Kristi Burchfiel

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 73 God is working. Read John 5. As Jesus defends himself and the miracles that he is performing, he shares that God is working. God never stopped working. He hasn’t been idle or dormant. God is working and moving and changing lives. Because of this, Jesus was working and moving and changing lives. We, as his followers, are called to him as well to see what else is going on and how else He wants to use us to work and move in all that he is doing. Are we open to being used? Are we willing to do the work? God is calling…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 72 What is it that sustains and motivates us? Read John 4. As Jesus continues his ministry, he he spends his time with a couple of people that others might not have given any time to. When his disciples ask him about this, Jesus responds with this verse. Jesus explains that following and obeying God brings sustenance and motivation that no food could possibly ever fulfill. What motivates us? What drives us to be obedient to him? Do we recognize that our fulfillment only comes through our obedience to God? There is nothing that can motivate us like seeing and obeying God’s will in…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 71 Who are we focused on lifting up? Read John 3. During this chapter, we see Nicodemus come to Jesus to understand more. Nicodemus was a well respected leader and teacher, and yet he humble himself to ask questions to understand who Jesus was and why Jesus had come. Then we see John the Baptist and his followers commenting on the fact that Jesus is becoming more popular than John. To most of us, we would struggle with the idea of someone becoming greater than we are, yet John explains that he has great joy in seeing Jesus lifted up. He explains that Jesus…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 70 What is in our hearts? Read John 2. As we see Jesus begin his ministry, John regularly givea us a behind the scenes look at what the disciples understood about Jesus in the moment and what they ultimately understood later. The disciples saw Jesus in action and they realized later that God is involved in every area of life and that God knows them better than they know themselves. God knows us. He sees us and understands what is in our hearts. Do we trust him to lead us and guide us?

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 69 What do you reflect? Read John 1. So many amazing passages here, but for me, today, this verse 8 stands out to me. As we know, the only reason the moon shines is because it is reflecting the light from the sun. The only reason our lives shine is when we are reflecting the light of Christ. We may think we shine for other reasons, but truly the only shining that we each do is when we are showing people what it means to be like Christ. What are we reflecting today?

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 68 Jesus has risen, now what? Read Luke 24. The message of Luke finishes with a beautiful story showing the grace and power of Jesus as he meets with believers in a variety of ways and settings. This verse finishes the book. They continually praised God. How do we respond to meeting with Jesus? What does our praise look like? Jesus continues to work and to move. He is not dead; he is alive. The disciples knew it and they praised God. We know it and we are to be praising Him. Do we praise God throughout our day and in everything that we…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 67 Do we ask God to remember us? Read Luke 23. As we come to the final chapters of the book of Luke, we see the crucifixion story again. Here in this verse, we see the criminal on the cross next to Jesus asking that Jesus remember him. Jesus knows us, better than we know ourselves and yet, coming to Christ and asking that he remember us and take special note of us shows him the respect that he deserves. It also shows that we are ready for him to move. God wants to move and work in our lives in amazing ways. When…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 66 What do we pray for ourselves? Read Luke 22. So often when speaking with people, or even praying with people, it’s interesting to hear what types of prayers they pray for themselves. When we think of praying for ourselves, often it’s about tests that are coming up or difficult situations or relationships with people. Sometimes it can be about money or about things we want. Here Jesus is telling the disciples that they need to pray for themselves, but what they should pray is that they would not fall into temptation. Do we pray that we will have greater obedience? Do we pray…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 65 The world is still in a crazy place. Read Luke 21. In Jesus’s time, things were weird and people wondered about the end of the world. Fast forward to today’s time, and we find people are wondering about the exact same thing. With Covid having completely changed our lives in the last year and a half and now that we find things starting to shut down again, people continue in a state of fear. The one thing that Jesus says through this chapter as a reminder to everyone is that heaven and Earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away.…

The Gospels through the Summer, Day 64 Conflict and questions. Read Luke 20. As Jesus continues his ministry, he is faced with conflict and questions. So many of the leaders see him as challenging their authority and they fear the loss of power sho they are working to discredit Jesus. However, interestingly, Jesus is able to answer all their questions and gives them nothing they can use to accuse him. While we may struggle with how we would answer questions about our faith, Jesus doesn’t struggle at all. We can rely in him to help us answer the questions that we receive, regardless of whether the questioner is sincere or…