Daily Word Ministries

May 21
The Path of the Righteous

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
Proverbs 4:19

This proverb marks a contrast to how godless people live their lives. In the verses previous, Solomon describes the way of the wicked, in which they constantly do wrong and hurt others. But the path of the righteous he describes as the dawn getting brighter and brighter.

When the sun is rising, it starts as a low glow and increases more and more until it breaks over the horizon and gives light to the earth. This is good imagery for our lives in Christ. Before we are saved we are in darkness - it is still night time in our lives. But at the moment of salvation, that low glow begins to burn in our hearts. As we go along the path that God leads us on, increasing in our devotion to Him and our righteousness in Him, then our lives begin to shine brighter and brighter. Soon enough, more and more people can recognize that we are changed, and that we look different than most people around us. Just as the rising sun gets brighter and brighter, our lives start to look more and more like Christ.

Jesus talks about how we are the light of the world, and the light He places inside of us should shine forth for all to see. And like this proverb says, that light should only get more and more obvious as our lives go on. By the time we pass on to the next life, that light should be so obvious that is almost blinding to look at. The Christian life shouldn’t get darker and darker, and it should stay at the same level of light; rather, as we increase in our relationship with the Lord, our light will naturally shine brighter and brighter.

Will we still make mistakes? Of course. Will this path be difficult sometimes? Yes. But if we are pursuing the Light Himself, Jesus, seeking to be a reflection of Him on earth, than we cannot help but shine brighter and brighter.

May 20
Share the Light

“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.”
Luke 8:16

This passage is probably somewhat familiar to most Christians. Jesus gives an analogy of a lamp giving off light, and how when you turn a lamp on you don’t then cover it up but you let it illuminate your surroundings. This is an analogy for how Christians ought to treat the light of God that is inside of them.

Logically it makes sense in the natural world that a lamp or candle or any source of light shouldn’t be covered up but rather exposed in order to provide light. Providing light, after all, is its function and purpose. While this part of the analogy is very clear and understandable, a lot of us trip up on the application to our spiritual lives. We don’t necessarily want to be so obvious about our faith in Christ. Why not? Well, in the context of light and darkness, I think the main issue is that we sometimes don’t view the Gospel as light for others and the world doesn’t know they are in darkness. Since they don’t know they are in the dark, they reject the light that we offer. The light we offer seems to restrictive or oppressive, and they think they are doing just fine on their own.

But, we cannot allow the world’s perspective to alter our own. We know that Jesus is the light of the world, whether the world recognizes that or not. And the purpose of light is to illuminate surroundings, to break through the darkness. We have been given Jesus’ light for the purpose of illuminating the world around us. But if we are scared or ashamed of our light, then the light in us won’t fulfill its purpose. We haven’t been saved and given Jesus’ light just for ourselves. This light is meant to radiate out of us and touch the world we live in.

Once we realize that the very nature of light is to shine forth and illuminate the darkness, we can see why we must let our light be exposed to others. Sure, it may be uncomfortable or people may not understand and they may say hurtful things; but the purpose of our light is not changed by their opinions. We know that the world is in desperate need of a light in the darkness, and the only way they may recognize that at all is if we display that light for them to see.

May 17
He is faithful

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10:23

In this passage, the author of Hebrews is writing about how Jesus’ sacrifice has opened the door for us to enter into God’s presence, and how He is our great high priest. He writes how Christ’s sacrifice was once for all and how He provides forgiveness for sins unlike any other. Given these things, the author tells us to hold fast the confession of our hope because he who promised is faithful.

What is the confession of our hope? His is teaching us here that we need to remain steadfast in our proclamation and belief in Him. More specifically, as Christians we have a eternal hope in Christ, in His work on the cross and eternity with Him. Our hope goes beyond this present life and the things of this world - we have a living hope in the person and work of Christ. We must hold fast to this belief, not being afraid or ashamed to say it. And we must do so without wavering.

How is this possible? After all, when you stop to look at the things going on the world, it can be hard to have hope. We can read about the promises of God in the Bible, but when everything in our lives seems to be going the opposite direction, it can be very difficult to hold on to hope. Especially since this hope is in a future that we cannot yet see, and the present circumstances make it hard to picture as being true. Well, the verse tells us how to hold onto this hope. We can do this by trusting in the character of the One who gave us this hope.

Our hope comes from and is in God. And God is faithful. God is not like another person whose word may or may not be trustworthy. God’s very nature is faithfulness; it’s who He is. And God, being perfect, cannot go against His own nature. So if God’s nature is faithful then He will always be faithful. No matter what life looks like to us in the present, we can hold onto the hope He gives us because we know that He is faithful. If He says He will do it then He will do it. It may not happen the way we expected or pictured, but when our hope is in Him we never hope in vain. God will always keep His promises, and if our hope is rooted in Him, then we can have full assurance.

Of course, we are going to have moments and days where it is harder to have hope. We live in a fallen world, and things often don’t make sense to our finite minds. But at the end of the day, we can put our hope in God and in things He has promised us, because we can have assurance of His character. God is a faithful God, and He always will be.

May 4
Learn obedience

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”
Hebrews 5:8

In this chapter, we read about how Jesus is our high priest; in the Old Testament, a high priest was chosen by God who would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. The high priest was a sort of mediator between God and Israel. Jesus was made to be our perfect high priest because he was without sin and so didn’t need to also offer sacrifices for himself. God exalted Jesus and made Him our high priest. But, in order to get there, Jesus had to become the sacrifice for our sins - a perfect sacrifice once and for all.

The verse written above tells us that Jesus had to learn obedience in the same way that you and I learn obedience. Jesus lived a perfect life, and obeyed God fully, but he couldn’t claim that until it was actually done. In the Gospels, we can read about how Jesus asked God to prevent him from having to die on the cross, but ultimately surrendered to God’s will. Jesus knew how painful it was going to be, and he cried out to God to take away that pain. God heard his prayer - but Jesus still had to go to the cross. Like the verse above says, Jesus suffered. But it was through that suffering that he learned obedience.

Often times we pray to God and ask him to take away our pain. Nobody wants to go through suffering and we’d rather have God spare us. But if Jesus, God’s own Son, was not spared suffering, then will we? Jesus asked to be spared just as we ask, and even though God heard his prayer and saw his pain, He didn’t remove the suffering. But God does this out of love for us. If our lives were pain-free, we would never really learn to obey God. If everything went our way, there would be no choice between obedience or disobedience really. But because obeying God is hard sometimes, and because obedience sometimes means pain, it is through suffering that we actually learn to choose obedience. If obeying God will cause us pain, just like how Jesus obeying God led to a painful death on the cross, then we must truly trust God in order to obey. Our obedience is developed through the times when it is hard to obey.

Even though none of us wants to suffer or experience pain, sometimes it is a necessary part of the process. God doesn’t inflict pain on us out of anger or because He’s bad; rather, He allows us to go through things so that we can learn to truly trust and obey Him. And we never walk through pain alone - God is with us fighting for us, and He loves us and weeps with us. We must turn to Him in our pain, trusting that He will work all things together for good for those who love Him.

May 3
Enter His rest

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”
Hebrews 4:11

In this chapter we read a comparison between Israel entering the Promised Land and is entering God’s rest. The author reminds us how the Promised Land was promised to Israel by God, but because of their disobedience and unbelief, they were unable to enter in. God’s promise still stood, but Israel’s disobedience broke the conditions of their covenant. So even though the hope of the Promised Land existed, that generation was unable to experience the fulfillment of Hod’s promise because of their disobedience.

Similarly, God has promised us that when we follow Him while here on earth, we will enter into Heaven and then the New Earth with Him in the future. We have a hope of a future rest with God Himself in eternity. Just like Israel’s hope in the promise from God of the promised land, we have a hope in Go’d promise of eternity with Him. But, the author’s point here is that we must be careful to not do the same thing Israel did. Just because there exists a hope for eternity doesn’t mean all people automatically receive it; the hope for the Promised Land existed potentially for all of Israel, but only those who had faith and obeyed actually experienced it. Similarly, only those who believe in God and obey Him will actually enter into the promised rest of eternity with Him.

This is why the author tells us in this verse to strive after this promised rest. While it can be difficult sometimes to see beyond the present world with its stresses and hardships, we can have hope in the promise of eternity. But we cannot abandon God and love how we please here on earth and still expect to enter that future rest. We must continue steadfast in faith and obedience to God; when we remain faithful like this, then we will enter God’s rest in eternity with Him, which is a reward and hope worth believing in and fighting for.

April 30
Exhort one another

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Hebrews 3:13

In this verse, Christians are instructed to exhort each other so that we may avoid falling into sin. This isn’t referring to those in the world, but rather to those who are in the church: we need to be watching out for each other as believers.

The word exhort is often made synonymous with encourage, but it actually has a bit more depth to it. In this verse, exhort means to invoke, to call for, to comfort, and to pray. More than just encouraging each other to stay steadfast and faithful, we must ardently call each other to the standard of Christ. When we see a fellow believer starting to drift or dabble in sin, we must lovingly invoke them to stay faithful to God. While it can be uncomfortable to call someone out, if we do it from a place of love and not judgement or self-righteousness then it is okay.
Notice how the verse tells us to exhort each other like this every single day. Basically, we shouldn’t wait until our brother or sister is already drowning in sin before saying anything. We should exhort each other to faithfulness even before any sin is apparent. Exhorting then becomes a preventive step as much as a reaction.

Why must we do this? The verse says so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Notice the order of event: the verse does not say that a persons heart gets hardened and then they are deceived by sin. Rather, the deceitfulness of sin is what causes a person’s heart to become hard. This is why we must exhort each other before there is a serious sin problem. Because it is sin that makes our hearts hardened. Deceitfulness has to do with a delusion: a delusion is when a person honestly believes something is true when I’m reality it is not. Sin is deceitful, sin is a delusion, because it promises things it does not give. The devil uses sin to trick people into turning away from God. And as a believer, we are especially targets for this delusion because the devil knows that we’re on the right path and he wants to get us off of it. If we spend too long flirting with sin, under a delusion that it’s all fine and we’re doing okay, our hearts will become hardened. Hardened means dry, tough, and stubborn. When our hearts are these things, we become cold to the Gospel and forsake our relationship with Christ.

Clearly, it is imperative that the church not be deluded by sin. The way we can help each other is when we exhort each other every day to remain faithful and steadfast to the ways of the Lord. We cannot wait until a brother or sister is already deceived and hardened: we must act preventively, always calling each other to and reminding each other of the heavenly calling in our lives.

April 29
Jesus’ brothers

“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,”
Hebrews 2:11

This chapter of Hebrews shows us more about who Jesus is: namely, how He became human like us in order to provide salvation. Sometime, after you have been in the church for a while and have heard about salvation many times, you can forget just how powerful and meaningful it really is. This chapter in Hebrews reminds us of those things.

Before the verse written above, the author talks about how Jesus was subjected to the status of humanity, and suffered death as a result. Yes, Jesus was and always will be God, but when He came to earth He was made exactly like you and I. He was tempted and tried just as we are. Verse 10 says that Jesus was made perfect through suffering: basically, it is because Jesus suffered as a human that He could claim perfection. If Jesus had never been tempted or never suffered, then there wouldn’t have been opportunity for Him to remain faithful to God. But because He was tempted and suffered just as we are, and still remained sinless, that is why He is able to provide salvation for us. Jesus passed every single test that we fail from day one.

Then, in the verse written above, the author writes about our relationship with Jesus. Not only is Jesus our Lord, not only is He our Savior, but He calls us His brothers (and sisters). How can you and I be called Jesus’ brothers? According to verse 11, it is because Jesus (the one who sanctifies) and us (those who are sanctified) have the same source, which is God. Jesus is the Son of God and humans are also the sons of God. When Jesus entered into humanity, he physically became a son in the same way that you and I are, and yet still maintained His status as Son. It is precisely this relationship between us and Jesus and then Jesus and God that makes salvation possible.

Jesus had to become one of us in order to provide salvation. In reality, God didn’t have to save us, but He chose to send His Son in order to make a way where we couldn’t make one for ourselves. This salvation is not something we deserve and we could never earn it; it is a gift from God Himself. The fact that our Savior subjected Himself to humanity with all our struggles and battles, because He loves us and so that we could receive salvation, is not something to be taken lightly.

The God of the universe became flesh and died for you so that you could be restored to a relationship with Him. He is not a distant uninvolved God; He knows you intimately, He created you specifically, and He understands everything you face and go through. Look to Him for salvation and receive a relationship with God Himself.

April 28
Who is Jesus

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
Hebrews 1:3a

The opening verses of Hebrews describe who Jesus is in a beautiful way. Jesus is who God has spoken to us through (v. 2) and Jesus is the one who God created everything through at the very beginning (v. 2). Here in verses 3, Jesus is described as radiating God’s glory, and exact imprint of God Himself, who maintains the whole universe through the power of his words. This description is worth looking at in the original Greek language to fully understand what it is saying about our Savior.

First, Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory. The word radiance implies that one thing (Jesus) is shining out of another thing (God). Jesus isn’t merely a reflection of God’s glory as if He were a mirror: rather, Jesus radiates out of God - they are One. And specifically, he radiates God’s glory - glory refers to God’s honor and divinity and worthiness to be praised and worshipped. Jesus takes this glory and makes it beam from God down to earth. Think about how the actual sun radiates light and heat - Jesus radiates the glory of God in the same way, connected to God Himself and showing us His glory.

Next, Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature. Jesus isn’t merely similar to God - He is an exact replica of His very nature. The nature of God refers to who God is as a being - the very essence and substance of His existence. All through the the Bible we can read about the nature of God - and since Jesus is an exact imprint of this nature, those same qualities apply to Him. Jesus not only radiates out of God, but He is God. He and God are One. Jesus isn’t just like God, He is exactly like Him.

Finally, Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power. To uphold means to carry or to bear and endure. Not only was the universe created through Jesus, but Jesus is the One holding it up. The entire universes, every single thing that has been created, is carried and held by Jesus. And He carries it with the word of his power. We know the world was created by God’s words, and here we read that Jesus upholds it all by His word too. Power refers to a great force, to miraculous power and mighty work. Jesus has this power, which we see displayed in His life on earth through the miracles He performed. That same power is what Jesus uses in His words to uphold the whole universe.

Think about what this small verse reveals about Jesus. He is connected with God, a literal outpouring of God’s glory. And He is exactly like God, because He and God are One. And He upholds the entire Creation with His miraculous power, simply through His words. Wow! This is the Jesus who came to earth and gave His life for our salvation. This Jesus was certainly no ordinary man - this is God Himself. We must not forget about just how amazing Jesus is and the magnificence of Who He is. He is God, and He has the power to save!

April 27
Be wise and don’t hold onto the past

“The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving.

The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭14:8, 14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

All through this chapter we seen the theme of the wisdom of a prudent man vs the folly of the fool. As we move through life we are given many choices, the wise man will make sure he’s looking into the future and planning for it. The foolish does not take into consideration the future, they just do. We all have done that at some point we just do what we want and then have to pay the consequences.

It’s not fun to pay those consequences especially if the devil knows he can bring them back up over and over again. With Jesus, we can start the healing process as we put Him first. We are always going to have a past but Jesus takes that and uses it for more opportunities to preach the gospel.

We must be wise and keep on guard, so we do not let the devils lies of condemnation get to us. We are loved by God and we have to remember that and take captive every thought. Let us not backslide into folly but pursue good through Jesus Christ.

April 26
Treat everyone kindly

“...to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”
Titus 3:2-3

In these verses, Paul is instructing us how to treat other people and then gives an explanation as to why. He says that Christians must not speak evil about people, they must not be quarrelsome, they must be gentle, and they must show courtesy to all people. These things are pretty straightforward Christins virtues. But the reason Paul gives for behaving in these ways is a little more interesting.

First, Paul says to speak evil of no one. Basically, we must be mindful of how we are talking about other people. Notice how he says we aren’t to talk badly about anybody. In our culture, it is very acceptable to trash talk people we don’t like or people we disagree with, and social media makes it all too easy to do so. But here, God is calling Christians to watch how they speak about all people, including people who disagree with us or people who don’t like us.

Second, Paul says to avoid quarreling. Quarreling is different then debating in that it is usually over petty, unimportant things and is more of an attack against a person rather than an actual discussion of some point. Quarreling serves no purpose except to make people upset and bring out feelings of bitterness and anger. Quarreling does not help solve problems or help us understand a persons point of view. This is why we must avoid quarreling.

Third, me must be gentle. This is a lot easier said than done. Again, thanks to social media and the climate of our culture, being gentle is not the norm. Society tells us to speak our mind and tear people down. But God calls us to be gentle with our words and our actions. Acting in a gentle way causes situations to de-escalate and will foster better relationships and conversation.

Finally, Paul says to show perfect courtesy to all people. Again, notice how he says all people. This means as a Christian you are supposed to respect all people even people who don’t like you, who you don’t like, and who don’t agree with you. It can be a lot easier to be angry with or just to ignore these people: but God calls us to show them courtesy and respect and love.

All of these things are high callings and it is only with the help of Jesus that we can do any of them. But Paul doesn’t say we need to these things because that’s what a good Christian does. Instead, he reminds us how we too used to live in great darkness. And we are only in the light now because of Jesus and not because we earned it. And so, when we interact with people of the world who are still in darkness, or even other Christians who are hard to get along with, we should be humbled knowing what Jesus has done for us. We don’t have the right to treat people badly or treat people according to their works, because we were saved despite our same bad works. When we approach people in this way, it becomes easier to treat them kindly and do good to them.

Sometimes it can be hard to act like a good Christian when we focus on following all the rules laid out. Instead, focus on what Jesus did for you and let that humble you. When you do this you rely on Him to help you act righteously, and when you rely on Jesus instead of yourself it becomes a whole lot easier.

April 20
Preach the Word

“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
2 Timothy 4:2

Paul’s message in this verse is pretty clear: he is charging Timothy to preach the Gospel. As Christians, this charge applies to us too, and somethings Paul says in this verses are important for us to realize.

First, he says to preach the word. Not to preach our opinion or what culture believes, but rather, the Word. Now this seems straightforward enough, but many Christians today do a lot more preaching about things other than the Word. We’ve gotten so caught up in politics or pleasing people that we’ve stopped preaching the Word of God for what it is. We try to sugarcoat the hard parts and we’d rather make a statement about the latest political controversy than preach the Good News. Paul’s reminder here is to preach to Word - our first and loudest message needs to be the Word of God.

Next, he says to be ready in season and out of season. What this means is that we need to be prepared at all times to talk about God and the Bible and what we believe. Whether it be in season (at an opportune time for us) or out of season (and a not-so-opportune time for us), we must always be ready. In order to be ready to defend our faith and witness to others, we have to have studied it and know it ourselves. When an opportunity comes to share the Gospel, we must be ready.

Then, he lists three purposes behind preaching the Word: to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. To reprove means to call something out - one function of preaching the Word is to call people out of darkness, calling them to the truth of the Gospel. To rebuke means to correct - another function of preaching the Word is to offer correction for those who are living in sin patterns perhaps without even knowing it. To exhort means to encourage - the Word of God should be used to build people up and encourage them in their daily lives. These three purposes of preaching the Word, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, should be our intentions when preaching. Our intentions shouldn’t be to tear somebody down or make ourselves look righteous or make our own opinion seem like gospel.

Finally, Paul says we must preach in these ways with patience and teaching. Patience can be difficult in any area of life, but we need to be patient when preaching the Word. People might not instantly repent and change their ways - it takes time for God to work in their hearts, and we must be patient and not try to force it down their throats and demand a conversion immediately. And we must preach with teaching - again, our goal is not to preach at people, but rather to teach them about God and Jesus and the Bible. Teaching is our goal, and when we teach then they are led to place of understanding.

Why is all of this important? Well, in the next verse Paul says that the time is coming when people won’t want to listen to truth found in God’s Word and will instead find “teachers” who will tell them what they want to hear. In order to combat this false teaching and perversion of the Gospel, we need to stand firm preaching the Word of God for what it is. Our main purpose as believers is to go preach the Gospel. We must not grow lazy in doing this, especially as even the church is drifting farther and farther away from the truth.

April 19th
Don’t forsake the truth

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 3:14-15

In this part of 2 Timothy, Paul is encouraging Timothy to remain faithful to the God and the truth of the Gospel no matter what is going on in the world around him. At that time, there were false teachings in the church as well as ungodliness in the world, and Paul is exhorting Timothy to not be swayed by these things, but to instead remain in the firm foundation of Christ. Paul appeals to Timothy based on the source of the true Gospel message as well as Timothy’s upbringing in the church. Paul wants Timothy to remember how firmly planted he is, so that when others teachings try to draw him away, he will be able to stay strong.

Based on this passage, we can understand why Jesus’ Gospel is worth following even when it is counter-cultural. Paul tells Timothy that he can remain strong in the truth he has learned because of who he learned it from. Earlier in the letter, we see that Timothy learned the faith from his mother and grandmother, and of course from Paul himself; but ultimately, the message of Christ comes from God Himself. The Scriptures, as Paul goes on to say, are all God-breathed - they are words directly from the heart of God. This is why Biblical truth and the Gospel message are worthy of belief and following. No matter what society may say is right or wrong, and no matter how much Biblical beliefs go against the norm, we can remain firm because we know that Scripture comes from God Himself who is far above the beliefs of the world.

The other thing Paul appeals to is Timothy’s upbringing in the Word. For those of us who grew up in church and are familiar with God’s Word, it can be easy to slip into deception. We may think we already know all there is to know and get bored with Christianity, moving on to new and exciting teachings. But, the thing about truth is that it does not change or progress with the times. God’s Word is true for eternity, and we must remain faithful to it because it is the only truth there is. We cannot allow familiarity to cause us to drift from God’s Word and His teachings.

Just how Paul instructs Timothy to remain faithful to God’s Word, we must remain faithful too. Don’t allow false teachings or societal norms to draw you away from the Biblical truth you know. Remember that Scripture comes directly from God Himself, which is a source that we can put our confidence in and base our lives on. Even if people don’t understand or ridicule your beliefs, you can have a firm hope in God who is the source of all life. No matter what comes your way, remain faithful to God and His Word, and don’t forsake the truth.