Tag: Bible

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Today’s passages are Genesis 23-24 and Matthew 8. I want to focus in on Matthew 8:18-22 for the next couple of minutes.

Throughout the gospels we regularly see Jesus teaching people to weigh up the cost of following him. It’s almost as if he wants to convince people for the reasons NOT to follow him to make sure potential disciples know what they are signing up for.

There are two things I want to show you from this paragraph about the priority of following after Jesus. We’ll do this under two headings COMFORTS & COMMITMENTS.

Continue reading “Jan 9 – Genesis 23-24; Matthew 8 – THE COST OF FOLLOWING JESUS”

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Today we are reading from Genesis 20-22 and Matthew 7. If you haven’t read them yet, pause this podcast, pray, read, if you’ve got time write down your own reflections, and then come back here for the rest of the podcast.

Okay, welcome back.

I want to spend some more time reflecting on the promise of God to Abraham, and in particular regarding the birth of Isaac.

We’ve already seen the promises of God to Abraham a few days ago in Genesis chapter 12, and then in chapter 15 and chapter 17 these promises are unpacked further.

Genesis 15:5

[5] And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (ESV)

Abram – who at this stage is old and without children – is promised to have innumerable offspring. This is why in chapter 17 his name is changed from Abram – which means ‘daddy’, to Abraham – which means ‘big daddy’.

How did Abram respond to these promises?

Continue reading “Jan 8 – Genesis 20-22; Matthew 7 – THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC”

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Today’s readings come from Genesis 18-19 and Matthew 6. Do you suffer from mental drift when you read the bible? There are two things that my scattered brain has found helpful in locking into my own bible reading. First, it’s reading the bible out loud. Second, it’s listening to an audio bible. The ESV Bible App as well as the YouVersion Bible App both have this feature. If you haven’t read or listened to today’s passages yet, go do that now.

Okay, welcome back.

In Matthew 6, Jesus discussing three important religious practices:

• giving to the need (vv1-4)
• praying (vv5-15)
• fasting (vv16-18)

Jesus confronts hypocrites who do these practices with the insincere goal of being noticed by other people rather than a sincere faith that performs these practices for the audience of one: God.

I want to focus on Jesus’ teaching about prayer.

Continue reading “Jan 7 – Genesis 18-19; Matthew 6 – THE LORD’S PRAYER”

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Happy Sunday! I hope you get a chance to gather together with God’s people in a church this first Sunday of the year.

Today’s readings are from Genesis 15-17 and Matthew 5:27-48. Have a read of the passages for yourself, and then come back here for a short reflection on Matthew 5.

Welcome back. Matthew 5 is part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount where he shows his followers what it is like to be part of His kingdom. His call for them is to be countercultural as they are to be different from those around them.

In Matthew 5 you will notice that Jesus has 6 sets of opposing statements. “You have heard that it was said…. But I say to you…”

Jesus is not contradicting scripture, but rather he is speaking out against the distortion of scripture from the religious authorities in his day.

I want to focus on the final paragraph from verse 43 on loving our enemies.

Continue reading “Jan 6 – Genesis 15-17; Matthew 5:27-48 – LOVE YOUR ENEMIES”

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Thank you for tuning in, and thanks for all the encouraging comments and ideas for this podcast. We actually made it to number 1 in the Apple Podcasts Religion & Spirituality charts! Thanks for your help in sharing this podcast with others. Due to a number of requests we now have 3 social media channels you might like to follow at Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook… all with the username @butfirstbible. If you are posting any of your own reflections online make sure you use #butfirstbible so others can follow along.

Today’s readings are from Genesis 12-14 and Matthew 5:1-26. If you haven’t read them yet, pause the podcast to do that.

And we’re back.

In Genesis 1-11 there is a pattern of SIN, JUDGEMENT, GRACE. That is humans sin and rebel against God; they are rightly judged by God; and yet God shows grace and mercy to them.

We saw that two days ago with the account of Noah. SIN was the widespread wickedness. JUDGEMENT was the flood. GRACE was God saving Noah and his family.

In chapter 11 we have the Tower of Babel scene. What was the sin? Human arrogance as they built the tower in order to make a name for themselves. What was the judgment? God confused their languages and scattered them. What was the grace? To find out God’s grace we need to read on to the next chapter.

Continue reading “Jan 5 – Genesis 12-14; Matthew 5:1-26 – GOD’S PROMISES TO ABRAM”

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Today’s readings are from Genesis 9-11 and Matthew 4. Press pause to listen to God’s voice before you hear anything more from me.

Okay, welcome back.

At the end of Matthew 3 Jesus is baptised, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all present in this beautiful moment marking the beginning of Jesus’ earthy ministry.

Immediately after this Jesus is lead out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil in Matthew 4. Jesus has been fasting for 40 days and it’s at that point – when the hunger was real – that the devil, described in verse 3 as “the tempter” comes to put Jesus to the test.

I suggested two days ago that Matthew’s gospel shows many of the ways that Jesus fulfils God’s promises from the Old Testament. I want you to notice today the clear parallels between Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and Israel being tempted in the wilderness for 40 years.

Where Israel failed to be the people of God, Jesus shows himself to be the true and better Israel.

Continue reading “Jan 4 – Genesis 9-11; Matthew 4 – JESUS IN THE WILDERNESS”

Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.

Today’s readings are from Genesis 6-8 and Matthew 3. Press pause if you haven’t yet read/listened to these passages for your self.

The message of the Bible is good news. But before we can understand the good news we need to understand the bad news. A sober understanding of the bad news actually heightens our appreciation that the good news is truly good news!

From the great heights of the two creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2, we plummet quickly in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve rebel against God’s rule and reign. Sin has entered into the world and there is a downward spiral of death and destruction as things go from bad to worse. Then by Genesis 4 we have the first recorded murder.

Genesis 6, part of today’s reading, pulls no punches in its assessment of the world and the bad news of the human condition.

Continue reading “Jan 3 – Genesis 6-8; Matthew 3 – JUDGMENT & SALVATION”