December 8 — "Joy That Exceeds All Others"

Today's Reading: 3 John

What is the highest joy a Christ follower can experience? In today’s verse, the Apostle John declares that it is the joy of knowing that their “children” are walking in the truth. And by “children,” he doesn’t mean only biological ones (though they’re included). He’s speaking of those under his spiritual care—those he led to Christ, witnessed their new birth, spiritually parented, and faithfully discipled in the ways of Jesus.

Notice John doesn’t simply say “joy,” nor even “great joy.” He insists there is “no greater joy”—the absolute greatest. That superlative matters! It tells us that among all the delights life parades before us—success, comfort, recognition, even the satisfaction of your personal walk with Jesus—there is one joy that towers above them all: watching others you’ve parented walk faithfully in Christ.

This is not the joy of achievement, nor the joy of possession. It is the joy of witness. To see someone you’ve prayed for, taught, or simply loved in Christ take steps of obedience is to taste heaven’s own celebration. It is the joy that mirrors the Father’s heart when His prodigal children return home. It is the joy Jesus described when angels erupt in rejoicing over one sinner who repents.

But why is this the greatest joy? Because it is eternal. Earthly joys fade—health declines, wealth evaporates, achievements vanish. Yet when a soul walks in truth, eternity shifts. The trajectory of a life bends toward glory. That is a joy no moth can eat, no rust can corrode, no thief can steal. It is the joy of fruit that remains forever.

It is also the greatest joy because it is shared. When you see another walking in truth, you are not alone in your delight. Heaven joins you. Other believers rejoice. The Spirit within you testifies. The community of faith is strengthened. Joy multiplies because it is never private—it is communal, cosmic, divine.

Bear in mind that this joy is, at times, accompanied by sadness. The inverse of today’s verse is equally true: “I have no greater sorrow than to hear that my children walk away from truth.” The spiritual parent’s heart often aches before it rejoices. But when the breakthrough comes—when the child of faith stands firm—sorrow is swallowed up, and joy rises to its rightful throne as the greatest.

Today, may you taste this greatest joy—not only in your own walk, but in the lives of those you influence. May your prayers bear fruit, your tears turn to laughter, and your witness echo into eternity. And may the God of all joy fill you with delight that surpasses every earthly pleasure, until you, too, can say with John: “I have no greater joy.” 

December 7 — "When Ancient Lies Wear Modern Clothes"

Today's Reading: 2 John 

Many people picture “deception” as something loud, dramatic, or dripping with noticeable evil. Yet John warns us in 2 John 1:7 that the most dangerous lies don’t shout—they whisper. He speaks of “many deceivers” who deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He’s saying the deceivers deny that the real, incarnate, flesh-and-blood Jesus ever truly came. At first glance, that sounds like a dusty, first-century squabble. But the deeper danger is shockingly alive today: anything that pushes the real Jesus out of real life is simply the ancient lie dressed in modern fashion.

And oh, those fashions come in every style imaginable. There’s the Good Teacher Jesus, who inspires but never commands. The Therapist Jesus, who comforts but never corrects. The Private Jesus, who politely stays out of your choices, habits, and relationships. The Symbolic Jesus, who shrinks into a poetic metaphor or a necklace charm instead of the Incarnate Son of God. The Prosperity Jesus, who mainly exists to upgrade your lifestyle. The “Christianity as religion but not reality,” where faith stays on the lips but never touches the lifestyle. And perhaps the sneakiest of all—the Busy Christian Deception, where Jesus isn’t denied with words but simply squeezed out by your calendar.

John isn’t just pointing at false teachers; he’s spotlighting a subtle sabotage—when Jesus becomes less tangible, less personal, less intrusive, less embodied in your daily decisions. The deceiver’s tactic hasn’t changed: make Jesus feel abstract instead of incarnational. Make Him Son of God in concept but deny His genuine presence. Keep Him distant. Keep Him “spiritual” but not Lord. Keep Him inspirational but not authoritative. Keep Him admired but not obeyed. The moment Jesus is reduced to an idea instead of the living, risen Son of God who shows up in the grit of your Tuesday afternoon, deception has already begun its quiet work.

This is why the Incarnation (the Biblical truth that the eternal Son of God took on real human flesh, becoming fully God and fully man in the person of Jesus Christ) is not merely a Christmas doctrine—it is your everyday lifeline. Jesus didn’t hover above humanity; He wrapped Himself in it. He ate, touched, wept, laughed, and bled. He didn’t send a memo—He came Himself. And He still does. Every time the Spirit convicts, comforts, redirects, or confronts, the Word made flesh is stepping into your world again. Every deception crumbles when the real Jesus enters the room.

So today, resist the whisper that tries to shrink Him into a distant concept. Push back against every version of Jesus that is less than Lord. Invite Him—really Him—into your choices, your worries, your habits, your joys. The safest place in a deceived world is near the One who came near to you.

May the Lord guard your mind, steady your steps, and keep your heart anchored to the real, living Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. 

December 6 — "Jesus Outwrites All of Humanity"

Today's Reading: John 21

If you could stroll into the grandest library on earth, pile up every biography, every encyclopedia, every journal ever penned onto one endless shelf, you’d still barely scratch the surface of Jesus. That’s exactly what John hints at when he closes his Gospel with a line that sounds like holy exaggeration—but isn’t. “I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books” of all He did.

Picture it. Every book in existence. Back in Christ’s day, the entire literary output of humanity fit inside a few libraries. Historians estimate roughly 500,000 scrolls existed—total. Not books as we know them, but fragile, hand‑copied manuscripts tucked away in places like Alexandria, Pergamum, or Rome’s archives. Most towns had none. The average home had zero. To ancient ears, John’s words boomed like thunder: “Jesus is greater than the entire intellectual output of mankind.”

Fast‑forward to 2010, Google Books estimated about 129,864,880 distinct titles worldwide… still not enough. Each year, another 2.2 million new titles appear… still not enough. All the ink in the world… still too little. All the pages ever printed… still impossibly thin to carry the weight of who He is.

John’s point is clear: Jesus is inexhaustible. For every miracle recorded, a thousand more went unwritten. For every conversation captured, countless others rippled quietly through time. For every heart changed on the pages of the Bible, multitudes more were transformed in ways known only to Heaven. The Gospels aren’t the full portrait—they’re the frame around an infinite Person.

Think about it: if the world itself can’t contain the books, what does that say about the Savior they would describe? It means He cannot be boxed into your categories, your assumptions, your limits, or your past. It means the Jesus you know today is only the tiniest sliver of the Jesus you’ll know tomorrow. It means there will always be more mercy in Him than sin in you, more wisdom in Him than confusion in you, more strength in Him than fear in you.

And here’s the wild twist: the God who could fill every book ever written has chosen to write one of His greatest chapters about you. Paul says we are “letters… written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” You are not a footnote; you are a living volume in the ongoing library of grace. Every act of obedience, every whispered prayer, every moment you trust Him when you cannot see—He is writing something eternal.

So come to Him humbly today. Turn the next page. Let Him keep surprising you. Let Him keep authoring chapters only He could imagine.

May the Lord open your eyes to the unending riches of Christ, fill your heart with wonder, and inscribe His goodness across every line of your life. May your story bear His signature with joy and strength. 

December 5 — "Believing Without Seeing"

Today's Reading: John 20:19-31

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” You’ve heard it a thousand times. Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. It’s the anthem of a world trained to trust only what it can measure, verify, touch, or photograph.

Jesus’ disciple, Thomas, could’ve trademarked the phrase. His words in John 20:25 were, “Unless I see… I will never believe.”  But when Jesus walks into that locked room in John 20:29 and says, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” He flips the slogan upside down. He gently invites Thomas—and all of us—into a deeper kind of knowing, the kind that doesn’t wait for sight before stepping forward—the kind that says, "I’ll see it when I believe it.”

Here’s the big idea: the richest blessings in the Christian life belong to those who trust Jesus without demanding proof first. Faith doesn’t begin with sight; it begins with trust in the crucified and risen Christ who reveals Himself through His Word and His Spirit.

Thomas needed to touch the scars. Jesus met him there. But then, like the ultimate Teacher, Jesus widened the lens. He spoke a blessing over every future believer who would come to Him through the testimony of the Apostles and the truth of the Gospel. That includes you. And Jesus isn’t scolding Thomas—He’s spotlighting the miracle of your faith.

The Greek word for “believed”—pisteuō—means to lean your entire weight upon something. It’s not passive agreement; it’s active confidence. That’s the kind of faith you and I live by every day. Paul declared, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Peter echoed it: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him… and believe in Him” (1 Peter 1:8). The entire Christian life is built on trusting the One we haven’t yet seen but already know.

I remember a season early in ministry when I begged God for a sign. I didn’t say it out loud, but my heart whispered Thomas’s line: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Instead of sending fireworks, the Lord sent me to His Word. That’s where He anchored me. And that’s where He still anchors me today. As Spurgeon wisely said, “When you cannot trace His hand, you can trust His heart.”

So as the world chants, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” The Christ follower learns to say, “I’ll see it because I believe.” That’s the faith Jesus blesses—the steady, unseen, stubborn trust that keeps walking even when the path is dim.

May the Lord strengthen your faith, deepen your trust, and fill you with the joy of believing in the Savior you have not seen yet dearly love. 

December 4 — "Eyewitness: ‘I Have Seen the Lord!’"

Today's Reading: John 20:1-18

Mary Magdalene was still wiping tears when history flipped upside down. One moment she stood in a garden of heartbreak; the next, she was carrying the greatest headline the human heart has ever heard. John 20:18 captures that breathtaking pivot: She ran to the disciples and declared, “I have seen the Lord!” The living, no longer dead Lord!

And here’s the jaw-dropper: the first herald of the resurrection wasn’t a theologian, priest, rabbi, or seasoned apostle. It was a woman whose past had been marked by shadows. Heaven deliberately chose the least likely voice to announce the most important truth, as if to shout, “No broken past can ever silence a redeemed present.”

Picture it. The disciples were barricaded behind locked doors, terrified Rome’s next knock might be for them. Hope felt buried. Faith felt brittle. Then Mary bursts through their gloom with five thunderous words: “I have seen the Lord!” Not, “I think something happened.” Not, “I have a theory.” Not even, “I saw an empty tomb.” But “I have seen the Lord.” This was eyewitness faith—faith with breath, scars, and heartbeat. The resurrection wasn’t a metaphor or a mood. It was a Person, alive, speaking her name.

And isn’t it just like Jesus to reveal Himself first to the one who stayed when others left? Peter and John sprinted to the tomb, peeked inside, and then went home (v.10). But Mary lingered. She wasn’t the fastest runner, the boldest disciple, or the most influential believer—but she was the one who refused to walk away. Sometimes the deepest revelations of Christ come not to the hurried but to the heart that lingers.

Her announcement isn’t just historical; it’s deeply personal. Every follower of Jesus eventually stands in their own garden of disappointment—confused, hurting, uncertain—and hears Him call their name. Every believer is invited to become a messenger: to step back into rooms still heavy with fear and speak hope that sounds impossible until it’s spoken aloud. “I have seen the Lord” is the birthright of all who have been rescued by grace.

May the Lord who revealed Himself to Mary reveal Himself afresh to you today. May He turn your sorrow into a story worth telling and fill your mouth with words that carry resurrection life. May you, too, see the Lord—and boldly proclaim what He has spoken to you. 

December 3 — "Paid in Full!"

Today's Reading: John 19:23-42

The final words Jesus spoke before His death weren’t a groan, a whisper, or a desperate plea. They were a victory shout. John records it plainly: “He said, ‘It is finished.’” In Greek, that phrase comes from a single word:  Tetelestai (Τετέλεσται), meaning “Paid in Full.”

Archaeologists have found ancient receipts stamped with this very word. It was used as an accounting term and it meant: debt satisfied, account closed, balance erased. On the cross, Jesus declared your sin-debt permanently canceled. Not reduced. Not refinanced. Not placed on a payment plan. Finished. Paid in full.

Picture this: you’re at a crowded coffee shop. You’ve already ordered ahead, paid through the app, and the receipt is showing on your phone. The barista slides your latte across and says, “That’ll be $8.75.” You grin, hold up your phone, and reply, “Actually, it’s already paid for.” They glance at the barcode, see the word PAID, and nod. No argument. No extra charge. The receipt settles it.

Now imagine standing at the gates of Heaven. Heart pounding, knees trembling—you know you don’t belong there on your own merits. None of us do. Then comes the question, not harsh but direct, like a checkpoint guard: “Do you have proof of payment?”

In that moment, you don’t reach for your résumé of good deeds. You don’t flash your church attendance record. You don’t recite your Bible knowledge. Instead, you hold up the only receipt Heaven recognizes—the cross of Christ. It’s not paper. It’s not a barcode. It’s the mark of a redeemed life. It’s the nail-scarred hands of the Savior Himself. And written across those hands, as clear as ink, is the word Tetelestai—PAID IN FULL.

The gatekeeper doesn’t examine you. He examines the receipt. Once He sees the finished work of Jesus—the blood applied, the righteousness credited—the gates swing wide with joy that shakes eternity. No questions asked. No balance due. No “secondary verification.” The receipt settles it.

Because when the Son paid your debt, the Father stamped it settled forever. And here’s the breathtaking truth: you don’t enter Heaven on the strength of your faith, but on the sufficiency of His sacrifice. You’re welcomed not because you performed well, but because Jesus paid well. You’re accepted not because you clung tightly to Him, but because He clung tightly to you.

You step through those gates, and Jesus—your Advocate, your Savior, your Receipt—greets you with the warmest embrace ever and says, “Welcome home. The price was paid long before you arrived.”

May the Lord fill your heart today with durable joy, knowing your salvation rests not on your strength but on Christ’s finished work. Walk in the freedom of Tetelestai—Paid in Full. Finished. Forever. 

December 2 — "Four Words That Shook Eternity"

Today's Reading: John 19:1-22

“There they crucified Him.” Four words—plain, unadorned, almost whispered into John’s Gospel—as if the Holy Spirit refused to dress the moment in drama. No adjectives. No commentary. Just the raw simplicity of love taking its final earthly step. It’s as if John is saying, “You understand the gravity of the situation. The moment speaks for itself.” By leaving the moment bare, the Spirit lets it thunder on its own.

What stuns us is how ordinary the execution looked. Rome crucified people constantly—criminals, slaves, rebels, enemies of the state. Soldiers followed routine. The crowd went on with its day. To them, Jesus was just another nuisance removed. But Heaven saw something entirely different. That unimpressive hill became the center of the cosmos. Those routine hammer blows shook eternity. And that torn, bleeding figure was holding creation together by the word of His power.

John writes, “They crucified Him.” But who are they? Roman soldiers, yes. Religious leaders, yes. Yet Scripture widens the lens. Isaiah declares, “It pleased the LORD to crush Him.” Paul insists, “He gave Himself for us.” Jesus said, “No one takes My life from Me—I lay it down.” So who did this? All of them. Humanity’s worst and God’s best collided on two rough beams. The cross was humanity’s crime scene and Heaven’s mercy seat.

And here’s the shock: Jesus wasn’t a victim trying to survive; He was a Savior choosing to die. Not cornered. Not overwhelmed. Voluntary. Intentional. Resolute. With every step toward Golgotha, He walked like a king toward His coronation, bearing the cross that would become His throne of redeeming love. Yes, they crucified Him. But equally true—He offered Himself. Willingly. Obediently. Lovingly.

Even now, the simplicity of John’s words demands a response. The Gospel doesn’t invite you to admire the cross from afar. It calls you close. To see your sin nailed there. To see His love poured out there. To stand in the shadow of the wood and realize that the greatest act ever done for you was carried out by the One who knew exactly what it would cost. And to comprehend that Father looked upon the suffering of His Servant—the Messiah—His Son—and was “satisfied,” meaning the atonement is complete, justice is fulfilled, and salvation has been fully accomplished on your behalf (Isaiah 53:11).

May the Lord open your eyes wider to the love hidden in those four plain words, and may His sacrifice anchor your heart in unshakable peace, unstoppable hope, and a deepening affection for the Savior who chose the cross for you.