The 260 Journey

Day 10Today’s Reading: Matthew 10I want to tell you the history of two groups of people who are in the New Testament—the tax collectors and the zealots. The tax collectors were Jews who collected taxes from fellow Jews for the Roman Empire. They made their living by charging an extra amount on top of what everyone owed. Some of them made more than a living. They exacted any amount they could and...

Day 9Today’s Reading: Matthew 9Matthew 9 is a chapter that is spilling over with healing and faith. A paralyzed man is brought to Jesus by his friends in verse 2 and Jesus sees the faith of the friends and the paralyzed man walks. A woman with a twelve-year disease is free in an instant. Jesus says to her, “Your faith has made you well” (verse 22). Two blind men finally see through their eyes...

Day 8Today’s Reading: Matthew 8Her name was Agnes and she was from Albania. In 1928, at age eighteen, she went to Ireland and became a nun. Almost twenty years later, in 1946, she received what she described as a call within the call. As she was riding on a train, her heart heard the Lord tell her to help the most rejected people in society, the poorest of the poor—the throw-away people of...

Day 7Today’s Reading: Matthew 7A concerned husband went to see the family doctor. “I think my wife is deaf,” he said. “She never hears me the first time I say something. In fact, I often have to repeat things over and over.”“Go home tonight,” the doctor suggested. “Stand about fifteen feet from her, and say something. If she doesn’t reply, move about five feet closer and say it again. Keep doing...

Day 6Today’s Reading: Matthew 6In the first part of chapter 6, Jesus spoke about three personal disciplines that are part of every Christian’s life: giving, praying, and fasting.Note that I said, these three disciplines are part of every Christian’s life. If you are a Christian, then they are to be part of your life as well.How do we know they should be part of our lives? Because as Jesus spoke...

Day 5Today’s Reading: Matthew 5Several years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported a story on happiness in different nations around the world. The newspaper’s title gave away the happiness level of people living in the United States: “Richest Country, Saddest People—Any Coincidence?”According to a study jointly conducted by the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School, and based on...

Day 4Today’s Reading: Matthew 4It seems Jesus can’t even towel off and get dressed after being water baptized in the Jordan River before Satan shows up and challenges what Jesus has heard.We ended yesterday’s reading in Matthew 3 with hearing God speak.Today’s reading in Matthew 4 opens with hearing Satan speak.Remember that in Matthew 3 at Jesus’ water baptism, God said, “This is My beloved Son,...

Day 3Today’s Reading: Matthew 3A little brother was jealous that his older brother was getting water baptized and he wasn’t. As his father instructed the older brother on what it meant and how special it was, the little guy left the room in tears because he wasn’t being baptized. His father followed him to find out why he was so upset. When the father asked the four-year-old what was wrong, the...

Day 2Today’s Reading: Matthew 2Obedience to God is such a powerful tool. Obedience to God will always keep you one step ahead of the enemy. Obedience to God brings you blessing. And it brings protection and puts you in the right place at the right time—exactly where God wants you to be.When we don’t obey God, we withhold from ourselves all that God has in store for us. An old friend, Joy Dawson,...

Day 1Today’s Reading: Matthew 1The whole of the New Testament starts with today’s reading in Matthew 1. This is the story of stories—and it starts off all wrong.Most adventure stories begin with the wondrous “Once upon a time” so we know we’re in for something truly amazing. That’s the way the New Testament should begin, right? After all, what is more adventurous and exciting than the story of...