The 260 Journey

Day 62 Today’s Reading: Luke 18 In today’s reading, Jesus tells a story on prayer. But I think through the story, He wants us to pick the guy we think God likes best so He can teach us a lesson. Sometimes we assume that God likes who we like and what we like. It should be easy to pick out who God likes best: He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their mo...

Day 61 Today's Reading: Luke 17 My goal today is to put you in a special category, which not many are in. My goal is to move you to the 10 percent category, because if I can get you there, I can get you some extra help on what God has already done for you. How many want more miracles happening in their lives? They can have that. And it is as simple as saying, “Thank You, God.” Our 260 Journey lead...

Day 60 Today’s Reading: Luke 16 What if you could hear from someone who had died, and they could tell you what’s on the other side? That’s what a story in today’s reading is. It’s a story that will stop you in your tracks. It’s the story of eternity. It’s the story of what’s beyond. More specifically, it’s a story about hell, realized too late. There was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in pu...

Day 59 Today’s Reading: Luke 15 Today’s reading contains one of the most incredible stories ever told. We call it the story of the prodigal son. Let’s read it together: [Jesus] said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everyth...

Day 58 Today’s Reading: Luke 14 You’ve been invited to a big party. Not just a party but God’s party. And it lasts a really long time . . . for eternity. In order to understand how this party works, Jesus told a parable. And what makes this parable amazing is when and where He told it. I come from a family in which dinner table talk was the norm. Dinner would last a long time not because eating to...

Day 57 Today’s Reading: Luke 13 There are more than 7 billion people on earth. Nearly sixty million of them will die this year. That is approximately 153,000 people dying every day, 6,400 people dying every hour, 107 people dying every minute, two people dying every second. Not a great thought to start your day. Death is unavoidable and undeniable, and you will one day become one of these statisti...

Day 56 Today’s Reading: Luke 12 A. W. Tozer, the famous Christian writer, said that there are seven ways to really know ourselves and know what our character is like. He called them rules for self discovery. They are: 1. What we want most 2. What we think about most 3. What we laugh at 4. What we do with our leisure time 5. The company we enjoy 6. Who and what we admire 7. How we use our money How...

Day 55 Today’s Reading: Luke 11 When it comes to giving a gift today, one of the most popular gifts, which doesn’t require much thought or effort, is a gift card. According to the National Retail Federation, about 59 percent of shoppers will purchase a gift card for friends and family. According to estimates, the typical American home has an average of $300 in unused or “unredeemed” gift cards in...

Day 54 Today’s Reading: Luke 10 A politician finds their opponent on the side of the road with their car broken down, do they stop and help her? If a die-hard Yankees fan sees a Boston Red Sox fan at a check-out at a local store and he is short money, does the Yankees fan help him? More serious: if a racial justice advocate sees an adversary standing at a stop light with a legitimate sign that say...

Day 53 Today’s Reading: Luke 9 Can we have a promise from Jesus that doesn’t work for us? Can Jesus tell us what we are to do and then we can’t do it? That’s the situation we find in today’s reading. In Luke 9, we are filled with faith and expectation from the very first verses and then just forty verses later, we are overcome with failure in what we were told to do. “Jesus, You promised, and...

Day 52 Today's Reading: Luke 8 A friend of mine said, “You’re only as sick as your secrets.” Christianity is not something that works well with secrets. In fact, in today’s reading we come to an amazing chapter packed with teaching, healing, and miracles. Tucked away in this long chapter is one thing that Jesus taught that particularly stands out to me: Nothing is hidden that will not become...

Day 51 Today's Reading: Luke 7 Today we land on Luke 7. In the last story of the chapter (verses 36-50), Jesus is in a house with a number of religious people and a prostitute comes in and washes His feet with her hair. This is how pastor and author Chuck Swindoll explains it in a chapter titled “Jesus at His Best:” While families gather for dinner and close their door for the night, her workday b...

Day 50 Today's Reading: Luke 6 I know there is a lot of folklore that goes with the masterpiece of the Lord’s Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. Whether this is true or not, I love this story I read recently about the painting. When Leonardo Da Vinci was working on this famous Last Supper painting, he became angry with one of his assistants, berating the man without mercy. After banishing his a...

Day 49 Today's Reading: Luke 5 I have a prayer I pray that a pastor friend from Alabama taught me. It goes like this: “Lord, the answer is yes even before You ask.” I want to be able to say yes to the Lord at all times. I want you to be able to do that too, so let me talk to you about fishing and your yes, Lord agreement. I don’t really fish. I have been fishing but I am by no means a fisherman no...

Day 48 Today's Reading: Luke 4 In today’s reading we actually get to read one of the most amazing chapters of a different book—Psalm 91. Psalm 91 starts off with these familiar words: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” (Verses 1-2) And then Psalm 91 ends with these pow...

Day 47 Today's Reading: Luke 3 Today I want to take you to a water baptism class. I believe that water baptism displays the difference between the casual Christian and a serious follower of Jesus, because it is clear in the Bible that it is a next step after being born again. As Max Lucado says, “Baptism separates the tire kickers from the car buyers.” Water Baptism does not mark an arrival but a...

Day 46 Today’s Reading: Luke 2 One of my favorite quotes about moms comes from the old 1960s’ comedian Milton Berle: “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” With all a mother has to do, it is no surprise when a child gets accidentally left behind in the rush and frenzy of trying to get someplace. Have you ever done that? My wife and I have . . . or should I say, I have....

Day 45 Today’s Reading: Luke 1 Change is hard for those who have been doing the same thing for a long time. We see that truth in today’s reading about an older couple who are about to have their world turned upside down—all because they prayed something when they were young and it didn’t get answered until they were old. It’s the story of Elizabeth and Zacharias, cast members in God’s story....

Day 44 Today’s Reading: Mark 16 Today’s reading brings us to Mark’s account of resurrection morning. Mark’s description of resurrection morning is priceless. My favorite moment is in verses 3-4: They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. They were sa...

Day 43 Today’s Reading: Mark 15 Today we come to the darkest day in human history: the crucifixion of Jesus. Calvary shows how far people will go in sin—and how far God will go for our salvation  (God always goes a step further, loving us). Every step that Jesus took to the cross said, I love you to every person in history. As we study the crucifixion, we need to look at something that happen...

Day 42 Today’s Reading: Mark 14 A man who felt convicted for lying on his last tax return wrote this letter to the IRS: Dear IRS: Enclosed you will find a check for $150. I cheated on my income tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest. His problem: he is waiting for more sleepless nights to bring closure. He is...

Day 40 Today’s Reading: Mark 12 Today’s reading starts with a parable, a little story with a big meaning. Jesus tells it in nine verses but the actual story covers almost three thousand years. It is God telling His story from the beginning to ending with His Son coming to earth. As we read this passage together, remember that Mark 11:27 says Jesus is in the Jerusalem temple telling this story to c...

Day 41 Today’s Reading: Mark 13 It seems that in Jesus’ ministry, when something significant was going to happen, He took with Him the same three guys: Peter, James, and John. It is as if their names roll off your tongue. Those names just sound right together. Those three men saw and heard things the other nine close disciples missed out on. When Jesus went to the Mount of Transfiguration, for ins...

Day 39 Today’s Reading: Mark 11 Sometime ago, Dave Hagler, who works as an umpire in a recreational baseball league, was pulled over for driving too fast in the snow in Boulder, Colorado. He tried to talk the officer out of giving him a ticket by telling him how worried he was about insurance and how he’s normally a very safe driver, and so on. The officer said that if he didn’t like receiving the...

Day 38 Today’s Reading: Mark 10 Today’s reading is a tough one. Jesus gets a test . . . a test about marriage and divorce. Before we dive into this chapter, listen to these poignant words from Augustine, which apply to what we’re studying today: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.” Now let’s read about Jesus’...