Be Still and Know

READ: Acts 1.3-4 NLT During the forty days after Jesus suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. Once when h...

READ: Psalm 56.1-3 NLT 'O God, have mercy on me, for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long. I am constantly hounded by those who slander me, and many are boldly attacking me. But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.' On ...

READ: Psalm 52.8-9 NLT 'But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love. I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your fa...

READ: Psalm 51.1-2 NLT 'Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.' The background to this psalm is well known. Kin...

READ: Psalm 48.1-3 NLT 'How great is the Lord, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain! It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the ...

READ: Psalm 47.1 NLT 'Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!' I once went to visit some friends who were doing mission work in Southern Pakistan close to the Sind desert. It was very, very hot. I remember how keen they ...

READ: 1 Corinthians 14.1 NLT 'Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy.' 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is a really famous chapter and rightly so. But the fact is...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13 8, 9 and 13 NLT 'Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.' I d...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.11-12 NLT 'When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everythin...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.4-7 NLT 'Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejo...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.1 NLT 'If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.' I will never forget Sheila. She was in her early 70s when I first met her and ever...

READ: 1 Corinthians 12.14 and 16-17 NLT 'Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an ey...

READ: 1 Corinthians 12.4-7 NLT 'There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who ...

READ: 1 Corinthians 11.27-28 NLT 'So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking th...

READ: 1 Corinthians 10.31 NLT 'So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.' Life throws up many challenges for us in the 21st Century, and it was no different in Paul’s day. One of the issues that he had to fac...