Or click here to watch it on YouTube.
Category: Homeschooling
The Love Chapter – 1 Corinthians 13 – 2025 Day 248
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 36, 1 Corinthians 13
If I choose all the strongest verbs and most descriptive adjectives and write the most compelling blog on the web, but have not love, I am no greater than a tabloid writer or paparazzi photographer.
If I study the Bible every single day and night and tell every person I meet on the street all about the good news of the gospel, but have not love, I am no greater than a Pharisee or prosperity preacher.
If I homeschool all my kids and feed them organic fruits and vegetables with every meal, but have not love, I am no greater than Elmo or the Jolly Green Giant.
If I teach preschoolers every Sunday morning and women every Wednesday night, but have not love, I gain nothing.
If I volunteer every Tuesday at my local food pantry and march every Friday morning at the abortion clinic, but have not love, it profits neither me nor my neighbor.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; Love does not envy or boast; It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; It is not irritable or resentful; It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
As for prophecies, they will pass away; As for tongues, they will cease; As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
– 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV
Heavenly Father, I love You, Lord, because You first loved me. You made the first move, the move of love. You pursued me while I hated You. Strengthen me to love others like that. Help me to love others as You loved me. Help me to love them while they are yet sinners, for that is how You loved me. You *are* love and all You *do* is loving. Make me more like You, for I am Your child. I want to live and move and have my being in You, that I might live and move and have my being in Love. To the glory and praise of Your Holy Name. Amen.
Or click here to watch today’s podcast on YouTube.
Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.
Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.
If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.
Please like and share.
The Sun Rises Even in the Rain – 1 Corinthians 2 – 2025 Day 239
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 27; 1 Corinthians 2
Two years ago, when I originally wrote this post, I’d woken up early because I wanted to watch the sun rise. I was eagerly anticipating the sun turning the sky pink, purple, and orange as it crested the horizon over the lake where my sisters-in-Christ and I have been staying since Friday. Instead, I was greeted by a rainstorm beating down on the metal roof of the porch under which I was taking shelter.
But still, the sun rose.
But still, it got brighter minute by minute.
But still, a new day dawned.
Friends, God is still on His throne even when we don’t see His glory. God still reigns even when His presence is hidden behind clouds, and His voice can’t be heard over the pouring rain.
In God’s perfect wisdom, He had decreed before the ages that His Own Son would be hung upon a cross to die for the sins of man. In the eyes of human wisdom or logic, it appeared that Satan had won and God had been defeated.
Oh, sisters, but God. Up from the grave He arose!
Suddenly, the cries of a bird rang out over the pounding of the storm. The birds were awake and singing in the trees, despite the rain. The storm won’t stop them, and it shouldn’t stop us, either.
Darkness can’t overpower the light. The rain can’t drown out the sun. The sun still rises, even in a thunderstorm.
Heavenly Father, Death could not contain Him. A grave could not defeat Him. Darkness, no matter how deep, cannot keep the King of Glory from shining. I pray that our faith would be in You and You alone. You are Almighty. You are Victorious! No storm can delay what You have decreed. Your purposes will stand. You don’t always give us “cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels.” Sometimes you give us pitch black nights and thunderstorms that last for hour upon hour. Help me remember that the trees need the rain so they can grow, and the world needs the darkness of night so it can rest. Help me trust You, rather than myself. Help me to doubt human reasoning and believe Your Word. Help me remember that You reign over the rain. In the Good and Sovereign Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.
Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.
If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.
Please like and share.
As For Me and My House – Joshua 24 – 2025 Day 236
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 24, Joshua 24
“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” …
“Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”
He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”
Joshua 24:14-15; 22-24 ESV
Heavenly Father, What foreign gods am I serving? Where is my heart not inclined toward You? Where am I still limping between the world and the Lord rather than fully surrendering all to You? Show me where I’m falling short, Lord. I don’t want to be blind to my own iniquity. I want to love You more, that I might serve You better, for You are worthy and good. I pray that my whole family will be surrendered to Your will and live for Your glory. In the Name of Jesus Christ who died in my place I pray. Amen.
Click HERE to watch or listen to today’s podcast.
God Keeps His Promises – Joshua 23 – 2025 Day 235
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 23, Joshua 23
God is faithful to keep every word of every promise. If He said it, we can believe it. We may not know exactly when it will come to pass, but we can trust that it will.
Like He said to the Israelites as they took possession of the Promised Land,
But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you.
Joshua 23:15 ESV
Are we promise-keeping parents? If we tell our child that we will take them for ice cream if they finish all their chores, do we do it? If we tell our child that they will get a spanking if they do that ‘one more time,’ do we do it? Am I the only one who has an easier time keeping my promise of a treat than my promise of a punishment?
In God’s absolute sovereignty, omniscient wisdom, and omnipotent power, He is able to keep every promise. Let’s trust Him and cling to Him and try to be more like Him which includes not making random threats that we’re never going to keep, nor manipulating our children with promises of rewards that we don’t intend to give.
Heavenly Father, I’m so glad that I can trust You. I’m so thankful that You are honest and faithful, mighty and true. You are a promise keeping God. If you’ve said it, I can believe it. Grow my faith, Lord. Bury Your Word deep in my soul, water it with Your Spirit, bathe it in the sunshine of Your love, that it may bear great multitudes of fruit and bring You glory. I love You, Lord. Turn my heart, and my mouth, to sing Your praise and to speak Your Holy Words to others. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Words made flesh, I pray. Amen.
Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.
Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.
If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.
Please like and share.
Delayed Obedience is Disobedience – Joshua 18-19 – 2025 Day 231
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 19; Joshua 18-19
So Joshua said to the people of Israel,
Joshua 18:3 ESV
“How long will you put off going in
to take possession of the land,
which the LORD, the God of your
fathers, has given you?”
Heavenly Father, You, are my chosen portion and cup; You hold the lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance, because You are the sovereign Lord over the drawing of my lot.
Let me not delay in whatever task You have called me to do. If you’re calling me to faith in Christ, I pray that TODAY would be the day of my salvation, that I would not put it off any more. If you’re calling me to share the good news of the gospel with a friend or neighbor or family member, I pray that TODAY would be the day that I open my mouth and speak the words of eternal life. If you’re calling me to cook and clean and wipe bottoms and noses, I pray that TODAY and EVERYDAY I would work heartily at the high and holy calling of motherhood, serving You, Lord, and not men. Whatever it is that you’re calling me to, I pray that the journey would start TODAY and that I would continue FAITHFULLY by Your strength and direction.
Help me, Father, to remember that You are the God of small beginnings, and that You are the God who leads and guides and calls. In the Name of Jesus Christ my Lord, I pray. Amen.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT TODAY’S VIDEO PODCAST ON YOUTUBE.
Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.
Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.
If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.
Please like and share.
A Prayer for my Children to have the Faith of Caleb – Joshua 14-15 – 2025 Day 229
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 17; Joshua 14-15
Heavenly Father, Thank You for the example of Caleb who followed You wholeheartedly. I pray that You would give my children faith like his. Give them strength to stand alone, trusting in Your promises and in the truth of Your Word. Help them to be steadfast in the light of ridicule and persecution. Give them the courage to swim against the current, to stand out from the crowd – not in pride but in humble submission to Your holy, revealed will.
Please, Father, give each of my children a faithful friend like Joshua to walk the lonely path of righteousness with them and to lift them up when they stumble.
Lord, You hold my children’s lives in Your hands. You alone know the number of their days. Please bless them with long life, sustain them physically and spiritually, that they may testify to Your Great Goodness for many, many years, and someday, Lord, many years from now, bring them into the Promised Land of Heaven to live in Your presence for all eternity.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, the true Savior and Sustainer of Life, I pray. Amen.
All God’s Words for All God’s People – Joshua 8 – 2025 Day 223
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 11, Joshua 8
Joshua read every word to all the people, and so should we. (Joshua 8:35)
We need the Old Testament as well as the New. We need all the words, those that Moses wrote and those that Jesus spoke, those that David sang and those that Isaiah prophesied, those that Peter spoke simply and that Paul penned eloquently. We need them all.
Men as well as women, children as well as adults, those who grew up with the scriptures and those who are unfamiliar with them, everyone needs God’s Word.
I understand that there is value in making our children’s ministries age appropriate. Children benefit greatly from making crafts and dancing around while singing songs about Joshua and Jericho. But children also need to study the Word as God’s inspired, true, trustworthy Word – not some fairy tale on par with “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The Bible is more than a series of inspirational stories to teach our kids to be good and kind and helpful, not to lie or cheat or steal. The Bible is the bread of life, even for children.
Additionally, children have an incredible ability to memorize the Word. Would you rather your children memorize “Hop on Pop” and “The Cat in the Hat” or the 23rd Psalm and the Sermon on the Mount?
And let’s not forget that children have been created by God to receive with simple faith the words of their teachers and parents. Children absorb truth (and lies) like thirsty sponges. Would you rather train your children to believe in tooth fairies and boogie monsters or the Holy Trinity and the miracles of Christ?
Every word of God proves true;
Proverbs 30:5 ESV
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Proverbs 30:5 is a great verse for you, your husband, your children, your neighbor, and every person the Lord God created, to hide in their hearts.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us Your Word, that we might know You, what pleasing You and what displeases You. I pray that You will use me as an agent of Your glory and grace, guide me by Your Spirit, and shod my feet with the shoes of the gospel of peace. Help me to have childlike faith myself and to share the good news faithfully with all those whom You place in my path today, whether man, woman, or child, whether lifelong Christ-lover or lifelong Christ-hater. Give me the desire and the power to I love my neighbor as myself. In the Name of Jesus Christ who came to seek and save the lost we pray, Amen.
CHECK OUT TODAY’S VIDEO PODCAST ON YOUTUBE.
Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.
Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.
If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.
Please like and share.
FEAR NOT – Joshua 1 – 2025 Day 217
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 5; Joshua 1
Growing up, I fought a persistent battle with fear, especially fear of death. As an atheist, my life was the mere result of random chance. I thought I was the master of my own fate, and I knew I was not a very good master. I was just one of five billion people in the world, weak in both the physical and moral sense of the word.
Fear is the natural by-product of a lack of faith
in a good, all-powerful God.
As God prepares Joshua for his new job as leader of the Israelite nation, God is so kind to remind Joshua that He is going with him and that He is a promise-keeping God.
Friends, if you are a child of God, God is with you, too. He will not leave you or forsake you. He is with you WHEREVER you go. But you need to be strong and courageous to do the things He has called you to do.
If he wants to reach the Promised Land, Joshua will have to step into the rushing Jordan River. Likewise, if you want to follow God, you will have to take that first step of obedience.
That first step is often the scariest. Speaking up when it’s easier to be silent. Knocking on a new neighbor’s door. Saying goodbye to a boyfriend who’s no good for you. These are hard things, but if we never take that first step we will never see where the road leads. And taking that first scary step is oh so much less frightening when you know that the Lord has called you to it, and that He is with you.
I’m praying for you.
Heavenly Father, please help us to take that first step of obedience, to strike out into the unknown. Help us to be strong and courageous, believing without a doubt that You will never leave us or forsake us, that You are with us wherever we go. Please guide us by Your Holy Spirit. Convict us of our sin, our sins of unbelief, cowardice, and complacency. Help us to love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. For the glory of Your Name, and in the power of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen
My Teach What is Good Podcast is back! CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT TODAY’S VIDEO PODCAST ON YOUTUBE.
Find it on YouTube
Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.
Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.
If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.
Please like and share.
The Power of Song – Deuteronomy 31-32 – 2025 Day 215
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 3, Deuteronomy 31-32
And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
“Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.”
So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:16-22 ESV
In reading Deuteronomy 32, the song of Moses, don’t forget these words from Deuteronomy 31. This song has purpose, as all songs do. Songs have the power to drill words deep into hearts. I can recite word for word songs from my childhood and my teenage years even though I haven’t heard them for years. How about you?
What songs are your kids listening to?
What songs are you listening to?
What music is playing in your car? In your home? In your mind?
What songs do you sing at church on Sunday mornings? Are they rich? Are they lovely? Do they draw your heart to worship the Lord and do they teach timeless truths?
If you’ve been reading my blog regularly, you’ll know I share a song to go with our scripture reading every day. I’m so very thankful that the Lord gave us the gift of music – that we can give it back to Him, but also that we can have a song reverberating in our own hearts and minds as we go throughout our day.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us the gift of music. We want to give it back to You. We want to worship You in song. With words and with musical instruments, we pour out our praise and our griefs before You. Help us pay careful watch to the music that we’re putting in our mouths and our minds. We want to memorize whatever is true and lovely and good and excellent and praiseworthy. We don’t want ugly songs stuck inside our heads. Please, Lord, prick our hearts with these words from Your Scriptures today and help us to be careful how we walk. In the Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
If you don’t have a hymnal at home, try this one – Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories
1
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
2
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
3
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed ones of God
Be saved, to sin no more:
Be saved, to sin no more,
Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed ones of God,
Be saved to sin no more.
4
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
5
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save:
I’ll sing Thy power to save,
I’ll sing Thy power to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save.
Teach What is Good 
You must be logged in to post a comment.