Surely things like work and family are very important. God calls us to be faithful to each one of these callings. But time in God’s Word is never a waste of time.

Today our focus is on the basics—the necessities of life. In the fourth petition of the Lord’s prayer, we ask God to give us our daily bread. In our Old Testament reading, we see how God miraculously responded to some not so pleasant grumbling.

Working with authority behind you makes a big difference. When you don’t have authority on your side you are always wondering if you have the support you need. Today, Jesus sends his disciples out with his authority.

God’s Word must be proclaimed regardless of the response. Paul, in writing to encourage the young pastor Timothy, encourages him to endure the same hardship for the sake of the Gospel.

Everyone dies. No matter how rich or poor, no matter how powerful or downtrodden, no matter how successful or how much of a failure they seemed to be, every single person dies.

The problems we find in our Scripture readings may be unfamiliar to us, but they are not unrelatable. In our Gospel reading, experienced fishermen face their greatest fear—an overpowering storm.

People have used military might, political power, or the promise of temporal happiness to expand the kingdom of God. These tactics may make the kingdom of God appear to grow in its sphere of influence, but it is a hollow development.

The center of everything worth seeing is Christ. He defeated and has locked up the one whose head he crushed, but whom we see so often in the temptations that surround us and rise within us.

How do you read the Law? This may sound like a question for lawyers or judges, but it’s one every single person ought to be able to answer.

One plus one, equals two. It’s a mathematical concept we have taken for granted since we learned arithmetic. But, today in our songs and readings, we celebrate what we cannot comprehend. Our God tells us that he is One.

Israel had three annual pilgrimage festivals—the feast of Passover, Tabernacles, and Weeks. The Lord timed his outpouring of the Holy Spirit with this third pilgrimage festival which was celebrated seven weeks and a day (or fifty days) after the Passover Sabbath.