Archives for Category: Excerpt from The Message Bible

December Reading from The Message

December 1, 2023

Matthew 1 starts with a long (dare I say boring?) list of names. 21st century readers want to skim that part to begin learning about Jesus. But the intentional detailing of Jesus’ family tree is significant. It outlines the prophetic timing of his arrival and the inclusivity of God’s family. Have you seen some of […]

November Reading from The Message

November 1, 2023

Before Paul became an apostle, embarked on his missionary journeys, and wrote his letters to the early church, his name was Saul, and he was a disciple hunter. It was with arrest warrants in hand that Saul was blinded on his way to Damascus. This serves as a profound testament to God’s power and His […]

October Reading from The Message

October 2, 2023

In the middle of the gospel of Mark, Jesus asks a question that every human must ultimately answer. “Who do you think I really am?” Do our lives reflect our answer to that question? Jesus challenges the disciples, and every Bible reader to the end of time, with the implications of this crucial question. Jesus […]

September Reading from The Message

September 2, 2023

Have you ever felt unqualified? Living with imposter syndrome? If you ever wanted a “fake-it-till-you-make-it” hero of the Bible to relate to, look no further than Moses. Here in Exodus 4, we see Moses trying to back out of God’s commissioning to save his people. Thankfully for Moses and for us, God doesn’t need our […]

August Reading from The Message

August 1, 2023

Living in an orderly utopia sounds lovely (for a time), but we can only ever live in an actual place, inevitably full of messiness. Thankfully, that is where God designed us to be. But are we meant to live in a garden or the wilderness? 1 Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail. […]

July Reading from The Message

July 1, 2023

Christ is the one who gives coherence to all the disconnected pieces of life’s puzzle. In Him everything interlocks. In Him everything finds its purpose. Do you have a vision of the complete picture of Christ? A clear view of the finished puzzle? CHRIST HOLDS IT ALL TOGETHER 15-18 We look at this Son and see […]

June Reading from The Message

June 1, 2023

Do you think the Christian life will lift you out of trouble? Don’t wish in the wrong direction, God often draws us deeper into the stuff of creation and that doesn’t always mean safety. But He doesn’t abandon us to face the troubles of life alone. We see this with David here in Psalm 34… […]

May Reading from The Message

May 1, 2023

What differentiates a believer and a skeptic? How do we act and live out our lives when we submit to God as our master instead of ourselves? In Proverbs 30 we see this explored… GOD? WHO NEEDS HIM? 1-2 The skeptic swore, “There is no God! No God!—I can do anything I want! I’m more animal […]

April Reading from the Message

April 2, 2023

Jesus lays dead in a tomb. His followers are distraught. One betrayed him, another denied him three times. They keep their distance, riddled with anxiety about their fate. But not all hide away; women who had been with him since Galilee prepared burial spices and returned to the tomb after resting on the Sabbath… LOOKING […]

March Reading from The Message

March 1, 2023

There can be no Easter without death. There is no resurrection, in all it’s death-defying glory, without the pain and injustice of the cross. But even in His moment of greatest suffering, Christ reassured and saved. Darkness will come, but we belong to a savior that defeated it… and will do so again. 33 When they […]