I wanted to share a thought with you about where we have been in 2018, as a church in the Scriptures. We have been in 3 John, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians. We have systematically and intentionally journeyed through 3 books of the Bible, a total of 30 chapters, and 2 writers…which is not a whole lot in the big scheme of 66 books in the Bible, a total of 1189 chapters, and 40 writers.

So why do I share this possibly not so high achiever news?

Because now I want you to reflect on how many topics and questions we were still all able to address and speak too without doing it the other way around. As in 52 topical sermons and a hodgepodge reference to a multitude of Bible books?

We may not be conscience of it when we are in the midst of our weekly conversational verse-by-verse teaching, but we are actually allowing the Spirit of God to raise the topics and answers to our questions from His Word. The point I want you to reflect on is the absolute divine power of God’s Word to hit on the issues and concerns of our lives just as it is written. How many of us have carried hidden burdens and found God addressing that very issue somewhere along our expository study of a book that we plunged into months earlier?

I once heard a homiletic professor asked by one of my student peers, “Which was better – preaching according to selected topics or preaching expository book by book?” His answer has stuck with me my entire ministry.

He answered, “If you had to choose one or the other, choose to preach expository, book by book and verse by verse.” He went on to say “When you preach through the Bible you will cover every possible problem of man, every question your parishioners may have, because you are allowing God’s Spirit to speak directly to them.”

How true that advice was then, how true it still is today, and it is precisely why we teach the Bible the way we do at CrossHope Chapel.

In 2019 we will open our Bible’s to Ephesians as we kick off the new year.

Why not consider an email devotional in 2019? If you want a brief daily devotional consider my Daily Promise One-Minute Devotional or there is Pastor Jack Hayford’s Daily Devotional or if you are looking for a little more try Chuck Swindoll’s Insight for Living Daily Devotional or Greg Laurie’s Daily Devotional.