Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

• Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
• Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
• What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

Mark 6:30-56

³⁰The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

³¹Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

³²So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

³³But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

³⁴When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

³⁵By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late.

³⁶Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages ! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five–and two fish.”

³⁹Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.

⁴⁰So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

⁴¹Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²They all ate and were satisfied,

⁴³and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.

⁴⁴The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

⁴⁵Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.

⁴⁶After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

⁴⁷When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.

⁴⁸He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them,

⁴⁹but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,

⁵⁰because they all saw him and were terrified.

⁵¹Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed,

⁵²for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there.

⁵⁴As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.

⁵⁵They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

⁵⁶And wherever he went–into villages, towns or countryside–they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

3 John

The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

²Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

³It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.

⁴I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

⁵Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.

⁶They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

⁷It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.

⁸We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.

⁹I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.

¹⁰So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

¹¹Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

¹²Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone–and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink.

¹⁴I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

2 John

The elder,

²To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth–and not I only, but also all who know the truth– because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

³Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

⁴It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

⁵And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.

⁶And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

⁷Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

⁸Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.

⁹Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

¹⁰If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.

¹¹Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

¹²I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

¹³The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

1 John 5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

²This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.

³This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

⁴for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

⁵Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶This is the one who came by water and blood–Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

⁷For there are three that testify:

⁸the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

⁹We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.

¹⁰Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.

¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

¹²He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹³I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.

¹⁷All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.

¹⁹We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

²⁰We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true–even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

1 John 4

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

³but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

⁴You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

⁵They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

⁶We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

¹⁶And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

¹⁷In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us.

²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

1 John 3

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

²Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

³Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

⁵But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

⁶No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

⁸He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

⁹No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

¹⁰This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

¹¹This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

¹²Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

¹³Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

¹⁵Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

¹⁶This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

¹⁹This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence

²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

²²and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

²³And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

²⁴Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

1 John 2

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

²He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

³We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

⁴The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

⁵But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:

⁶Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

⁷Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.

⁸Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

¹⁰Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

¹²I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

¹³I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.

¹⁴I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

¹⁸Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

²⁰But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

²¹I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.

²²Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist–he denies the Father and the Son.

²³No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵And this is what he promised us–even eternal life.

²⁶I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.

²⁷As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him.

²⁸And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

During 2024, we will focus on reading through the New Testament together as a church family. We are challenged throughout the Scriptures to rely on the precious truths found therein; one such verse is Hebrews 4:12, “ For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…” And we believe that studying the Bible it is critical to our growth as followers of Jesus.  

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

• Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
• Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
• What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

Matthew 10:1-23

He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

⁴Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.

⁶Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

⁷As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

⁹Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts;

¹⁰take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.

¹¹“Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave.

¹²As you enter the home, give it your greeting.

¹³If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.

¹⁴If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.

¹⁵I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

¹⁶I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

¹⁷“Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.

¹⁸On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.

¹⁹But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,

²⁰for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.

²²All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

²³When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

1 John 1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

²The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

³We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

⁴We write this to make our joy complete.

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

⁶If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Dig deeper! 

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

Identify one FACT that stands out to you from the reading.
Consider how you REACT to this fact.  What is God saying to you specifically?  How do you think or feel about it?  Personalize the truth to your own life.
What is God calling you to ACT upon?  How can you put God’s Word into practice in your own life?  What will you do about this truth today?

2 Peter 3

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

²I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

³First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

⁴They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

⁵But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

⁶By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

⁷By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

¹¹Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives

¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.

¹³But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

¹⁴So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

¹⁵Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

¹⁶He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

¹⁷Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.

¹⁸But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.