Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Malachi 3–4; Psalm 148; Acts 5 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved.
TODAY'S EPISODE Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible. Today is October 16th, and we're making our way through Malachi 3–4, Psalm 148, and Acts 5. Together, these passages invite us to see the God who is at work renewing his creation and bringing life to his people.
In Acts 5, the apostles find themselves imprisoned for proclaiming Jesus. But prison walls cannot contain the good news. An angel opens the doors and sends them back into the temple with a simple instruction: tell the people about this life. That's the message. That's the gospel. Jesus has come to give us life, and that life is meant to be received, enjoyed, and shared.
TODAY'S DEVOTION The Message Is Life
There's a beautiful moment in Acts 5 that I don't want us to miss. The apostles have been thrown into prison. The religious authorities are determined to silence them. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opens the prison doors and tells them to go back to the temple and give the people this message of life.
I love that. This message of life.
Not a message of fear. Not a message about who's in and who's out. Not a political platform or a religious agenda. The message is life. And that life has a name. Jesus.
Sometimes I think we've made the gospel so much more complicated than it needs to be. We've turned it into arguments to win, positions to defend, and lines to draw. But the apostles weren't sent into the world to win an argument. They were sent to bear witness to a person. They had encountered the risen Jesus, and in him they had discovered the life that God has always intended for his children.
And here's the wonderful thing. That life isn't simply something waiting for us on the other side of death. It's available to us now. Christ is present with us now. His life is at work in us now, drawing us out of fear and into love, out of isolation and into communion, out of darkness and into light.
So maybe today we can put down some of those things we've been carrying. The need to convince everyone. The need to be right. The need to defend God as though God were somehow threatened by our questions or our doubts.
Instead, we can simply receive the life that Jesus gives. We can become people who bear witness to that life through kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
That's the invitation today. Receive his life. Live in his love. And share that life with the world around you.
And that's a prayer that I have for my own soul. And it's a prayer that I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, and everyone who's making their way through the Bible with me.
May we discover again today that the gospel is wonderfully simple.
The message is life. And that life is found in Jesus.
You are loved. No doubt about it.
TODAY'S PRAYERS:
Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.
Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
And now Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, Joy. Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life. Amen
And now as our Lord has taught us we are bold to pray...
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image. And nourishing us with spiritual food, now send us forth as forgiven people,...
