Category: Devotional Thoughts
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Day 296: The “Problem” of John 8:1-11
Many readers are startled to see a warning in their Bibles that the story of the woman caught in adultery isn’t in the earliest manuscripts. Does that mean it didn’t happen? In this post, James explores why this beloved passage moves around the manuscripts—and why its “interruption” may be exactly where it belongs.
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Day 292: The Five and the Four (Matthew 15:32-39)
Two feedings. Two crowds. Two sides of the lake. The numbers aren’t random—they reveal the heart of a Savior who came for Jew and Gentile alike. And at the center of it all stands one missing loaf.
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Day 285: Woe to You, Chorazin! (Matthew 11:21)
During a visit to the ruins of Chorazin, one of the cities Jesus cursed, I saw something carved into the stones of an ancient synagogue that made His words come alive. It’s a sobering reminder of how easy it is to let compromise slip into our worship until what was once true becomes only true-ish.
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Day 281: What Happened to Verse 4? (John 5)
Modern translations skip from John 5:3 to 5:5—what happened to verse 4? Behind this missing line lies a story about ancient manuscripts, Roman healing shrines, and a man waiting beside a pool with no power. In the end, Jesus shows that mercy isn’t earned by speed or strength—it’s received by grace.
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Day 280: Whose Faith Did Jesus See? (Mark 2:3-12)
When Jesus healed the paralytic, He saw their faith—the faith of the friends who carried, climbed, and refused to give up. Maybe your faith can carry someone to Jesus, too.
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Day 279: “The Third Day” Since When? (John 2:1)
When John says the wedding at Cana happened “on the third day,” what third day does he mean? Maybe not a timeline, but a theology — linking creation and re-creation, water and wine, seed and fruit, and pointing ahead to another “third day” when death itself would turn to life.