The 260 Journey

Day 137 Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 4 Children do not always appreciate what parents do for them. They have short memories. Their concern is not what Mom and Dad did for them yesterday, but what are Mom and Dad doing for them today, right now. The past is meaningless and so is the future. They live for the present. Whereas those who are mature are deeply appreciative for past, present, and futu...

Day 136 Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 3 In an old Peanuts cartoon, Lucy demanded that her brother, Linus, change television channels, and then threatened him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asked Linus. “These five fingers,” said Lucy. “Individually they are nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form...

Day 135 Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 2  A friend of mine was just voted in as the new president of a Bible  school in the Midwest. When I think of that school, I think of one of the most embarrassing things I did to appear impressive: I lied as I preached to them. I was supposed to speak to students who wanted to start a church, and because we’d just started ours in a very difficult sp...

Day 134 Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 1 Sotheby’s in New York City had an Auction some years ago and sold some of the belongings of iconic people. Winston Churchill’s desk, C. S. Lewis’s pipe, and one sheet of Johan Sebastian Bach’s music all auctioned that day. Here are three items and their final auction prices that caught my attention. Napoleon’s toothbrush sold for $21,000. Jackie Kennedy Ona...

Day 133 Today’s Reading: Romans 16 Occasionally on Sundays after I’d finished the sermon, we’d completed the last song, and I’d said the final amen, I’d realize I forgot to announce something to the congregation. I’d have to tell our sound technician to turn the mic back on so I could tell the people what I forgot. I’m in good company. Even Paul forgot something in Romans and had to essentially te...

Day 132 Today’s Reading: Romans 15 In today’s reading the apostle Paul is about to tell us how legit the Old Testament is. We are going to be given a reason why we should think larger than 260. The New Testament has 260 chapters that we are reading through together. But we don’t have to stop there! The Bible has 929 other chapters that also have purpose. As Paul tells us, “Everything that was writ...

Day 131 Today’s Reading: Romans 14 Romans 14 is about personal convictions not a private faith. Nowhere does the Bible give anyone the right to a private faith, though it is a personal faith. Because not everyone is at the same place in their walk with God. And when we don’t take notice of where people are in the Christian walk, then the strong can become a stumbling block to the weak. Paul says i...

Day 130 Today’s Reading: Romans 13 In No Bad Dogs , British dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse claims that dogs understand love better than we do. She writes, "In a dog’s mind, a master or a mistress to love . . . is an absolute necessity. . . . Thousands of dogs appear to love their owners, they welcome them home with enthusiastic wagging of the tail and jumping up, they follow them about their houses...

Day 129 Today’s Reading: Romans 12 Romans 12:9-21 is some of the most powerful exhortations of the New Testament. I use the word exhort because it’s the right word to use with these verses. Exhort is a passionate urging to do something. Passion does not leave a lot of room for wordiness. Passionate words spill out of you because it has to come out of you. Paul starts the passionate pleas, and it s...

Day 128 Today’s Reading: Romans 11 There is a fundamental difference between a pole vaulter and a high jumper. A high jumper runs as fast as he can and leap as high as he can, and if he is good, he can get about seven-and-a-half feet. If he wants the world record, he aims for eight feet. His human effort and strength can only take him so far. The pole vaulter is different. He has to run too, but h...

Day 127 Today’s Reading: Romans 10 Today’s chapter contains one of the most well-known passages that brings people to salvation. Recently I was rereading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. It’s even better the second time. Lewis reminds us of the greatness of salvation. Consider his words: "Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian l...

Day 126 Today's Reading: Romans 9 We now enter three of the most difficult chapters of the entire New Testament, Romans 9–11. We are venturing into, what we call in theology, election, predestination, and the Sovereignty of God. There is no way we can discuss with clarity all of these important words in detail in our brief time together, but we can at least introduce them. As we start today in Rom...

Day 125 Today’s Reading: Romans 8 Has anybody ever said to you, “I have good news and I have bad news, which do you want to hear first?” I always say, “The bad news first.” I want to finish on a high note. So that’s what we’re going to do today as we open Romans 8. Bad news and then good news: In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the...

Day 124 Today’s Reading: Romans 7 The Nuremberg war-crime trials were trials of some of the most wicked men who ever lived. They were responsible for the deaths of six million Jews during the Holocaust. One of those men was Adolf Eichmann, who killed millions of people in concentration camps during World War II. Holocaust survivor Yehiel Dinur witnessed Eichmann’s trial. He entered the courtroom a...

Day 123 Today’s Reading: Romans 6 There is probably not a better chapter in the New Testament that deals with the relationship between Christians and sin than Romans 6. That relationship is—there is no relationship. You have victory because sin is no longer in charge. There’s a new King on the throne of your heart. C. H. Spurgeon was right when he said, “Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend t...

Day 122 Today’s Reading: Romans 5 In today’s reading, we land on Romans 5 and see a different kind of praise. Praise that I don’t think is done in the church. It’s a new kind of praise for your repertoire. God gives us to much to praise. In Romans 5:1-2, Paul reminds us of the greatest thing to thank God for: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, th...

Day 121 Today’s Reading: Romans 4 Romans 4 is just as much a faith chapter as is Hebrews 11, which gets called the hall of faith. Romans 4 gives us a ground level look of the steps of faith of the father of faith, Abraham. Paul shows us a specific situation Abraham had to walk out in faith and how he did it. And then Paul encourages us to “follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham” (v...

Day 120 Today’s Reading: Romans 3 Rabbi Joseph Telushkin lectures throughout the United States on the positive and negative impacts of words. He often asks audiences if they could go twenty-four hours without saying any unkind words to, or about, another person. More often than not, only a few people raise their hands. He tells everyone else, All of you who can’t answer "yes" . . . must recognize...

Day 119 Today’s Reading: Romans 2 Haddon Robinson tells the story of a lumber business settlement in the West, during the American frontier days. As the town grew, the citizens wanted a church, so they built a building and called a minister. One afternoon the preacher spotted some of his parishioners dragging logs that had floated down the river from another village onto the bank. The owner’s stam...

Day 118 Today’s Reading: Romans 1 "What about the people in other countries who have never heard the gospel? Will they go to hell?” This was a question one of our worship band members asked me. I was finishing up a late meeting at the church, and he was finishing practice. We met each other in the lobby when he dropped that question. More specifically, he said, “We preach the gospel here, but what...

Day 117 Today’s Reading: Acts 28 In today’s reading, we look at the last chapter of Acts, chapter 28. We are going to discover real friends today—forty-three-mile friends. When talking about friendship, John Churton Collins said, “In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.” In Acts 28, Paul is in adversity. He is in Rome where he will meet death. However, something happen...

Day 116 Today’s Reading: Acts 27 Today, we'll take a boat ride on some rough waters in Acts 27. This boat has 276 on board, most of them prisoners. The apostle Paul is below deck in shackles and on his way to Rome. At one point the most famous prisoner on the boat tells the professional seafarers, “I wouldn’t go that direction.” And his advice is rejected vehemently: Paul began to admonish them, a...

Day 115 Today’s Reading: Acts 26 In today’s reading, the apostle Paul is about to make his defense before king Agrippa before leaving for Rome. It is so powerful that at the end of his speech, the king says to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.” What was so powerful about this speech Paul made? He told his conversion experience (this is the third time he tells it in...

Day 114 Today’s Reading: Acts 25 There are two ways to view yourself—from a photo or in a mirror. Photos are how we wished we looked. Mirrors are how we really look. One is fantasy, the other reality. We can fix our hair and our make-up for a photograph. But when we look into a mirror, that is the real us staring back. Until we see and acknowledge our real selves, we never understand our need for...

Day 113 Today’s Reading: Acts 24 Recently I read a quote about being good stewards of our time and made me sit back and really think about what I do with the time God has given me: Each new day brings us 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds, each moment a precious gift from God . . . each calling for us to be good stewards, mindful that one day we must give an account for how we spent the time G...