📖 More important than Bible reading

I. The Kingdom of God is available to anyone who is poor in spirit.

Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount with this teaching (Matthew 5:3). The blessed life with God, which can also be understood as the “good life,” is for anyone who is poor in spirit.

Meaning, the salvation Jesus offers is not for people who try really hard, for those who think they must do more good than bad, nor only for those who have never done some heinous act.

It is for those who are like a beggar on a street corner. They have no shame in asking for help because of their desperate need.

The type of people who get to participate in God’s kingdom is not the good people; it’s the humble people who admit what is already true—they need the mercy of God.

Put another way, God’s kingdom is only for those who know they don’t deserve it.

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II. You can be a faithful, mature, and vibrant follower of Jesus and not read your Bible every day.

You will never be the faithful, mature, and vibrant follower of Jesus you could be without following Jesus in community with others, where you can learn, grow, and actually live out the teachings of Jesus.

Personal devotional time is not a replacement for being in community.

Both are great for growing in your knowledge and love of God.

But the former is not a substitute for the latter.

It is quite normal to have people in our lives that we do not like. Be it coworkers, someone who has wronged us, someone who commits evil acts, etc. But how we respond to them matters.

Matthew 5:43-45 says:

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

You don’t have to like them, but we are still called to love them. To love those who don’t deserve it is unfair, but Jesus is also unfair in how he loves and forgives us. From major frustrations to minor annoyances, the way of Jesus is to respond with love.

This week: Pray this every day: “God, would you give me someone to love today?”

This week’s question comes from Cindy. She asks if cremation is ok for Christians, and what happens to our bodies when Jesus returns if we are cremated.

Have a Bible question, or a situation in your life you want a biblical perspective on? Submit it here to be answered in a future Bible Made Simple Newsletter edition.

Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, was a very small village.

Archaeological evidence suggests it may have had only a few hundred people at most.

That means when the Gospels say people “knew” Jesus, they meant it very literally. It was a tight-knit place where everyone knew each other’s family, background, and reputation.

This helps explain the reaction in passages like the Gospel of Matthew 13:55–57, where Jesus is in his hometown and they respond with skepticism, asking how someone they grew up with could speak and act with such authority.

They weren’t just skeptical of Jesus. They were struggling to reconcile the person they had always known with the authority he now claimed.

In a town that small, it would have been hard for anyone to be seen as anything other than who people thought they already were.

1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin

A book about the great stock market crash of 1929 and its role in the Great Depression.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It almost reads like a novel and highlights the key players in Wall Street at the time, as well as key politicians of the era who played a role.

Because I am not super familiar with all stock market terms and lingo, there were times when I didn't fully understand what was being written, but I do not fault the author for that.

However, it does make some of the book a little confusing at times if you don't have a strong grasp of the stock market and how it works.

Still, I certainly learned a lot about what happened, especially since I really knew nothing about the 1929 crash going into the book other than that it was a thing that happened.

I also assumed the book would cover more about the Great Depression and how it affected people overall, but that was on me. The title doesn’t suggest that, and it mainly focuses on the stock market and its key players.

I didn't find myself bored at any time, and at almost 500 pages, I never thought, “This could be shorter.”

An enjoyable read.

8.5/10

P.S. The proper way to start an email…