” (13:1). Now, he moves beyond what he feels to what he knows: God’s steadfast love. This is love that lasts, love you can count on. God’s love for you had no beginning; it will have no end. God has loved you with an everlasting love...

Answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes...PSALM 13:3 Suppose another Christian said, “I’ve been a believer for years, but it feels like God has left me. He doesn’t answer my prayers. Does God really care?” How would you try to help him or her? First, recognise the experience. If a mature believer like David (a man after God’s own heart) can feel abandoned by God, no one should be surprised when...

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? PSALM 13:1-2 Listen to the complete candour with which David lays out his struggle before God. He is not holding anything back. He is seeking an authentic relationship, and an authentic r...

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? PSALM 13:2 Maybe you have been carrying a heavy burden for a long period of time, and the strain is beginning to show. It may be physical pain or mental anguish, or it may be the sheer weight of responsibility that God has placed on your shoulders. God has sustained you, but as time goes by, you are wearing down. You...

You Are in an Agony of Soul How long, O LORD? Psalm 13:1 Thank God Psalm 13 is in the Bible! We need it. We live in a suffering world, and a faith, quite candidly, that does not speak to human pain is not worth taking seriously. This psalm speaks to struggles that have no end in sight. Four times in the first two verses we find the question, “How long?” The hardest trials to endure are not the one...

The upright shall behold his face. PSALM 11:7 David is saying, “How can you say, ‘Flee like a bird’? God is on His throne. And whatever happens in this world, one day I’m going to see His face.” There’s a true story of a man by the name of William Montague Dyke, who at ten years old was blinded in an accident. While in college, William fell in love with the daughter of a high-ranking British naval...

The LORD is in his holy temple; The LORD’s throne is in heaven. PSALM 11:4 God is still on the throne. You may be experiencing fear or frustration, but God is not in a panic. You may not be able to put things right when the foundations are destroyed, but God can. You may not be able to deal with the wicked, but God can, and He will. David overcame his fear, his frustration, and his temptation to d...

Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. HEBREWS 12:26 What is God doing when He shakes the things that are familiar in our lives? He shakes the foundations so that “the things that cannot be shaken may remain” (12:27). Derek Kidner says, “The collapse of what is built on sand may be distressing; it can also be a beginning.” God shakes what is built on sand so that it might...

They have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. PSALM 11:2 Jesus was “upright in heart” and from the earliest days of His ministry He was the target of wicked men. At least twice, He had to challenge the well-meaning advice of His friends. Once, some Pharisees said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you” (Luke 13:31). These well-meaning...

How can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain”? PSALM 11:1 The advice of David’s friends came from fear and frustration. “The wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string” (11:2). That’s fear. David, you’re going to get hurt if you stick around. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (11:3). That’s frustration. David challenged both voice...

Flee like a bird to your mountain. PSALM 11:1 Perhaps this resonates with you. There used to be a Judeo-Christian consensus in our country: There is a God in heaven, and He gave us the Ten Commandments by which we should live. That’s not much, but it is a basis for talking to people about sin and our need for Christ. Much of that foundation has eroded away. In the minds of many today, “god” is who...

How can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain”? PSALM 11:1 Someone was giving David advice, and this advice went straight to his heart: “It’s time to move on, David.” Why? We are given two reasons in this psalm. First reason: “The wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart” (11:2). There’s going to be trouble, David...

O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted. PSALM 10:17 Does God feel far away? Do you wonder if He has forgotten you? If so, this psalm is for you. God is calling you to stand in faith, and you can do that because Jesus will stand with you. Not only did Jesus endure wickedness, He triumphed over it. Peter said, “You crucified and killed [him] by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23), but God ra...

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted. PSALM 10:12 Jesus would have known this psalm. What did it mean to Him? What use would it have been to Him? Did Jesus ever know what it was like to feel that the wicked were winning? Or to feel that His Father was far away? If you walk through this psalm, you will see Jesus all over it. Jesus knows the greed of the wicked. He saw “...

Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart ‘You will not call to account’? But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation. PSALM 10:13-14 The wicked person says that God has hidden His face and forgotten. But David says “No, you don’t! You don’t forget.” (10:14). Here are some core convictions that will help you pray when the wicked seem to be winning: God’s eye: “You do see” (10:14...

[The wicked] says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” PSALM 10:11 There’s a fascinating turn in this psalm. At the beginning, David prays: “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself?” God, you seem so far way, so remote, so uninvolved. You don’t seem to be doing anything at all! But at some point in the psalm it dawns on David: That’s...