The House You're Building

        Orient  John 18:1-27 In the next two chapters, we will read of the arrest, trial, death, and burial of Jesus.  Today’s reading contains unique content only found in John and will cover the arrest and interview before Annas and Caiaphas. Peter’s famous denial of Christ is also described.       Introduction Anyone else getting a constant stream of meal prep advertisements?  I get the appeal; your meals are planned for you and ingredients delivered to your door.  Plus, you get to keep the recipes to make again once you stop the service.  I have never used one because I love to cook at have too many recipes in the que to try as well as getting back to old favorites.  No matter what I make, I always need to have olive oil on hand; it is a staple in all my dishes.  The process of making oil involves many ways of destroying the olive, grinding, processing, and pressing to ...

   Prepare Your Heart: Read Matthew 6:1-6.   Pray about the heart behind your service to God.   Is there any areas in your life where God wants to purify your desires to serve Him? Integrity is a quickly vanishing trait.   Not many people seem to value doing what is right, even when no one else knows.   As a parent this quality is something I want to develop in them, so it is important for me to first look at my integrity in light of God’s Word.   As I’ve studied the word and its meanings, the definition in full is not quite what I expected.   The word brings a sense of completeness, fullness, innocence, and simplicity alongside one whose heart is pure and whole before the Lord.   In many of this word’s use in the Bible, it is used to describe the heart (Gen 20:5, 1 Ki 9:4, Psa 78:72).   I would recommend reading Psalm 101 in its entirety before looking in Proverbs, as its theme is the godly man full of integrity. ...