Life gets busy. Set aside 10-20 minutes when you can really focus without distractions. Read the study passage carefully - it tackles real struggles, cultural lies, and hard questions with biblical truth and historical context. Don't rush through it. Let it challenge you, make you think, even make you uncomfortable. That's growth happening. These aren't easy reads, but they're honest. Ask God to show you where it truth applies to you right now. In the middle of all the chaos, focus on Jesus.
September
Today the church celebrates Holy Cross Day, also called the Exaltation of the Cross. The feast commemorates two events: the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on September 14, 335, and the recovery of the True Cross from Persian captivity in 628. Both events celebr
September
You're almost two weeks into September. Maybe you started this month with good intentions - spiritual disciplines to maintain, goals to accomplish, commitments to keep. How's that going? If you're like most people, some of those intentions have already been compromised, some goals abandone
September
Yesterday we remembered September 11, 2001 - the day 2,977 people died in terrorist attacks. Today is September 12 - the day after, when survivors woke to a world forever changed. Families began identifying bodies. First responders searched rubble for survivors. The nation tried processing
September
Twenty-five years ago today, on September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and turned them into weapons. At 8:46 AM, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines
September
On September 10, 1622, in Nagasaki, Japan, 55 Christians were executed in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. They were beheaded or burned alive for refusing to renounce their faith. Among them were nine foreign missionaries - five Franciscans, four Dominicans - and 46 Japanese
September
You're nine days into September and maybe things aren't going as planned. Goals from earlier this month already derailed. Resolutions from last week already broken. Commitments from yesterday already compromised. You feel like failure, like you can't maintain faithfulness even for a week,
September
Today the church celebrates the Nativity of Mary - one of only three birth dates commemorated in the Christian calendar (Jesus on December 25, John the Baptist on June 24, and Mary on September 8). While Scripture records nothing about Mary's birth, Christian tradition dating to the second
September
In the United States, Labor Day falls on the first Monday of September, making this a three-day weekend for many. The holiday began in the late 1800s as recognition of labor movements fighting for better working conditions - eight-hour workdays, weekends off, safer factories, fair wages. W
September
On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, carrying 101 colonists and 48 crew members toward an uncertain future in the New World. Among the passengers were 35 Separatists - radical Protestants who had broken away from the Church of England, spent years in exile i
September
Five days into September, you're settling into this month's rhythm. Work, responsibilities, obligations pulling at you. The summer's lazy pace is gone; fall's intensity is building. School started, schedules filled, margin disappeared. You're tired already and September just began. God de
September
We're still in Ordinary Time - that long stretch of the church calendar between Pentecost (May 24 this year) and Advent (beginning November 29). Twenty-eight weeks of green vestments, numbered Sundays, steady rhythm without major festivals. For many Christians, this feels spiritually dull.
September
On September 3, 590, Gregory I was consecrated as pope. He didn't want the job. Born into Roman nobility, Gregory had served as prefect of Rome but gave up wealth and power to become a monk, converting his family palace into a monastery. When plague devastated Rome in 590 and Pope Pelagius