The Holy Pause

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. Whoever winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Jesus also said to the disciples, “A certain rich man heard that his household manager was wasting his estate. He called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration bec...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord....

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy, exactly as the Lord your God commanded: Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work on it—not you, your sons or...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Consider: The clock ticks, the inbox fil...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong t...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice wha...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told,...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spiri...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?” Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, becau...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: I will stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Consider: Have you ever tried to set up...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone,...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The local people showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it. Paul had...

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. Scripture: Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a...

Scripture: And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” Consider: I will be the first to admit that when I’m...

Scripture: When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn’t lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, even though that was the shorter route. God thought, If the people have to fight and face war, they will run back to Egypt. So God led the people by the roundabout way of the Reed Sea desert. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt ready for battle. Moses took with him Joseph’s bones just...

Scripture: So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to tak...

Scripture: While they were eating together, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised. He said, “This is what you heard from me: John baptized with water, but in only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” As a result, those who had gathered together asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?” Jesus replied, “It...

Scripture: Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and pray frequently. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples are always eating and drinking.” Jesus replied, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? The days will come when the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.” Then he told them a parable. “No...

Scripture: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the...

Scripture: So Elijah departed from there and found Elisha, Shaphat’s son. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elisha was with the twelfth yoke. Elijah met up with him and threw his coat on him. Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” Elisha said, “then I will follow you.” Elijah replied, “Go! I’m not holding you back!” Elisha tu...

Scripture: All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to...