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From Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson. Available on Amazon.com

December 10
Your First Love

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 139:1-6 | Amos 1:1-3:15 | Revelation 2:1-17 | Proverbs 29:19-20

Today’s Scripture Focus: Revelation 2

You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. [4] Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. (Revelation 2:3-4 NIV)

The Ephesian church was doing many things right. They receive mostly words of praise as Christ evaluates their progress. They were working hard, and persevering in the faith. They dealt with false teachers in the proper manner. They showed their perseverance by remaining true to the faith while enduring hardships because they were Christians.

Yet there was one glaring fault in the Ephesian church. They had lost their first love.

It’s easy to do. We do the right things, but it becomes more of…

Quote from Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson

December 9
The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 138:1-8 | Joel 1:1-3:21 | Rev. 1:1-20 | Proverbs 29:18

Today’s Scripture Focus: Rev. 1

“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:18 NIV)

How does one approach a book like Revelation? Some treat it as an exercise in speculation. They are fascinated about interpreting all the details and symbols in light of today’s news and trying to set dates for Christ’s return. Other people get confused by it all, and just try to avoid it.

Let me suggest another approach, one that I have found helpful. Try reading Revelation as a book of worship. Stand in awe of the…

From Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson

December 7
Forever

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 136:10-26 | Hosea 6:1-9:17 | 3 John 1-15 | Proverbs 29:12-14

Today’s Scripture Focus: Psalm 136

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:26 NIV)

Repetition can be a powerful rhetorical device. It brings emphasis making the point crystal clear. It enables the reader or listener to remember.

Repetition can be a powerful liturgical device. It helps us slow down and focus on a key theme long enough to let it sink in. It gives time for the truth to engage not only the mind, but the heart.

This Psalm is a great example. The love of God (Hebrew: hesed) is the focus. This Hebrew term, actually is much fuller than is suggested by the word love. It is certainly that, but so much more. It is the relentless love…

Quote from Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson

December 6
Love and Obedience

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 136:1-9 | Hosea 4:1-5:15 | 2 John 1-13 | Proverbs 29:9-11

Today’s Scripture Focus: 2 John 1-13

“And this is love that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” (2 John 1:6 NIV)

John makes several connections repeatedly throughout his letters. He repeatedly connects love for God to our obedience—especially obedience to the two great commandments (to love God and to love our neighbor). “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” 1 John 5:3.

He also repeatedly suggests that if we love God, we will walk in love toward brothers and sisters. Love for God will manifest itself in love for other people.

Here again, in verse 6, John…

From Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson

December 5
Faithful to the Unfaithful

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 135:15-21 | Hosea 1:1-3:5 | 1 John 5:1-21 | Proverbs 29:5-8

Today’s Scripture Focus: Hosea 1:1-3:5

The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1 NIV)

Sometimes God calls a prophet to do something unusual as a prophetic action. Among the most difficult is the command of the Lord to the prophet Hosea. He is to marry Gomer, a prostitute who will repeatedly prove to be unfaithful. And he is to always take her back and love her faithfully.

In this extraordinary prophetic act, God is demonstrating his unrelenting faithfulness to his people in spite…

From Open Up Your Heart by jeff Syverson

December 4
You Are an Overcomer

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 135:8-14 | Daniel 11:36-12:13 | 1 John 4:1-21 |Proverbs 29:2-4

Today’s Scripture Focus: 1 John 4:1-21

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 NIV)

You are an overcomer. There is no reason to wallow in defeat. Your greatest enemy, the devil, is a defeated foe. Greater is the one who is in you (Christ) than he who is in the world (Satan).

True, your enemy does slander and accuse. But you don’t have to listen to his lies. You are a new creature, forgiven and redeemed. There is no reason for you to remain defeated by false guilt; no reason to hang on to something God has long ago…

December 3
Love in Action

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 135:1-7 | Dan 11:2-35 | 1 John 3:7-24 | Proverbs 29:1

Today’s Scripture Focus: 1 John 3:7-24

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. [17] If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? [18] Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-19 NIV)

The identifying mark of a true follower of Christ is love.This love, always more than a feeling that comes and goes, is evidenced in practical ways through our actions.

Christ is our example. He gave his very life to prove his love for us. That kind of sacrificial love…

From Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson

December 2
Dearly Loved Children

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 134:1-3 | Dan 9:1-11:1 | 1 John 2:18-3:6 | Proverbs 28:27-28

Today’s Scripture Focus: 1 John 2:18-3:6

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. [2] Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1-2 NIV)

A great theologian was asked what he thought was the most profound thought he had ever had. He replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.” The…

Quote from Open Up Your Heart by Jeff Syverson

December 1
Worldliness

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalm 133:1-3 | Dan 8:1-27 | 1 John 2:1-17 | Proverbs 28:25-26

Today’s Scripture Focus: 1 John 2

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John 2:15-17 NIV)

John’s insistence that we should not love the world or anything in the world is easily misunderstood or misapplied. For some it signals a dualistic way of life that views life in categories where spiritual is prized over earthly, sacred is valued and secular is rejected. This rejection fails to recognize that “the Earth is the Lord’s…