Today’s Text Reading – Luke 4:1-30 Jesus began his public ministry by quoting from the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Luke 2:22-52 When Jesus was 12 years old, he went missing and his mom and step-dad freaked out. They couldn’t find him with their family or playing with his friends. Eventually, they found him in the Temple, listening and asking questions. When his mom scolded him, his response was: “Why were [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Luke 1:67-2:21 As we draw nearer and nearer to Easter, we find ourselves reading about Jesus’ birth in the Text Project. These familiar words remind us of why Jesus was born: And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Luke 1:39-66 When Jesus’ mom Mary visited her pregnant cousin (John the Baptist’s mom) and together they realized what God would do with their children, Mary sang a song of praise to God. In this song, she marveled that God would use her to bring the Messiah into the world. She [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Luke 1:1-36 In what may seem like an odd turn for our Text Project, one week before Easter we move from reading about Jesus’ death to his birth. But embedded in Jesus’ birth is the purpose of his coming: his death. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Mark 16 Excerpt: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.” Mark 16:6 What a remarkable statement? “He is not here.” Not “His body is missing.” Not “Wrong tomb, lady, look over there.” “He is not here.” Why not? “He is risen.” Jesus is [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Mark 15:16-47 In life, Jesus was mocked. The soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to [...]
Today’s Text Reading – Mark 13:28-14:21 Excerpt: “It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest [Jesus] by stealth and kill him.” Mark 14:1 Let’s not ever forget that Jesus came to die. His teachings were radical and [...]
Every year, a bunch of us at Riv read through the New Testament together in something we call the Text Project. This year, we changed formats in partnership with our friends at Faithlife so we are reading in a different order than we are used to. Today as I was reading, I realized our [...]
This past month has been a blast as we have journeyed through Galatians together as a church. This weekend, we looked at 5 rhetorical questions that boil down to a simple conclusion: God saves. You don’t save you, you can’t save you, and that is good news. This is true in all three tenses: through [...]