Stay in the Word

God creates everything good, and even when sin breaks the world, He refuses to walk away. Through one ordinary family, from Abraham to Joseph, He sets a promise in motion to bless every nation on earth.

TO SIT WITH

• Where in Genesis do you see God keeping a promise no person could have kept on their own?
• Joseph's story ends with God turning evil intentions into good (50:20). Where has God brought good out of something painful in your life?
• What does it tell you about God's heart that He keeps pursuing people who keep failing Him?

Mark Genesis finished

God hears His people groaning under slavery and comes down to set them free Himself. He parts a sea, feeds them one day at a time, and then moves into a tent to live right among them.

TO SIT WITH

• What does it mean to you that God heard His people's groaning before anyone prayed a polished prayer (2:23-25)?
• Manna came one day at a time. Where is God asking you to trust Him daily instead of all at once?
• God wanted to dwell with His people, not just rule over them. Which way do you relate to Him most days?

Mark Exodus finished

A holy God teaches His freed people how to live close to Him. Every offering and instruction points to one truth: sin is serious, and God Himself provides the way to be near.

TO SIT WITH

• Why do you think God cares so much about how He is approached?
• Where does “be holy because I am holy” (19:2) press on your everyday life?
• How does Leviticus deepen your gratitude for what Jesus' one sacrifice finished?

Mark Leviticus finished

Freed people learn to trust God in the desert, and often fail. Forty years of wandering show that it was unbelief, never God's ability, that kept a generation out of the promise.

TO SIT WITH

• When have you wanted to go back to what was familiar, even though it was the thing that enslaved you?
• What does God's patience through forty years of complaining tell you about His character?
• What promise are you standing at the edge of right now, and what would trusting Him there look like?

Mark Numbers finished

On the edge of the promised land, Moses preaches his last sermons: remember what God has done, love Him with everything you have, choose life. Obedience here is not earning God's love. It is answering it.

TO SIT WITH

• What has God already done in your life that you are in danger of forgetting?
• What would loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength (6:5) ask of you this week?
• Where is God setting a choice before you, and what does choosing life look like (30:19-20)?

Mark Deuteronomy finished

God brings His people into the land He swore to give, proving that not one of His promises fails. Their courage has a single source: He goes with them.

TO SIT WITH

• Where do you need courage that rests on God's presence instead of your own confidence (1:9)?
• Joshua told the people to choose that day whom they would serve (24:15). What quietly competes for that choice in your life?
• Which promise of God have you been circling that He is inviting you to step into?

Mark Joshua finished

Israel forgets God, falls apart, cries out, and God raises up rescuers, again and again. It is a hard, hopeful picture of what life becomes when everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

TO SIT WITH

• What pattern repeats in your life when you drift from God?
• What does it show you about God that He keeps answering people who only call on Him when they are desperate?
• Where are you tempted to do what seems right in your own eyes instead of asking Him?

Mark Judges finished

In the era of the judges, one quiet story of loyalty shines: a foreign widow binds herself to God's people, and a redeemer folds her into God's family, and into the family line of Jesus.

TO SIT WITH

• Where has God been at work in the ordinary details of your life, the field-and-harvest kind of moments?
• Boaz redeemed Ruth at his own cost. How does that sharpen your picture of what Jesus did for you?
• Who needs your loyal, practical kindness this week?

Mark Ruth finished

Israel demands a king like the nations have, and gets Saul; God then chooses David, a shepherd boy nobody else considered. People judge by the outside. God looks at the heart.

TO SIT WITH

• Where are you measuring by appearance something God measures by heart (16:7)?
• What did David know about God that made a giant look small?
• David was anointed years before he was crowned. How do you handle the gap between God's promise and God's timing?

Mark 1 Samuel finished

David rises to the throne, and then falls, hard. Yet God's covenant with him holds, carrying a promise of a King whose throne will never end.

TO SIT WITH

• What do God's justice and God's mercy toward David, side by side, teach you about Him?
• When confronted, David confessed without excuses (12:13). What would that kind of confession look like for you?
• How does God's forever-promise to David (ch. 7) point you to Jesus?

Mark 2 Samuel finished

Solomon's wisdom and the temple's glory slowly give way to compromise, and the kingdom tears in two. Even in the ruin, prophets like Elijah show that God has not left.

TO SIT WITH

• Solomon had everything and still drifted. What guards your heart against a slow drift?
• God restored a burned-out Elijah with rest, food, and a gentle whisper (ch. 19). What does that tell you about how He handles your empty seasons?
• Where is God asking you for undivided loyalty?

Mark 1 Kings finished

Generation after generation ignores God's warnings until both kingdoms fall and the people are carried into exile. Judgment comes, and still it is not God's last word.

TO SIT WITH

• Why do you think people, then and now, find it so hard to heed warnings while there is still time?
• Where do you see God's patience stretched across centuries in this book?
• What small compromise in your own life does 2 Kings warn you not to ignore?

Mark 2 Kings finished

For a people limping home from exile, Israel's story is told again, from Adam to David, to answer one aching question: are we still God's people? The answer is yes.

TO SIT WITH

• How does remembering your own history with God steady you in an uncertain season?
• David prayed that everything given to God was God's already (29:14). How does that change the way you hold what you own?
• Where do you need the reminder that God's promises survive your worst seasons?

Mark 1 Chronicles finished

The temple rises and the kingdom falls, told with one steady refrain: when God's people humble themselves and seek Him, He hears, forgives, and heals. The book ends with an invitation to come home.

TO SIT WITH

• What does God's promise to hear humble prayer (7:14) invite you to do personally, not just nationally?
• Several kings started well and finished poorly. What does finishing well require that starting well doesn't?
• The Old Testament's history ends with an open door home. What does that say about God's heart toward returners?

Mark 2 Chronicles finished

God moves a pagan king's heart to send His people home, and the altar is rebuilt before the walls are. Revival begins at the Word: Ezra devoted himself to studying it, living it, and teaching it.

TO SIT WITH

• God stirred hearts to rebuild (1:5). What is He stirring in you to rebuild?
• Ezra's order was study, then live, then teach (7:10). Which of the three are you skipping?
• Where does worship need to come before security in your life, the altar before the walls?

Mark Ezra finished

News of a broken city breaks one man's heart, and out of his prayers comes a wall rebuilt in fifty-two days. Nehemiah prays before he plans and keeps praying while he works, opposition and all.

TO SIT WITH

• What burden has God laid on your heart that will not leave you alone?
• Nehemiah's prayers and his work moved together. Which one are you leaning on without the other?
• Grieving people were told that joy in the LORD would be their strength (8:10). Where do you need strength that starts with joy in Him?

Mark Nehemiah finished

God's name never appears in this book, yet His hand is on every page. A hidden providence places one brave woman exactly where rescue will be needed.

TO SIT WITH

• Where might God have positioned you “for such a time as this” (4:14)?
• How does Esther help you trust God in seasons when He seems silent or unseen?
• What would courage cost you this week, and who might it protect?

Mark Esther finished

A righteous man loses everything and asks God why. God answers not with explanations but with Himself. And somehow, that is enough.

TO SIT WITH

• What do Job's raw, unpolished prayers teach you about being real with God?
• Job's friends had tidy answers, and they were wrong. How careful are you with people who are hurting?
• Can God be trusted even when He explains nothing? What in this book helps you answer?

Mark Job finished

Every human emotion, from joy and gratitude to rage and despair, carried into God's presence and turned into prayer. If you can feel it, you can pray it.

TO SIT WITH

• Which psalm sounds most like your life right now?
• What do the psalms of lament give you permission to bring to God that you have been holding back?
• How might praying one psalm a day change the way you talk with God?

Mark Psalms finished

Short sayings for real life: money, words, friendship, work, temper. All of it grows from one root: the fear of the LORD is where wisdom begins.

TO SIT WITH

• What does it mean that wisdom begins with reverence for God rather than with information (1:7; 9:10)?
• Which area is God pressing on through this book right now: words, money, anger, or friendships?
• Who is the wisest person you know, and what does their walk with God have to do with it?

Mark Proverbs finished

The Teacher tries everything under the sun, from pleasure and work to wealth and wisdom, and finds it all vapor without God. Meaning is not under the sun; it is above it.

TO SIT WITH

• What have you chased that promised more than it paid?
• How could “nothing satisfies apart from God” free you rather than discourage you?
• What would it look like to receive today's ordinary gifts of food, work, and people as gifts from His hand (2:24-25)?

Mark Ecclesiastes finished

A celebration of love, longing, and covenant faithfulness, unashamed and holy. And underneath it, a whisper of a greater Love that many waters cannot quench.

TO SIT WITH

• What does it tell you about God's view of love and intimacy that He gave it a whole book?
• How is covenant love, fierce and faithful and exclusive, different from what the world calls love?
• Do you believe you are delighted in? What would change if you did?

Mark Song of Songs finished

Judgment and hope in the same breath: a holy God, a wayward people, and a promised Servant who will suffer to save them. Isaiah paints the clearest pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament, seven hundred years early.

TO SIT WITH

• When Isaiah glimpsed God's holiness, he saw his own need in the same instant (ch. 6). When has a clearer view of God changed how you saw yourself?
• Read the Servant of chapter 53 slowly. What does it tell you about how far God was willing to go for you?
• Which of Isaiah's comfort chapters (40, 41, 43) do you most need to sit in this season, and why?

Mark Isaiah finished

Called as a young man, Jeremiah preaches for decades to a nation that will not listen, and weeps over it. Through him God promises a new covenant, written not on stone but on hearts.

TO SIT WITH

• Jeremiah stayed faithful with almost no visible success. What keeps you going when nothing seems to change?
• God promised to write His instructions on hearts (31:33). How is heart-change different from behavior-change?
• Jeremiah brought God his complaints without pretending. What would you say to God today if you stopped pretending?

Mark Jeremiah finished

Five poems of grief over a fallen city, written by the prophet who watched it burn. And set right in the center of the ashes: God's faithful love never ends, and His mercies begin afresh each morning.

TO SIT WITH

• What loss have you never actually grieved in God's presence?
• How can deep grief and real hope live inside the same prayer (3:19-24)?
• What would it mean to wake up tomorrow believing His mercies are new for you that morning?

Mark Lamentations finished

In exile, Ezekiel sees wild visions: God's glory leaving the temple, and God Himself going with His people into Babylon. He promises what only He can do: hearts of stone made soft, dry bones breathed back to life.

TO SIT WITH

• What does it mean to you that God went with His people into exile rather than waiting for them to come back?
• Where do you need God to do what no effort of yours can: to soften what has gone hard in you (36:26)?
• What in your life looks like dry bones right now (ch. 37)? Have you asked for His breath?

Mark Ezekiel finished

Four young men keep their faith inside a hostile empire, and God rules over fires, lions, and kings alike. Empires rise and fall on every page; His kingdom doesn't.

TO SIT WITH

• Where does staying faithful cost you something in your own “Babylon”?
• Daniel kept praying at his open window, knowing the price (6:10). What does steady, visible faithfulness look like for you?
• How does knowing that the Most High rules over every kingdom steady you when the headlines don't?

Mark Daniel finished

God tells His prophet to marry a woman who will be unfaithful, a living picture of how His people treat Him, and of how He keeps loving and buying them back anyway.

TO SIT WITH

• What does Hosea's story tell you about how God feels when His people leave Him?
• Where has God bought you back when He could have written you off?
• Is any part of your heart still wandering? What would coming home look like (14:1-2)?

Mark Hosea finished

A locust plague strips the land bare, and Joel names it a wake-up call: return to the LORD with all your heart, for He is merciful. He promises restored years and His Spirit poured out on all people.

TO SIT WITH

• What has God used to wake you up?
• God asks for torn hearts, not torn clothes (2:13). What is the difference between outward religion and a returned heart?
• What eaten-up years are you asking God to restore (2:25)?

Mark Joel finished

A shepherd from the countryside confronts comfortable religion: worship that ignores injustice is noise to God. He cares, specifically and fiercely, about how the poor are treated.

TO SIT WITH

• What does Amos say God notices that churches can learn to overlook?
• Where has comfort quietly dulled your compassion?
• What would justice rolling like a river (5:24) look like on your street, and what part is yours?

Mark Amos finished

One page against Edom, the neighbor-nation that watched Jerusalem fall and cheered. God opposes the proud, and He does not forget His own.

TO SIT WITH

• When have you watched someone fall and felt quietly glad? What does God think of that?
• Why does God take pride so seriously?
• Who is God asking you to defend instead of watch?

Mark Obadiah finished

A prophet runs from God, not because the mission is too hard but because he knows God will forgive people he would rather see judged. The scandal of this book was never the fish; it is mercy.

TO SIT WITH

• Is there anyone you would rather see judged than forgiven? Tell God the truth about it.
• A storm, a fish, a vine: how far will God go to turn one runner around?
• Where are you running from your own Nineveh, the assignment you don't want?

Mark Jonah finished

Courts, kings, and markets have all gone crooked, and Micah brings it down to one sentence: do what is right, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. And from little Bethlehem, he says, Israel's true Ruler will come.

TO SIT WITH

• Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly (6:8): which of the three is hardest for you right now?
• What does God choosing little Bethlehem (5:2) tell you about how He likes to work?
• Micah marvels at a God who pardons sin and delights in showing mercy (7:18-19). Which sin do you need to watch Him throw into the depths of the sea?

Mark Micah finished

Nineveh repented in Jonah's day; a century later it is back to brutality, and God says: enough. He is slow to anger, and He is just.

TO SIT WITH

• How is God's judgment of cruelty good news for the people being crushed by it?
• God's patience is long, but it is not endless. How does that change your picture of Him?
• What injustice do you need to place in God's hands instead of your own?

Mark Nahum finished

The prophet asks God the questions most of us only whisper: why do You allow this? How long? God answers, and Habakkuk ends up worshiping before anything improves.

TO SIT WITH

• What “how long, O LORD?” question are you carrying right now?
• The righteous live by their faith (2:4). What does that mean on the days when circumstances don't move?
• Habakkuk chose to rejoice in God even if every harvest failed (3:17-18). Could you pray that over your situation, and mean it?

Mark Habakkuk finished

A sweeping warning of the day of the LORD, and then one of the tenderest lines in Scripture: God living among His people, calming their fears, rejoicing over them with joyful songs.

TO SIT WITH

• How do you hold God's severity and God's singing together in one picture of Him?
• What does it stir in you to imagine God delighting over you with song (3:17)?
• Zephaniah urges seeking the LORD before the day arrives (2:3). What does seeking Him early, not last-minute, look like?

Mark Zephaniah finished

The returned exiles live in finished houses while God's house sits in ruins, and Haggai asks them to consider their ways: they earn wages only to watch them drain away. Put God first, he says, and watch what He does.

TO SIT WITH

• Where has “my house first” quietly reordered your priorities?
• What have you been pouring into that never seems to fill (1:6)?
• What unfinished work is God calling you back to?

Mark Haggai finished

Night visions of a rebuilt temple and a coming King: righteous, gentle, riding a donkey, pierced for His people. God finishes what He starts, not by human might or power, but by His Spirit.

TO SIT WITH

• Where are you muscling something only God's Spirit can accomplish (4:6)?
• Zechariah sketched Jesus centuries early (9:9; 12:10). What do fulfilled promises do for your confidence in the ones still open?
• What small beginning are you tempted to despise (4:10)?

Mark Zechariah finished

The last Old Testament word finds God's people going through the motions, offering leftovers and asking what the use is. God's answer is an invitation: return to Me, and I will return to you. Then four hundred silent years, waiting for the sunrise.

TO SIT WITH

• Where has your faith settled into motions, honoring God with leftovers?
• What would wholehearted return look like for you this month (3:7)?
• The Old Testament closes waiting for the light to rise (4:2). Where in your life are you living between promise and fulfillment?

Mark Malachi finished

Matthew opens with a family tree to make one point: Jesus is the King every Old Testament promise was waiting for. His Sermon on the Mount describes life in His kingdom, and His cross and empty tomb open that kingdom to everyone.

TO SIT WITH

• What surprises you most about the kind of King Jesus turns out to be?
• Which line of the Sermon on the Mount (ch. 5-7) most confronts the way you actually live?
• Jesus ends by sending His people out with His presence (28:18-20). What is your part in that, right where you live?

Mark Matthew finished

Fast and urgent: Jesus teaching, healing, and moving deliberately toward a cross. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life.

TO SIT WITH

• What does Jesus' constant compassion for crowds and outcasts show you about God's heart?
• Jesus defined greatness as service (10:43-45). Where does that flip your definition?
• What would taking up your cross (8:34) actually mean this week, in one concrete decision?

Mark Mark finished

A careful historian shows Jesus noticing every person others overlook: women, the poor, the sick, the outsider, the sinner. In His best-known story, the wandering child comes home to a father who runs.

TO SIT WITH

• Which overlooked person in Luke do you most identify with, and how does Jesus treat them?
• The father ran to the returning son (15:20). Is that how you picture God receiving you when you turn back?
• Who around you feels unseen, and what would it mean to notice them the way Jesus would?

Mark Luke finished

Written so that you may believe: Jesus is God Himself in the flesh, the bread, the light, the shepherd, the resurrection, the vine, the way. Eternal life, John says, is knowing Him.

TO SIT WITH

• Which “I am” of Jesus do you need most right now, and why?
• Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God (17:3). Is your faith more information about Him or relationship with Him? What is one step toward knowing?
• John the Baptist said Jesus must become greater and he must become less (3:30). Where does that need to become your sentence too?

Mark John finished

The risen Jesus pours out His Spirit, and a room of frightened disciples becomes a movement no empire can stop. The good news crosses every border it meets, whether language, culture, or distance, one Spirit-led step at a time.

TO SIT WITH

• What did the first believers have together (2:42-47) that you find yourself hungry for?
• Where have you seen God's Spirit do what effort and programs never could?
• Jesus said His people would be His witnesses starting at home (1:8). Who is in your “Jerusalem”?

Mark Acts finished

Paul's fullest map of the good news: everyone has sinned; grace makes sinners right with God through faith; nothing in all creation can separate His people from His love. And a rescued life becomes a living offering.

TO SIT WITH

• Which do you believe more deeply in practice, that God's love is earned, or that it is given? What does your inner life say?
• Which promise of chapter 8 do you need to stand on right now: no condemnation, all things worked for good, or nothing can separate?
• What would offering God your ordinary, everyday life (12:1-2) change first?

Mark Romans finished

A church gifted, divided, proud, and confused, and still Paul does not give up on them, because God hasn't. The cross looks like foolishness and is the power of God; every gift will pass, and love will still be standing.

TO SIT WITH

• What does God's patience with Corinth tell you about His patience with imperfect churches, and with you?
• Read chapter 13 as a mirror instead of a wedding reading. Where does it find you?
• Which Corinth problem sits closest to home: division, comparison, or tolerated sin?

Mark 1 Corinthians finished

Paul defends his ministry with a strange résumé: beatings, shipwrecks, sleepless nights, and a thorn God declined to remove. His answer became the theme: God's grace is enough, and His power works best in weakness.

TO SIT WITH

• Where has God's power shown up most clearly in your weakness?
• What thorn have you begged God to take away, and what might His grace inside it look like?
• You are a new creation and Christ's ambassador (5:17-20). How does that change an ordinary Tuesday?

Mark 2 Corinthians finished

Rescued people were sliding back into earning God's favor, and Paul is blunt: it is grace through faith, or it is nothing. The Spirit, never rule-keeping, is what grows real fruit.

TO SIT WITH

• Where do you slide from being loved into proving yourself?
• Which fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23) is visibly growing in you, and which is still green?
• Through faith you are God's child, not God's employee (3:26). What changes when you approach Him as Father?

Mark Galatians finished

Before a single instruction, Paul spends chapters on identity: chosen, adopted, alive, seated with Christ, created as God's masterpiece. Who you are comes first; how you walk flows from it, with armor provided for the fight.

TO SIT WITH

• Which identity statement in chapters 1-2 is hardest for you to believe about yourself?
• Where are you fighting people when the real battle is spiritual (6:12)?
• As you read, keep a running list titled “Who God says I am.” Let Ephesians write your affirmations for you.

Mark Ephesians finished

Written from a prison cell, and it overflows with joy. For Paul, living is Christ; and the peace of God stands guard over hearts that bring everything to Him in prayer.

TO SIT WITH

• What is your worry-to-prayer ratio lately (4:6-7)? What would moving one worry into prayer look like today?
• Paul learned contentment in every circumstance (4:11-13). What would contentment ask you to release?
• Whose joy in Christ is contagious to you, and what do they know about Him that you want to know?

Mark Philippians finished

Against every “Jesus plus something” formula, Paul lifts Christ to full height: creator, sustainer, head of the church, fullness of God. And you are complete in Him. Nothing needs adding.

TO SIT WITH

• What do you quietly add to Jesus to feel acceptable: performance, approval, rules?
• What does it mean that you are already complete in Christ (2:9-10)?
• What would setting your sights on heaven's realities (3:1-2) filter out of your day?

Mark Colossians finished

A young church under pressure is encouraged to keep going: love more and more, work with your hands, encourage one another, and live awake, because Jesus is coming back.

TO SIT WITH

• Does Jesus' promised return actually change your ordinary days? Should it?
• Paul calls for constant prayer and thanks in every circumstance (5:16-18). What could that rhythm look like inside your real schedule?
• Who needs a word of encouragement from you today, and what is stopping you?

Mark 1 Thessalonians finished

Rumors about the end had people panicking and quitting their jobs. Paul writes to settle them: stand firm, keep working, don't be fooled. The Lord is faithful, and He will guard you.

TO SIT WITH

• What end-times talk has stirred fear in you rather than readiness?
• How do you test what you hear against Scripture instead of headlines?
• Where do you need to trust that the Lord is faithful to strengthen and guard you (3:3)?

Mark 2 Thessalonians finished

A spiritual father coaches his son in the faith: guard the truth, train yourself for godliness, flee the love of money, and fight the good fight. Character, not charisma, qualifies leaders.

TO SIT WITH

• Who is a Paul to you, and who is your Timothy? If no one comes to mind, what is one step toward each?
• Godliness with contentment is great gain (6:6). Where is discontent quietly costing you?
• What truth has been entrusted to you to guard and hand on?

Mark 1 Timothy finished

Paul's last letter, written in chains with death near: don't be ashamed, endure hardship, preach the Word, finish your race. Scripture is God-breathed and equips His people completely.

TO SIT WITH

• God's Spirit gives power, love, and self-discipline, not fear (1:7). What fear is currently shrinking your obedience?
• What would finishing well mean for you, not this week but decades from now?
• How much weight does Scripture actually carry in your daily decisions (3:16-17)?

Mark 2 Timothy finished

Sound teaching should produce beautiful living. Grace does more than forgive, Paul writes. It trains us to turn from ungodliness and to be eager to do good.

TO SIT WITH

• Where has grace been training you lately, and which “no” is getting easier to say?
• Why do you think Paul ties leadership so tightly to character (ch. 1)?
• What good work is sitting ready for you this week (3:8)?

Mark Titus finished

One page that puts the gospel to a personal test: a runaway slave returns to his master as a brother in Christ, and Paul offers to pay whatever is owed. Reconciliation with a name on it.

TO SIT WITH

• Who is your Onesimus, someone God is asking you to receive back differently?
• “Charge it to me,” Paul says (v. 18). How does that echo what Jesus did for you?
• What relationship would change if grace paid its debts?

Mark Philemon finished

Written to worn-out believers tempted to drift back to what was familiar: Jesus is better than angels, Moses, priests, and sacrifices, and He is the anchor for your soul. So don't drift; draw near.

TO SIT WITH

• What is tempting you to drift right now? Not dramatic sin, just a slow leak.
• Your High Priest understands weakness and invites you to come boldly for grace (4:14-16). What have you been keeping from Him?
• Whose story in the faith chapter (ch. 11) most challenges you, and why?

Mark Hebrews finished

Blunt, practical wisdom from Jesus' own brother: real faith shows up in how you handle trials, what you do with your tongue, how you treat the poor, and how you pray.

TO SIT WITH

• If someone audited your last week, what would they conclude you believe?
• James calls the tongue a fire (ch. 3). Which words from this week would you take back?
• God gives wisdom generously to those who ask (1:5). What decision needs that prayer today?

Mark James finished

To scattered believers being treated like outsiders: you are chosen, your inheritance is kept safe in heaven, and suffering with Christ is never wasted. So live with hope, and hand every care to the God who cares for you.

TO SIT WITH

• Where do you feel like an exile, out of step with the world around you? How does Peter reframe that?
• You are invited to give God all your worries because you matter to Him (5:7). Which one are you still carrying?
• How can trials refine faith the way fire refines gold (1:6-7)?

Mark 1 Peter finished

Peter's farewell: keep growing in grace, keep remembering the promises, and keep watch. Smooth-talking counterfeits are already inside. God's apparent slowness is patience, making room for more people to turn to Him.

TO SIT WITH

• How do you tell true teaching from a convincing counterfeit (ch. 2)?
• Where does God's timeline test your trust, and what does His patience mean for the people you are praying for (3:9)?
• What is your actual plan for growing your faith this year (1:5-8)?

Mark 2 Peter finished

Written so that you can be sure: God is light, God is love, and whoever has the Son has life. The family resemblance of God's children is love, the kind you can see.

TO SIT WITH

• Do you know you have eternal life, or just hope so (5:13)? What would it take to settle it?
• We love because He loved us first (4:19). Who is hard to love right now, and what would His kind of love do there?
• Where does walking in the light, coming clean instead of hiding (1:9), need to begin for you?

Mark 1 John finished

A single page with a double charge: love one another, and don't give falsehood a foothold in your house. Truth and love are not rivals; real love walks in truth.

TO SIT WITH

• When have you seen truth without love, or love without truth, do damage?
• What deceptions (v. 7) would John warn your generation about by name?
• How do you guard what God has built in you (v. 8) without becoming hard?

Mark 2 John finished

Another single page: open your home to God's workers, imitate what is good, and watch out for the Diotrephes spirit, the love of being first.

TO SIT WITH

• Diotrephes loved the first place (v. 9). Where does that instinct live in you?
• Who is doing kingdom work that you could practically support this month?
• Whose good example are you imitating on purpose (v. 11)?

Mark 3 John finished

A one-page alarm bell: quiet counterfeits had slipped in among the believers. Fight for the faith once entrusted to God's people, and rest in the One who is able to keep you from falling.

TO SIT WITH

• What does it look like to contend for the faith without becoming contentious?
• Jude's counsel: build yourself up, pray, stay in God's love, show mercy to doubters (vv. 20-23). Which piece is yours to work on?
• What does it mean to you that He is able to keep you from stumbling (v. 24)?

Mark Jude finished

The curtain pulls back: Jesus reigns, every empire of evil falls, and God moves in with His people forever. No more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. The story ends where Eden was always headed.

TO SIT WITH

• How does knowing the ending change how you live in the middle?
• Which letter to the seven churches (ch. 2-3) sounds most like your church, or your own heart?
• What do you most ache for in the promise that God will wipe away every tear (21:4)?

Mark Revelation finished