Our Daily Bread

Topic:The Secret Bible in a Year: I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Philippians 4:12 Sometimes I suspect my cat Heathcliff suffers from a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out). When I come home with groceries, Heathcliff rushes over to inspect the contents. When I’m chopping vegetables, he stands up on his …

Topic:The Faith to Endure Bible in a Year: Numbers 20–22 Mark 7:1–13 Suffering produces endurance. Romans 5:3 esv Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) led an unsuccessful expedition to cross Antarctica in 1914. When his ship, aptly named Endurance, became trapped in heavy ice in the Weddell Sea, it became an endurance race just to survive. With no means of communicating with the …

Topic:Unexpected Change Bible in a Year: Numbers 17–19 Mark 6:30–56 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. James 4:14 In January 1943, warm Chinook winds hit Spearfish, South Dakota, quickly raising the temperatures from –4° to 45°F (–20° to 7°C). That drastic weather change—a swing of 49 degrees—took place in just two minutes. The widest temperature change recorded …

Topic:Thoughts of Joy Bible in a Year: Numbers 15–16 Mark 6:1–29 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4 In What We Keep, a collection of interviews by Bill Shapiro, each person tells of a single item that holds such importance and joy that he or she would never part with it. This caused me …

Topic:Rich Toward God Bible in a Year: Numbers 12–14 Mark 5:21–43 Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6 Growing up during the Great Depression, my parents knew deep hardship as children. As a result, they were hard-working and grateful money stewards. But they were never greedy. They gave time, talent, and treasury to their church, charity groups, and …

Topic:Liberated by Jesus Bible in a Year: Numbers 9–11 Mark 5:1–20  began to tell . . . how much Jesus had done for him. Mark 5:20 “I lived with my mother so long that she moved out!” Those were the words of KC, whose life before sobriety and surrender to Jesus was not pretty. He candidly admits supporting his drug …

Topic:Pierced Love Bible in a Year: Numbers 7–8 Mark 4:21–41 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53:5 She’d called. She’d texted. Now Carla stood outside her brother’s gated entry, unable to rouse him to answer. Burdened with depression and fighting addiction, her brother had hidden himself away in his home. In a …

Topic:Ancient Promises Bible in a Year: Numbers 4–6 Mark 4:1–20 The Lord bless you and keep you. Numbers 6:24 In 1979, Dr. Gabriel Barkay and his team discovered two silver scrolls in a burial ground outside the Old City of Jerusalem. In 2004, after twenty-five years of careful research, scholars confirmed that the scrolls were the oldest biblical text in …

Topic:A Place of Belonging Bible in a Year: Numbers 1–3 Mark 3 So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Ephesians 3:17 Some years after the tragic loss of their first spouses, Robbie and Sabrina fell in love, married, and combined their two families. They built a new home and named it Havilah (a Hebrew word meaning “writhing …

Topic:The Hardest Places Bible in a Year: Leviticus 26–27 Mark 2 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea. Genesis 41:49 Geoff is a youth pastor today in the same city where he once abused heroin. God transformed both his heart and his circumstances in a breathtaking way. “I want to keep kids from making …