Devotional Hours Within the Bible

Luke 14:15-24

"A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests." This supper is a picture of the blessings of redemption. The redemption of Christ is said to be great - he who prepares it, its blessings, and the numbers who enjoy it, its eternal duration, and the sweetness of its joys - all are great. At a feast men provide the best provisions they can obtain;...

Luke 14:1-14

"One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, He was being carefully watched." Our Savior did not refuse any invitation to a proper social function. His example is important for us. He wants His people to be IN the world, though not OF the world. He does not desire us to withdraw...

Luke 12:35-48

Our Lord often taught the lesson of watchfulness. The duty is one which cannot too frequently be impressed. We are all apt to grow negligent concerning things which we do over and over, day after day, through many years. We need to have our thoughts often called to the duty of unceasing watchfulness in service, instant readiness for anything that may come.

The...

Luke 11:1-13

"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him: Lord, teach us to pray ."

Our passage opens with an illustration of unconscious influence. The disciples saw their Master praying apart from them and yet within their sight, and were so impressed by something in His manner, perhaps His earnestness and fervor - that...

Luke 10:25-37

This is one of the great parables which only Luke has preserved for us. If Luke's gospel had not been written, we never would have had this beautiful story. This suggests one reason why we have four Gospels instead of one. No one of the four, tells us all about Christ or records all of His sayings. Each one gives facts and incidents and...

Mark 12:28-34 Mark 12:38-44

This scribe admired the way Jesus had answered the questions that were put to Him by His enemies. Jesus always answered well. He never got confused in His replies, as often human teachers do. He never erred in His answers to men's questions, for He knew all truth. We know only fragments of the great body of truth, and therefore frequently find ourselves...

Matthew 18:1-14

Jesus' interest in children appears throughout all the Gospels.

It was a strange question which the disciples brought to Jesus, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" These men, although occupying so sacred a place in their Lord's family, were still very human, and had their natural human ambitions. They even seem not to have been free from the passion for official or political...

Mark 9:2-13

The Transfiguration was one of the most remarkable events in our Lord's life. The object, so far as the disciples were concerned, probably was to restore their confidence in Christ's Messiahship, after the staggering blow to their faith which had come to them in the announcement by Himself, that He must suffer and be killed. So far as Jesus Himself was concerned, the object of the Transfiguration would seem to have been to...

Mark 7:31 to Mark 8:10

The activity of Jesus was intense. He was never in a hurry; for hurry is wasteful of time and strength. It spoils one's work. It hinders speed. The man who hurries - does not begin to accomplish what the man accomplishes who never hurries. Jesus never hurried. He moved quietly, calmly - as if he had days and days for...

Mark 7:24-30

Much of the public life of Jesus was devoted to caring for sufferers .

The doctor's little girl told the messenger where she thought her father could be found, as he was needed immediately, "I don't know, sir; but you'll find him somewhere, helping somebody." When people sought for Jesus and could not find Him, He was usually away with someone in need, doing good, helping somebody. At this...

Mark 6:30-44

After the tragic death of John the Baptist, his disciples paid loving honor to his body. Their sorrow must have been very great, for they loved their master. We do not know whether or not John had those lovable qualities which drew men to him and made them his friends, or whether, by reason of his natural sternness and his ascetic severity he failed to be a friend of men, as Jesus was. It is not likely that he drew men to him...

Mark 6:14-29

We have here at the very beginning a serious case of conscience. One would say that Herod was past having such fits of remorse, as his life was so wholly bad. But in even the worst men, conscience is not apt to be entirely dead. At least Herod's conscience was only asleep, and when He heard of Jesus gong about the country, working miracles, it seemed to him that it must be John the Baptist, whom...

Luke 4:16-30

Christ never forgot the place where He had spent His childhood years. We are not given many facts of His life there. Nothing indicates that there was anything unusual in the story of the thirty years He spent there. The more we think of His life at Nazareth as simply natural, without anything unusual - the nearer shall we come to the true picture of the

Mark 5:21-43

JAIRUS was an important man in Capernaum. He was one of the elders. People looked up to him. He was influential in affairs, perhaps rich. But as we see him, we think of none of these things - what strikes us in him - is his anguish of heart. Grief brings all men to the same level. A father, as we see him battling with the world, may seem sometimes to lack the tender emotions. But let his child become dangerously sick, and his...