Unspectacular
October 11 – Psalm 118
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: Making gratitude a habit Psalm 118 calls on all of God’s people to praise the Lord for his steadfast love, and then moves to what seems to be a personal testimony of God’s rescue from distress, and then to a liturgical...
October 4 – 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: Work is an act of worship In this passage, Paul instructs the Thessalonian community to exercise church discipline on those refusing to work. Although there is nothing in 1 or 2 Thessalonians that explicitly links the...
September 27 – John 15:1-17
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: Learning to abide in Jesus This is the last of Jesus’ seven I am sayings in this Gospel. The vinedresser refers back to Isaiah’s first vineyard song, where God is depicted as tending his vineyard, only to be rewarded with...
September 20 – Jeremiah 29:4-7
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: The quiet life of the resident alien In Jeremiah, all the people were taken into exile in 597 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar. The purpose of Jeremiah is to reassure these exiles that God has not abandoned them or forgotten his...
September 13 – Matthew 6:25-34
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: The path to trusting God The pursuit of the kingdom of God works out in the details of one’s personal life. In the context of today’s text Jesus calls his followers to choose their master, either God or wealth, and to choose...
September 6 – Philippians 4:6-7
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: The power and peace of persistent prayer In this very short section Paul calls the Philippians to attitudes of joy and reason, so that they would replace anxiety with expectant, grateful prayer. The joy that Paul calls for...
August 30 – Lamentations 3:21-23
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: Sitting in God’s new morning mercies Lamentations is a book of loss and hardship. In Chapter 3 we see a man who’s endured suffering and at the same time experiences God’s faithfulness and mercy. He prays for renewal and...
August 23: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
Back to all discussion guides → Main Focus: Ordinary Life with Gospel Awareness 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 is about living a life pleasing to the Lord. Paul calls on the Thessalonians to please God by living in holiness and love. Here in verse 9-12 Paul urges the...