Daily Readings at Southeast

  'In the Lord I Take Refuge' invites readers to experience the Psalms in a new way through heartfelt devotional content written by Dane Ortlund. Each reading is short enough to read in five minutes or less and will encourage believers to thoughtfully ponder and pray through selected Psalms. We would like to thank Crossway for providing this plan. For more information, please visit:  https://www.crossway.org/ The first psalm serves as the gateway to the entire book of Psalms, stressing that those who would worship God genuinely must embrace his Law (or Torah)—his covenant instruction founded on his redeeming grace. This psalm addresses topics also found in the Bible’s wisdom literature and makes them the subject of song. When we joyfully sing this psalm, its values become ours. We are changed.  In a sustained contrast, Psalm 1 reminds us that, in the end, there are only two ways to live. And whatever else happens in our lives today, the crucial, bottom-line question is: w...

Wanderer / Restorer Restoration begins with confession. You can’t fix what you don’t recognize is broken. James’s letter doesn’t wrap up with the final words of greeting like most of Paul’s letters. James didn’t close by naming particular individuals or by offering a broad theological expression of praise. Instead, he hammered home one final practical application of faith in action. If someone isn’t putting their faith into action, call them out and point them back in the right direction. What a great note to end on. It rings in our ears with force and finality. Wandering from the truth means we’re pursuing something less than God’s best for us in the gospel. This is a matter of life and death. This is why Jesus outlined a process to reconcile wanderers from the truth. While the process is often known as church discipline, the goal isn’t punishment but reconciliation. We pursue wanderers, hoping they’ll return to the truth and be reconciled to God and the community of the church. Becau...

 Faithful / Faithless James constantly points us to the fact that the Christian life is about glad-hearted obedience. After all the practical application of spiritual truth that James had addressed for five chapters, he started to close his letter with a call to prayer.  We’ve done the same thing throughout this book. At the end of each day’s personal study, you found instructions to pray about the ongoing application and expression of your faith. You were prompted to respond to what you read and to ask God to continue working in your heart so that your actions would increasingly bear the fruit of faithfulness and righteousness.  Prayer is infinitely more than a transition in our lives from our everyday routines to a spiritual moment and then back again. Prayer is ongoing communion with God.  If God is the source of our life, salvation, hope, and righteousness­—and He is—then prayer is the way we approach Him in utter dependence and satisfaction. James repeatedly poi...

Suffering / Comfort Unlike most people in our culture today, the early Christians likely expected Jesus to return during their lifetimes. Many believed that He could return at any moment. Today anyone predicting Jesus’ return is recognized as a false teacher (see Mark 13:32), but at the time, the disciples had seen Jesus ascend into heaven and hoped He would return soon (see Acts 1:11). In the New Testament church, waiting for the Lord’s return, at times, led to unhealthy inactivity (see 1 Thess. 4:13–5:11), and today it can lead to unhelpful speculation and preoccupation. James mentioned the Lord’s return as a means to encourage His audience to see their suffering in light of the bigger picture.  For James’s audience, the reality of Jesus’ return wasn’t a distraction that led to speculative predictions and false teachings. It was a source of comfort and hope in the midst of difficulty and suffering.  The word translated  coming  in our English Bibles was originally ...

 Oppressor / Laborer James went to great lengths to warn the church about the corrupting power of wealth. His words often echo the teachings of Jesus, specifically the Sermon on the Mount.  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where  moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth  nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus’ teaching sounds a lot like the harsh condemnation of wealthy oppressors in James 5:1-6. In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus did more than warn against the fleeting, fragile nature of earthly comforts. He provided insight into the nature of treasure and the motivation behind work.  God’s Word is clear about our attitude toward wealth and worldly ambition. Yet it clearly teaches that wealth itself isn’t inherently e...

 Arrogance / Humility This passage is more about the implicit attitude of arrogance than the explicit action. It’s not literally evil to make plans or to do business. Countless Scriptures encourage wisdom in handling finances and in stewarding responsibilities.  The warning here is against false wisdom, worldly ambition, and self-centered confidence in believing that life revolves around us and that we have everything figured out. The sins in this passage are self-reliance and a lack of submission to the will of our sovereign God. This sin is declaring ourselves to be sovereign. This is the lie of the serpent still tickling our ears. The first sin resulted from the idea that man and woman had the right to question God. That subtle subversion of God’s good, rightful authority put us on shaky ground, teetering on self-destruction. It’s important to note that in this account of the first temptation, it wasn’t necessarily sensual desire that enticed Eve and then Adam.  Beauty...

 Worldliness / Godliness Our lives suffer from no shortage of worldly wisdom. If you’ve ever been into a bookstore, you’ve seen the massive space dedicated to self-help or self-improvement. You may have even seen books classified as Christian self-help. But here’s the reality. You can’t help yourself. You’re broken. Apart from Christ, you’re spiritually dead. You can’t improve on death and brokenness. This is a bigger deal than not living up to your potential or settling for good instead of great. This is a matter of life or death.  Worldliness and godliness are both the root and the fruit of the wisdom we live by. False wisdom is rooted in and reproduces more worldliness. True wisdom is rooted in and reproduces more godliness.  Our passions and desires are at war within us, and we must fight against them. Pride, boasting, and divisiveness mark worldly people, while humility, obedience, and repentance mark godly people.  When we get into an argument with someone, our...

 False Wisdom / True Wisdom The wisdom of the world is rooted in selfishness. While our culture disciples us to believe that our determination, our truth, and our happiness are the most important priorities in life, these ideas run contrary to God’s Word. All people were meant to find their ultimate purpose and delight in God. True wisdom means we embrace God’s vision of how the world works.  Two false beliefs drive all of your destructive behavior:  1. My life is about me. My happiness matters most. I am utmost in my affections. 2. No absolute, objective standard exists by which I must live. All people have the right to their own preferences and opinions about what will make them happy.  These statements pretty much summarize the prevailing philosophy in today’s culture, right?  Let the implications of those beliefs sink in for a moment. Approximately seven billion people live on the planet. Seven billion people can’t all be right. Seven billion people can’t al...

 Blessings / Curses Many people misunderstand the biblical concept of cursing. When the Bible condemns cursing, it’s not addressing profanity. So-called bad words may be offensive and inappropriate, but a type of crude language goes beyond rude:   Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking,   which are out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4 While crudeness may not appear on the surface to be as hateful as cursing, the root is similar. The “filthiness” and “crude joking” Paul referred to are derogatory, sexually explicit comments that disrespect other people made in the image of God.  The key to understanding what Scripture condemns as cursing is clearly stated in James 3:9. Cursing is a verbal attack, hatred, violence of heart toward people who bear the image of our Creator. It’s a deification of ourselves and a dehumanization of someone else, elevating ourselves to a judge by damning another person. Sin isn’t a rude wor...

 Faith / Works James introduced the idea of hearing and doing at the end of chapter 1, along with a definition of pure and undefiled religion. Chapter 2 then put a spotlight on a specific example of worldly behavior in the church that contradicted that definition and the biblical standard of loving God and loving our neighbors. Our actions and beliefs must line up with each other. This is the crux of James’s message. Faith works.  Faith and works aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, James tells us that faith apart from works is dead. Works don’t save us, but good works should follow true faith.  James said even demons know the truth about God. They could give all the right Sunday School answers. But they don’t faithfully live for Him as Savior and Lord. They don’t submit to His authority in their lives. Theirs is empty, dead faith. It’s mere belief. Head knowledge doesn’t save you. It doesn’t make you a Christian. Doing this Bible study doesn’t make you a Christian. Real f...

 Judgment / Mercy Today’s text stands in stark contrast to caring for widows and orphans; instead, the stain of worldliness was polluting the church with favoritism for the rich. Simply put, they weren’t putting the teachings of Jesus into practice. James confronts our sin head-on. We sin when we show partiality to some people over others, whether they’re rich, poor, or different in another way. Believers should extend mercy rather than harsh judgment to others. Faith without mercy toward others is not genuine faith.  Familial language is key in James’s letter to the dispersed church. For followers of Jesus, true faith is personal, but it’s also communal. The church is the family of God. We previously saw that when addressing the nature of temptation, James referred to God as “the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17). When describing “religion that is pure and undefiled,” James again referred to God as Father (v. 27). Notice that religion that pleases the Father is caring for widows ...

 Hearer / Doer True belief causes Christians to live out their faith according to God’s Word. We don’t passively hear the Word. Rather, action should always follow genuine heart change. The one who merely hears the word and has a lifestyle that is characteristically against doing what he hears has not truly received the gospel. Many scholars have called the Book of James a commentary on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. They mean James uses similar language and images to describe a life of true faith. The Sermon on the Mount concludes with a famous parable about building a house. This is the heart of James’s letter: hearing and doing, faith expressed in our works. James left no room in his letter for the idea of hearing the truth and not doing what it says. He didn’t want his readers to deceive themselves into thinking they could be Christians merely by believing the right things about Jesus. Following Jesus requires action. As a disciple, you not only have to believe that Christ is wort...

 Trials / Temptations One thing you need to understand in order to feel the weight of what you’re about to study is the fact that the Book of James (AD 48–52) was the first book to be written in what’s now the New Testament. Nearly five hundred years had passed since Malachi had written the final words of Old Testament Scripture. You don’t just pick up parchment and decide to write a letter to God’s people. This wasn’t the age of blogs, social media, or talking heads on news networks. What would prompt somebody to address people he had never met?  The Spirit of God had an urgent yet eternal word for the church in that moment as well as for us today. So the first details we need to know are who James’s audience was and why God spoke to them. James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote this letter to believers outside Palestine. This was a decade, maybe less, after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Let’s put this time frame in context. If we’re tracking the e...

  The repeated cry of James is that faith apart from works can never be sustained. We should proclaim this truth because faith makes us doers of the Word, not just hearers. Faith keeps us humble, not proud; directs our tongues to bless, not to curse. Faith causes us to preach the good news to every tribe, tongue, and nation. This is the message of James: Faith/Works. Join Matt Chandler for 13 days going verse-by-verse through the book of James.   We would like to thank LifeWay for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://www.lifeway.com/jamesstudy Brother / Servant If you could gather all of the people who’ve ever lived—every person in history—James would stand out from the crowd as a man with a unique relationship to Jesus. The author of the biblical book bearing his name was also Jesus’ little brother.  Technically, James and Jesus were half brothers. They shared an earthly mother, Mary, but James’s biological father was Joseph, while Jesus was b...

  Does What You’re Doing Matter? “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60 TEV) When you become a follower of Christ, God fills you with his Holy Spirit. The proof of the Holy Spirit in you is not some emotional experience. It’s not speaking in tongues or how high you jump. The proof that you have God’s Spirit in you is if you are going. Are you telling anybody about the Good News? Jesus said in Luke 9:60, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God” (TEV). What in the world does he mean by that statement? It sounds pretty callous. But what he’s saying here is that you need to be indispensable. There are some jobs in life that anybody can do, but there are some jobs that only a believer can do. Only a Christian can tell other people about Christ. Only a Christian can tell other people how to get to Heaven. Only a Christian can show Christ’s compassion the way Christ wants it shown. God wants you to be indisp...

  God Wants You to Join the Party! “Go out into the country lanes and out behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I invited first will get even the smallest taste of what I had prepared for them.” (Luke 14:23b-24 TLB) Jesus told a story to explain the party that God has invited you to: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When all was ready, he sent his servant around to notify the guests that it was time for them to arrive. But they all began making excuses. One said he had just bought a field and wanted to inspect it and asked to be excused. Another said he had just bought five pair of oxen and wanted to try them out. Another had just been married and for that reason couldn’t come. “The servant reported to his master what they had said. His master was angry and told him to go quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and to invite the beggars, crippled, lame, and blind. But even then,...

  You’re Not Alone in the Waiting Room “After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” (Hebrews 6:15 NIV) When you’re waiting on God, remember that you’re in good company. Millions of saints before you have sat in God’s waiting room. You’re not alone. In fact, if you’re in the waiting room right now — maybe you’re waiting on a job, on an answer, or on a prayer — there are a lot of other people around you who are in that same situation. Hebrews 11:2 says, “People who lived in the past became famous because of faith” (ICB) — and every one of those people had to wait. Think about Hannah, who had to wait years to have the baby that she was praying God would give her. Think about Joseph, who had a God-given vision of being a ruler from a very young age but spent 14 years in a prison for a crime he did not commit. Think of Moses, who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years while he waited for his next assignment and to know his purpose in life. Think of Abraham, who waited...

The Unseen Battle over Your Prayers “We are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.” (Ephesians 6:12 TEV) There is an unseen battle going on in a realm that we don’t even understand. We don’t see it. We don’t feel it. But there is a spiritual war in other dimensions between good and evil, between God and Satan, between angels and demons. And the fact is, you’re caught right in the middle. If you’re a child of God, Satan hates you. And he wants to mess you up. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6:12, “We are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age” (TEV). When you send up a prayer, there’s often a battle over how it’s going to be answered. While you’re in the waiting room, Satan starts throwing darts at you — the dart of doubt, the dart of discouragement, the...

 F ive Things to Do While You Wait “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7 NLT, second edition) When God has you in a waiting period, don’t put your life on hold. Instead, imitate the habits that grow strong faith. The Bible says there are five things you should keep on doing even in the waiting period. 1. Keep on praying. The Bible says, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 NLT, second edition). Keep on praying, and you will get your answer. 2. Keep on serving. Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” Don’t worry about having a significant ministry. Just make your ministry significant. 3. Keep on going to small group. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up the habit of meeting togethe...

Small Lessons Lead to Big Successes “Remember today what you have learned about the LORD through your experiences with him.” (Deuteronomy 11:2 TEV) Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and across the wilderness to the Promised Land. It should have only taken them a few weeks, even with a large crowd. But it took them 40 years. What in the world were they doing? For 40 years, they were walking around in a circle. God was giving them one test after another and saying, “Will you trust me?” There were seven tests. Every time they failed the test, he sent them on another lap around the wilderness. But even in that wilderness, they were not there by accident. Waiting in the wilderness always has a purpose. Some of you are in the wilderness right now. Remember this: The way to the Promised Land is through the wilderness. You’ve got to go through that waiting period. You’ve got to go through that desert. You’ve got to go through that dry spell. You are waiting in the wilderness for a purpose....

Generous People Are Happy People “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.” (Acts 20:35b TEV) Jesus said in Acts 20:35, “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (TEV). Generosity increases your happiness. Everybody knows this! The only people who don’t know it are people who aren’t generous. When I was a child at Christmas, it wasn’t all about what I bought everybody else. It was all about what I got. As a child, all my joy came from the presents I got, not from the presents I gave to other people. But that was a long time ago. I was immature, and I was self-centered, like most children. Today I’m a grandfather. Now at Christmas, it’s not about the presents I get. My joy comes from watching other people unwrap the gifts that I’ve given them. Why? Because I grew up! I stopped being self-centered. It stopped being about me. That’s called maturity. Unfortunately, some people never grow up, and even at 80 years old, it’s still all about them and what they can get o...

The More You Give Away, the More Influential You’ll Be “They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor.” (Psalm 112:9 NLT, second edition) Generosity expands your influence. The more generous you become, the more influential you will become. Influence comes not from what you get in life. Influence comes from what you give away in life, and the more you give away, the more influential you’ll be. The Bible says in Proverbs 11:24, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (MSG). The Bible also says, “They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor” (Psalm 112:9 NLT, second edition). Forty years ago when Kay and I got married, we started tithing 10 percent. At the end of our first year of marriage, we raised our giving to 11 percent. At the end of our second...