Bible Verse for Today

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
— James 3:16 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...So, what are your goals and plans for the New Year? Do you have great dreams and laudable goals? I hope so. But, please join me as I seriously look at why I set the goals I do and make the plans I make. In the afterglow of Christmas, that great season of giving, let's make sure our plans for the future are not selfish or based on envy, lust...

 

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ ... to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
— Romans 16:25-27 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...God doesn't just bless us. He establishes us! He makes us strong! He matures us into solid and true disciples. He does this in many ways. One of the most important, however, is through the words the Holy Spirit inspired and shared with us through Jesus' early disciples. As...

 

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
— 2 Corinthians 9:10 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...God has blessed us so much in Jesus. Yet God longs to bless us even more. Why? God longs to bless us because ... he is a generous God ... because he is our loving Father ... because that is his nature ... because he wants us to be like him! God blesses us to be a blessing...

 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
— John 3:17 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...God is not about condemnation. I know that Satan got the rumor started a long time ago, but don't believe it. God is not some fiendish teacher looking to flunk and embarrass his students. He is not some cantankerous judge looking to shame, humiliate, and punish all who interlope into his court, innocent or not. He is not some gossip...

 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:14 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...God's message wasn't content to stay confined to a book, a prophecy, or a scroll. Praise God! This Message, this Word, took on flesh and blood and bones! Praise God Almighty! This Message, this Word, didn't remain far off, distantly holy and unapproachable. Praise the LORD, God...

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
— John 3:16 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...God wants us to have life! Real life. Life that lasts forever with him! That's why he sent Jesus, so we could have life. That is why Jesus left him and came to earth. That is why Jesus endured the Cross and its humiliation. That's why Jesus rose from the dead. God loves us with an everlasting love in Jesus...

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
— John 1:1 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...God's Message of salvation was with him at creation. In fact, by nature, the one who was the Message was God himself. John wants us to know that Jesus, God's Word and ultimate Message, was with God from the very beginning. The one who turns water to wine, feeds the 5000, and raises Lazarus didn't make his human appearance on earth until he was born in Bethlehem...

 

Command them [the rich] to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
— 1Timothy 6:18 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...Generosity is such a wonderful thing -- not just to those on the receiving end, but also to those who are on the giving end. Those of us who can read this devotional on a computer via e-mail are rich by the world's standards, so this passage on being generous with our blessings is especially applicable. Let this giving-time of the...

 

And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him."
— Romans 15:12 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...When Jesus came, he did come to the nation of Israel, according to the promises made to God's people. He was a proper descendant of King David, the son of Jesse. His birth was prophesied by Jewish prophets and recorded in the Bible of the Israelite people. But no matter how Jewish his origins, Jesus came...

 

[As the prophet has written:] "But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel."
— Matthew 2:6 (NIV)
Thoughts on Today's Verse...The birth of Jesus at Bethlehem is no accident. The Almighty God had foretold this many years earlier through his prophets. Even Herod's religious lackeys could determine that the Messiah was to be born in the quaint old city of David. The...