“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.” (Philippians 4:11–12 NLT) Paul urged the believers in Philippi to embrace a spirit of contentment. And we should point out that Paul wasn’t a do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do type of guy. He talked the talk and walked the walk when it ...
May 29, 2025•3 min
“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:13–14 NLT) If you want to run the race of life successfully, then don’t look back. If you’ve ever run a race and looked over your shoulder to see what your competitor was doing, then you know that looking back can ...
May 28, 2025•3 min
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31–32 NLT) As the pop star Taylor Swift noted, “Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” You’ve probably encountered more than a few haters—that is, people filled with bitterness. We all have. The thing about bitter people is that they’re never content to keep t...
May 27, 2025•3 min
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.” (Ephesians 2:1 NLT) Sin is a difficult concept for many unbelievers to grasp. To be more specific, it’s a difficult concept for many unbelievers to accept. They prefer to think of themselves as decent human beings with a good heart. They know they’re far from perfect, of course, but who isn’t? Compared to certain people, they’re practically angels. Or so the justification goes. The Bible has a different take. In Romans 3:23, t...
May 26, 2025•3 min
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6–7 NLT) For many people, prayer is a last resort. You might hear them say, “Well, we’ve tried everything else we can think of. Now the only thing left to do is pray.” What? Prayer is the first thing you should d...
May 24, 2025•3 min
“God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” (Ephesians 1...
May 23, 2025•3 min
“Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:12–13 NLT) What if every Christian lived as you live? What if you were the sole representative of Jesus Christ on this earth? Would there be enough gospel in your life for people to b...
May 22, 2025•3 min
“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” (Ephesians 6:18 NLT) All Christians experience times when we come face to face with overwhelming hardship. For Peter, it was witnessing the betrayal and arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You can find the story in John 18. Peter simply could not stomach the thought of the Lord’s enemies taking Him away. Frustrated and in despair, Peter drew his sword in de...
May 21, 2025•3 min
“Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17 NLT) During the Korean War, a unit known as Baker Company was separated from its regiment, and enemy forces were advancing on it. For several hours, no word came from Baker Company. Finally, radio contact was made. When asked for a report of its situation, Baker Company replied, “The enemy is to the east of us. The enemy is to the west of us. The enemy is to the south of us. The enemy i...
May 20, 2025•3 min
“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10–12 NLT) When he was little, my son Jonathan had a habit of wandering. One day, we were in a hotel and came to ...
May 19, 2025•3 min
“It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so...
May 17, 2025•3 min
“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.” (Ephesians 1:18 NLT) People come up to me and ask, “Greg, what’s the one thing you can say to a nonbeliever that will cause them to accept Christ?” Like I know the hidden secret. Like I’m going to say, “Since you asked, I’m going to show you the ultimate evangelism hack. Here’s what you do.” Sorry to disappoi...
May 16, 2025•3 min
“Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:20–21 NLT) We’ve reached a point in the church where people are starting to divide over really small things—second-tier and even third-tier issues. And then subdivisions occur. Groups get smaller and smaller as their conditions for acceptance get narrower and narrower. Before...
May 15, 2025•3 min
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8–9 NLT) There will be good people in Hell. When I say, “good people,” I mean people who trusted in their own human efforts, people who trusted in their own personal reality, and people who trusted in the religious things they did. Jesus issued a very clear warning in Matthew 7:22: “On...
May 14, 2025•3 min
“Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:17–18 NLT) When you think of being filled with the Holy Spirit, you may relate it to an emotional experience or a feeling of euphoria. Something dramatic and memorable. But the word filled can be translated as “controlled by.” Think of what happens when the wind fills the sails of a boat and guides it along. Tha...
May 13, 2025•3 min
“I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.” (Philippians 1:9 NLT) I eat dinner at five o’clock. But I get hungry around three o’clock. So I start counting off the time until I eat. I look forward to my meal. Sometimes I get tempted to eat something to hold me over. You know, when five o’clock seems like it will never get here, and there’s a Taco Bell nearby. I start thinking about a burrito supreme—or maybe just a taco to...
May 12, 2025•3 min
“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.” (Ephesians 1:5–6 NLT) Some people come from homes in which their fathers never expressed love or showed any affection toward them. Therefore, they take that concept of their earthly fathers and place it on their heavenly Father. They spend t...
May 10, 2025•3 min
“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with...
May 09, 2025•3 min
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20 NLT) When my oldest son was a little boy, I would take him to Toys R Us. We would look around. I would tell him to pick out something for himself. He would look at the Star Wars figures. I would look at the X-Wing Fighter with the remote control, thinking that I would like to get it for him. The truth is that I wanted to play with it, too. He ...
May 08, 2025•3 min
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” (Ephesians 3:16–17 NLT) Can you imagine going home tonight and getting ready to go to bed when, all of a sudden, you see someone walking up to your front door and knocking? Lo and behold, it is Jesus. How would you react? Of course, you know this isn’t goin...
May 07, 2025•3 min
“For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.” (Philippians 1:20–21 NLT) Every one of us has something that moves us in life. Something we are excited about. What is your purpose in life? How would you complete this statement: “For to me, living means living for ___...
May 06, 2025•3 min
“God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan.” (Ephesians 1:9 NLT) No Christian should ever say, “I was really lucky today” or “Whatever will be will be.” Forget that. If you are a Christian, then you are a child of God. There’s no such thing as dumb luck. God has a plan and a purpose. He has a strategy for your life. You may not see it now, but He sees it and always has seen it. God is paying attention to what you are facing right now. H...
May 05, 2025•3 min
“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16 NLT) Good things happen when the church functions in the way God intends. Not only do God’s people become unified, like the parts of a body working together, but we also become spiritually mature. The apostle Paul offers a glimpse of what that maturity looks like: “We won’t be tossed and blown abou...
May 03, 2025•3 min
“This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13 NLT) God didn’t say, “I desire unity in the church. Good luck with that.” Instead, He designed the church so that it would promote unity. In Ephesians 4:11–12, the apostle Paul tells us that Christ gives people specific gifts so that they can fill specific offices in the church. When those office...
May 02, 2025•3 min
“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” (Ephesians 4:3 NLT) In our increasingly fractured culture, we don’t have to look hard for issues that divide us. But where can we find things that unite us? Ephesians 4 is a good place to start our search. For the next few days, we’re going to look at the apostle Paul’s teachings on creating and nurturing unity in the church. In the first three chapters of his letter, Paul reminded the Ephesian b...
May 01, 2025•3 min
“That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!” (John 20:19–20 NLT) If we were telling the origin story of the Christian church, this would be a compelling first scene. A handful of Jesus’ followers hiding behind closed doors, shell-shock...
Apr 30, 2025•4 min
“As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?’” (Acts 9:3–4 NLT) The story of Stephen’s stoning contains a curious footnote: “His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58 NLT). That would be Saul of Tarsus. After participating in the stoning of Stephen, Saul gained notoriety as a persecutor of C...
Apr 29, 2025•3 min
“Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.” (Acts 6:8 NLT) In the months following Jesus’ ascension, the church grew at an amazing rate. Jesus’ followers, emboldened by His resurrection, spread the Good News near and far. And people responded. Acts 2:41 tells us that after Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, “those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all” (NLT). The church was also trying a...
Apr 28, 2025•4 min
“So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35 NLT) The New Testament mentions two followers of Jesus named Philip. The first was one of the twelve disciples, the men Jesus handpicked to follow Him. The second was known as Philip the Evangelist. Many Bible scholars believe that Philip the Evangelist was one of the seventy-two men Jesus sent out in Luke 10:1. According to Acts 6:5, Philip the evangelist was one of the original seven deacons in the c...
Apr 26, 2025•4 min
“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 NLT) A short time after the miracle at Pentecost, Peter and John went to the temple in Jerusalem for an afternoon prayer service. They were approached by a man who had been a paraplegic since birth. The man was well-known to temple-goers because every d...
Apr 25, 2025•4 min
