Diving In

For this God is our God forever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.    Psalm 48:14 This declaration concludes a psalm that celebrates the truth that God brings strength to the city of Jerusalem. It is the city of Zion, which he chose and desired as his dwelling place on earth … Read more

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.           Psalm 46:1-3 I have found that declaring something is true does … Read more

Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.   Psalm 43:3-4 Many … Read more

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.         Psalm 42:5-6 Self-talk. All … Read more

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise … Read more

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like … Read more

Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. Matthew 27:65-66 The reading for today is Matthew 27:62-66. The body of Jesus is in the tomb. It is the Sabbath. … Read more

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8 Readings … Read more

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Luke 22:14-15 Readings today include Matthew 26:17-46; Mark 14:12-42; Luke 22:7-46; and John 13:1-17:26. The Passover meal is prepared, and Jesus goes to … Read more

It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him. Mark 14:1 Readings for today include Matthew 26:3-5; Mark 14:1-2; and Luke 21:37-22:2. While we are not completely certain of what was happening … Read more