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OUR DAILY BREAD September 5, Sunday HELP FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT Bible in a Year: Psalms 146–147   1 Corinthians 15:1–28 Return, faithless people. I will cure you of backsliding. Jeremiah 3:22 Today's Scripture & Insight: Jeremiah 3:11–15, 22 While my classmates and I used to skip the occasional lecture in university, everyone always made sure to attend Professor Chris’ lecture the week before the year-end exams. That was when he would unfailingly drop big hints about the exam questions he’d set. I always wondered why he did that, until I realized that Prof. Chris genuinely wanted us to do well. He had high standards, but he would help us meet them. All we had to do was show up and listen so we could prepare properly. It struck me that God is like that too. God can’t compromise His standards, but because He deeply desires us to be like He is, He’s given us the Holy Spirit to help us meet those standards. In  Jeremiah 3:11–14 , God urged unfaithful Israel to acknowledge their guilt

O UR DAILY BREAD September 3, Friday EMPTY HANDS Bible in a Year: Psalms 140–142   1 Corinthians 14:1–20 His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. Luke 15:20 Today's Scripture & Insight: Luke 15:17–24 Robert was embarrassed when he showed up for a breakfast meeting and realized he’d forgotten his wallet. It bothered him to the point that he pondered whether he should eat at all or simply get something to drink. After some convincing from his friend, he relaxed his resistance. He and his friend enjoyed their entrees, and his friend gladly paid the bill. Perhaps you can identify with this dilemma or some other situation that puts you on the receiving end. Wanting to pay our own way is normal, but there are occasions when we must humbly receive what’s graciously being given. Some kind of payback may have been what the younger son had in mind in  Luke 15:17–24  as he contemplated what he would say to his father. “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me

OUR DAILY BREAD September 2 THE BIG STORY OF THE BIBLE Bible in a Year: Psalms 137–139   1 Corinthians 13 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 Today's Scripture & Insight: Genesis 11:26–32 When Colin opened the box of stained-glass pieces he’d purchased, instead of finding the fragments he’d ordered for a project, he discovered intact, whole windows. He sleuthed out the windows’ origin and learned they’d been removed from a church to protect them from World War II bombings. Colin marveled at the quality of work and how the “fragments” formed a beautiful picture. If I’m honest, there are times when I open particular passages of the Bible—such as chapters containing lists of genealogies—and I don’t immediately see how they fit within the bigger picture of Scripture. Such is the case with  Genesis 11 —a chapter that contains a repetitive cadence of unfamiliar names and their families, such as S