January 6th, 26: The Boundless Love of God: Jesus’ Good News for All People

Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible, where we journey through scripture together, drawing closer to the heart of God. In today’s episode, host Hunter invites us into the fourth day of the new year’s reading plan, reminding us that the pages of the Bible point us to the living Word—Jesus, who brings life and abundance.

We dive into Genesis chapters 9 through 11, exploring God’s covenant with Noah, the beginnings of nations after the flood, and the story of the Tower of Babel. Our reading continues in Luke 4, where Jesus, filled with the Spirit, faces temptation in the wilderness and launches His ministry with a message of hope for everyone—inside and outside the expected boundaries.

As Hunter reflects on these scriptures, we are challenged to open our hearts wider, recognizing that God’s love and grace reach beyond the borders we set. Today is an invitation to see God’s favor poured out on the unexpected, to pray for all people, and to participate in the healing, freedom, and joy that Jesus proclaims. Let’s step forward together, grounded in the assurance that we are deeply loved—no doubt about it.

TODAY'S DEVOTION:

He's outside the bounds and borders of where we expect him to be. He is present with those that we think are disqualified from his care, his healing and his love. They're from places like Zarephath in Sidon, or from the land of Syria, gentile lands, borderlands among people that are our enemies, people that we think are enemies of God, people we think are headed for destruction. And yet here's Jesus preaching His first sermon in a church service and proclaiming that God is with them too.

That God's favor, His healing, his mercy, his grace is with those people too. This made no sense to his listeners. It offended their religious sensibilities to the core. So much so that Luke tells us that they tried to kill him afterwards. But Jesus will not be stopped. He will not be silenced, and his message will continue to be proclaimed. Jesus comes to show us that God is not a tribal deity. No, he is the God of all tribes.

He is the God of all the earth. And his love for the world and its people is reaching into places that our religious minds and our offended minds say are outside the bounds of God's grace. So let's beware of drawing borders around God's love and his grace. Let's look carefully at how Jesus begins His ministry here in his very first sermon. And let us understand well what the Spirit of God is saying to his people. The good News is for the poor. Captives are released, the blind are seeing, the oppressed are set free. And the time of the Lord's favor has come.

And Jesus says that that favor has come to everyone, inside and outside of whatever borders we have constructed. And that is good news for all of us. And the prayer of my own heart today is that I will participate with him in seeing and proclaiming and experiencing the favor and love of God in my own life and in the lives of all people. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so.