A Friend Indeed Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Proverbs 27:5-6 American author Elbert Hubbard first defined a friend as “someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” God blessed King David with two such friends. During David’s youth, King Saul’s son Jonathan befriended him …
Hagar
Secure in God’s Care And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 Few Old Testament narratives convey God’s love for the downtrodden quite as poignantly as Hagar’s story does. She was a foreign slave, probably a gift from Pharaoh during Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt (Genesis 12:16). Far from her birthplace …
Not-As-Famous Men and Women of the Bible
If someone asked you to name the most well known people in the Bible, what would you say? Jesus, of course. But who else? Abraham, Moses, David, Mary, Paul? In this series of devotions on not-as-famous men and women of the Bible, we explore the lives of people who played pivotal roles in God’s great story of redemption, and …
Seth
Hope Restored Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” Genesis 4:25 (NASB) The older son killed his younger brother. Can you imagine Adam and Eve’s grief as they processed Abel’s murder and …
Woman with Chronic Bleeding
Come to Jesus [Jesus] said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Mark 5:34 Twelve years is a long time to wait for healing. The unnamed woman whose story is recorded in three gospels “had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she …
Martha: A Growing Faith
Martha’s Aha Moment “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” John 11:21–22 Martha of Bethany had a servant’s heart. She welcomed Jesus and his disciples into her home on many occasions. She’s often mislabeled a whiner because she …
Samaritan Woman’s Testimony
“Could This Be the Messiah?” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 Most of us know the story of Jesus’s encounter with a woman …