Open the Bible UK Daily

Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Jude 21 Once you see how important the theme of waiting is in the Bible, you’ll have new motivation to exercise this neglected area of the Christian life. Here are five passages on waiting: Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. (Ps. 37:7) I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,...

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 In one of the books by American author, Garrison Keillor, about Lake Wobegon, he describes a rather awkward teenager growing up in a small town. The lad gives a speech at his high school graduation, and afterwards somebody comes up to him and says, “Nice speech!” But he can’t receive a compliment. “Oh no,” he says, “I w...

The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 Some time ago, a pastor from England went to India to deliver a series of evangelistic messages. When he arrived, there were posters hanging all over town advertising the evening meetings at which he would be speaking. The posters were supposed to read: “The visiting pastor from England will bring the evening messages .” But instead,...

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10 One way to work God’s love into your mind is through the Lord’s Supper. At the very centre of Christian worship, God has given us this exercise to keep us in spiritual shape. We come to a table where we receive bread and wine. They direct our attention to the cross, wh...

Keep yourselves in the love of God... Jude 21 The Bible talks about the love of God in a number of ways: 1. Providential love is God’s kindness to His enemies as well as His friends. God’s enemies will come under His judgement, but right now they receive good gifts from His hand. Why do good things happen to bad people? Answer: God’s providential love. 2. Saving love is God reaching out to us: “Go...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 Another way to pray in the Spirit is by using the Lord’s Prayer (Mat. 6:9-13). Martin Luther structured his entire prayer life around the Lord’s Prayer: 1. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (6:9) Luther prayed that God would be honoured in his own life, and in the church, and in the nation where he lived. 2. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on ear...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 The Bible contains some marvellous prayers that were breathed out by the Spirit of God. You will find many of them in the book of Psalms. The whole Bible was written as men were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and as you fill your mind with God’s Word, you will begin to think God’s thoughts after Him. If you learn to form your prayers from the Bible, you will b...

We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26 Imagine a teenage computer geek writing software in his basement: “How can I get this in the hands of the people at Microsoft?” He doesn’t know anyone there, and he has no idea how to introduce his ideas to them. Who knows how many requests they receive in a day. One...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit... Jude 20 Once you’ve grasped that there’s one God, and that He’s not whoever you want Him to be, the next question is “How do you come to Him?” That depends on what you want to receive. The Bible uses the picture of a throne to help us understand. There is one God, but more than one throne. That’s easy for us to understand in the United Kingdom. There is one king in Bri...

[Pray] in the Holy Spirit… Jude 20 Imagine meeting with your minister at church. The minister places a number of envelopes in front of you and says, “We can talk about anything you want. But here are some envelopes with questions written on them. Go ahead and pick one.” The topics range from faith to spiritual growth to fellowship, but you choose the envelope on prayer. The question on the envelop...

[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith... Hebrews 12:2 Faith grows by looking at Jesus. Faith becomes strong as you fill your mind and soul with how trustworthy He is. Imagine yourself as a younger child, attending a professional sporting event with your family. Your parents get tickets about twenty-five rows from the game. The people are packed in like sardines, and they’re stand...

[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith… Jude 20 Faith is like a muscle. It grows strong when it is used. If you want to develop a particular muscle, you pull or push against a weight. Faith grows when it has to push against a great burden. That’s what happens when God allows trials in your life. You lose your job, a relationship ends, or the bottom line of your business is the wrong colour,...

[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith… Jude 20 Jude is talking about the same faith here that he mentions in verse 3: “The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” You can build up your faith by affirming what you believe. That’s why Christians throughout the centuries have recited creeds in their worship: “I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth…” C.H. Spurgeon...

[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith... Jude 20 There will be times when you seem to be making little progress, and you wonder, “What’s wrong with me? Am I a Christian at all?” Jude says, “You need to build up your faith.” How do you do that? Satan loves to point out how puny, pathetic, and embarrassingly small your faith is. You should counter by recognising that the faith you have—howev...

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith... Jude 3 Evangelicals often emphasise spiritual life and the importance of the new birth. We rejoice when people give testimonies of how they came to faith in Christ. But spiritual life is no guarantee of spiritual health. You may be spiritually alive, but are you spiritually fit? We know what it’s like to be out of shape phy...

But you, beloved, [build] yourselves up in your most holy faith... Jude 20 Jude’s message is very simple: Keep yourself in spiritual shape. It is also very practical, because Jude breaks this down into seven workouts for a healthy Christian life. You may be committed to some kind of fitness programme. You may work out with a coach or a personal trainer who gives you an exercise routine to help you...

Certain people have crept in unnoticed... who pervert the grace of our God... Jude 4 The book of Jude was written to a group of believers who were discouraged because of a growing number of church leaders who were marked by moral compromise and doctrinal error. Jude describes the quality of leadership (verse 12) in many churches: Shepherds who feed only themselves. These pastors were trusted to ca...

“Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37 Pilate had so many voices ringing in his ears. He had the voice of his wife, who said to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream” (Mat. 27:19). Much louder were the voices of the chief priests who had handed Jesus over to him. Pilate also had the voice of his own consci...

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews. John 18:38 Some suggest that this was a genuine question, but Pilate didn’t wait for an answer. It seems that he spoke these words as an exit line. Pilate asked, “What is truth?” And he said this as a judge charged with bringing justice. Imagine yourself standing in a court of law on false charges, and y...

“I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37 Jesus tells us here that there is a realm where all truth is known. It is not in this world. Jesus came into the world to “bear witness to the truth.” The Bible tells us that in this world, we know “in part” (1 Cor. 13:12). That is why we often feel that we are only getting part...

“For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” John 18:37 This is the last statement of Jesus about why He came into the world. The chief priests have brought Jesus to Pilate’s house, and Pilate has to make a decision about Him. The religious leaders “began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us...

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 If you follow Jesus, you will never be in total darkness. He may lead you through some dark places. One day, He will lead you through the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death. But even there, He will walk with you. His light will shine in the darkness, and the darkne...

“The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.” John 12:35 There is a profound sense in which these words of Jesus speak to us today. The light of Jesus comes to us through the Scriptures, and each of us has it for “a little while.” What will you do with the light you have received? Suppose that you and some friends decide to explore a...

“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” John 12:46 The human story can be described in four eras. And in each of them, the light of Jesus shines in a different way. Moonlight “You search the Scriptures... and it is they that bear witness about me” (Jn. 5:39). In the Old Testament era, Jesus was there, but He was not seen directly, like the...

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 What does a more abundant life look like? It is a life with: More peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (14:27). Jesus can give more peace than any of us has yet received. More love. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (15:13). Jesus has more love to give than any o...