The 260 Journey

Day 87 Today's Reading: John 19 One hundred pounds is a lot of extra weight to carry with you. It is noticeable when you put it on and it’s noticeable when you shed it. Our story today is one hundred pounds put on and it’s noticeable, because you can’t hide one hundred pounds. Let me tell you about a person whose name you will recognize. Nicodemus. And he picked up one hundred pounds on his Jesus...

Day 86 Today's Reading: John 18 I remember a few years ago flying out of a large midwestern city in the middle of bad storms. Planes were still taking off, but passengers were feeling uneasy. I have to tell you, as I waited at my gate, I wasn’t feeling it either, and fear started to hit me. Then I saw our pilot come to our gate. He was this old, wrinkle-faced man. His uniform bore a lot of gold ba...

Day 85 Today’s Reading: John 17 John 17 is holy ground. If I were God’s editor, I never would have allowed this chapter in the Bible. It’s sacred, it’s other-world, it’s uncomfortable . . . it’s the prayer closet of Jesus. This is a very solemn chapter, what we call the high priestly prayer of Jesus. I have thousands of books in my library on so many topics. But to my amazement, I’ve seen only two...

Day 84 Today’s Reading: John 16 In The Grace Awakening , author and pastor Charles Swindoll used an imaginative illustration for how best we can live: imagine driving on a treacherous mountain road with a cliff on both sides. As you approach a hairpin turn, you must decide which is better: a state-of-the-art hospital with the best doctors in the world at the bottom of the mountain or a giant yello...

Day 83 Today’s Reading: John 15 Today’s reading is a challenge. It’s a second step that Jesus gives to those who choose to follow Him. During Jesus’ life, He constantly said to those who were ready to start a journey with God to “follow Me.” And for those who accepted the challenge, he gave them a revolutionary second step: “Abide in Me.” Listen to these challenging words of this new kind of relat...

Day 82 Today’s Reading: John 14 I remember listening to one of my daughters as she was learning to count. When she got to the number eleven, what came next seemed normal to her. Unfortunately, it was wrong: eleventeen, twelveteen, thirteen . . . Why not? Seems logical. In today’s reading, we see that Jesus had one of those logical moments. It happens in yesterday’s reading: John 13:38. Jesus’ elev...

Day 81 Today’s Reading: John 13 I know in mathematics 4 always follows 3. But I have to tell you that there is one place in the Bible that 4 should not follow 3. And it’s only because it does not make sense. Or let me say it another way, my 4 and Jesus’ 4 are totally different. In today’s reading, we come upon two verses that seem disconnected to the human mind, but not to Jesus. Listen to how pow...

Day 80 Today’s Reading: John 12 A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. It goes something like this: “Deep down, I know you are shallow.” “One thing I know—that I know nothing.” “I am nobody.” “He’s a wise fool.” It’s putting opposite words in a sentence together that don’t seem to work. These are silly paradoxes that have no bearing on anything of eternal importance. But in today’s read...

Day 79 Today’s Reading: John 11 Has God ever been confusing to you? Have you ever asked Him, “What are You doing? I don’t understand?” Our 260 Journey brings us to John 11 and to one of those moments. It’s the story of Lazarus—a man who went from health to sickness and from sickness to death. And here is where the confusion starts. This all happened with Jesus close enough to prevent his death but...

Day 78 Today’s Reading: John 10 Jesus is called Shepherd three times in the New Testament. And each time, a special adjective is put in front of the word to show His role in their lives. In John 10:11, Jesus is called the Good Shepherd, with the emphasis of laying down His life for the sheep. In Hebrews 13:20, Jesus is called the Great Shepherd, with the emphasis on His resurrection and how He acc...

Day 77 Today’s Reading: John 9 "Amazing Grace” is considered to be one of the greatest hymns of all time, sung by Christians and non-Christians alike. It transcends religious boundaries. The hymn’s popularity would have surprised its composer, John Newton. The circumstances that inspired him to write the hymn more than two hundred years ago were amazing. Newton was just a boy when he set sail as a...

Day 76 Today’s Reading: John 8 In Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World , renowned English writer, Dorothy Sayers, aimed some powerful words at religious people who have watered down the Son of God and made Jesus accommodating: The people who hanged Christ never accused Him of being a bore; on the contrary, they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to mu...

Day 75 Today’s Reading: John 7 Not many young people would know the radio show or his iconic voice, but some years ago, 21 million Americans would tune in on their radios to hear from the most listened-to voice in America. They would hold their breath in suspense as the storyteller recounted a true story with a surprise ending. It was called The Rest of the Story, a real-life mystery Paul Harvey w...

Day 74 Today’s Reading: John 6 The Christian life is a journey, not an arrival. As part of that journey, we all have to do hard but noble stuff at some point: • tell someone about Jesus • say no to something we used to say yes to • end a toxic relationship • decide to tithe As Oswald Chambers said, “If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are diffic...

Day 73 Today’s Reading: John 5 Today we land on John 5, an up-close view to a phenomenon of miracle healing waters called the waters of Bethesda. When the waters moved, the first in the pool got healed. Here’s the first part of the story: After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew B...

Day 72 Today's Reading: John 4 The average American is exposed to between four thousand and ten thousand commercial messages every day. But it’s truth that is a rarity. We have opinions but not truth. One of my friends put it this way: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not everyone is entitled to their own truth.” Truth is universal. It isn’t limited to individuals, geography, or eth...

Day 71 Today’s Reading: John 3 There are a few chapters in our 260 Journey where you just pause, exhale, and know you are seeing beauty and majesty. John 3 is one of those chapters. Plato said, “Whoever tells the stories shapes society.” Do we have a story to tell or what? We have the story—the gospel story. God’s story. John 3:16 is God’s story stuffed into one verse. And Jesus tells it in twenty...

Day 70 Today’s Reading: John 2 Today our 260 Journey takes us to John 2. If we are not paying attention, we may feel as if we are at the end of the Gospel of John and not at the beginning. Let me explain why this can be confusing by reading something Jesus did in this chapter: The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen...

Day 69 Today’s Reading: John 1 I am excited that today on our 260 Journey we begin a journey through the Gospel of John. This is the most unique gospel because it doesn’t start out like the other three gospels. It takes us to the beginning . . . the real beginning. Listen to its opening verse: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). That sounds...

Day 68 Today’s Reading: Luke 24 It’s resurrection morning for Jesus. All of the Gospels highlight Jesus’ post-resurrection conversations with His disciples and followers, but only Luke highlights a conversation that happened seven miles outside of Jerusalem. To put it another way, a fire started seven miles outside of Jerusalem. No building burst into flames. No property was damaged. No one was tr...

Day 67 Today’s Reading: Luke 23 Today we come to the last solemn minutes of Jesus’ life on the cross. It is His final comment from the cross that catches my attention. It is a prayer but goes further than up. That prayer goes wide. Let’s read Jesus’ final words before He breathed His last breath: Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said thi...

Day 66 Today’s Reading: Luke 22 In today’s reading we are entering into Luke’s telling of the Passion Week. While Jesus is with His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, He speaks some remarkable words to Peter, which will be important to all of us, because it is what Jesus does right now for every one of His children. At the Last Supper, right after Jesus says that one of the Twelve will betray...

Day 65 Today’s Reading: Luke 21 When I begin to think about what Jesus can see, I am amazed. Consider these: • Jesus sees the past. In John 1, He tells Nathaniel the day he was under a fig tree. • Jesus sees the future. He prophesies in John 21 about Peter’s death. • Jesus sees into the heavenly realm and the spiritual battle that goes on when sickness is being conquered. He says in Luke 10 that H...

Day 64 Today’s Reading: Luke 20 Not everyone who asks you a question wants an answer or wants the truth. Listen to one of the most profound questions ever asked. It was a question someone asked of Jesus, and the one who asked it never stopped to hear the answer: “Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews . . .” (John 18:38). Pilate asked the ques...

Day 63 Today’s Reading: Luke 19 Today’s reading contains the story of a crazy conversion of a rich man. But in order to get its full picture, we have to read something from the previous chapter about a crazy miracle healing of a blind man. Luke 18:35 says, “As Jesus was approaching Jericho . . .” (Remember Jericho , because we’ll come back to that.) “As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man w...