The Living Word: A Daily Devotional with Jeff & Dale from The Jenkins Institute
The Living Word is a daily devotional featuring Scripture and encouragement from Jeff and Dale of The Jenkins Institute. Each episode offers a thoughtful reading to coincide with the daily devotional guides from our annual devotional books. They are designed to help listeners begin or end their day grounded in God’s Word.
Episodes
74 episodes
Week 15: Thursday Appreciate the Invitation
Our text today takes us again to the parable of the bridegroom andthe banquet. When we left the Biblical account yesterday, we sawthat the king was enraged that his guests arrived at the banquetimproperly dressed. In verse ...
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2:03
Week 15: Wednesday What Should I Wear to the Banquet?
Have you ever attended a party or a special dinner and foundyourself “underdressed” or even “overdressed?” There is an oldsaying, “The clothes make the man.” The formality of the occasiondetermines the style of dress one is...
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2:15
Week 15: Tuesday Now You Have Been Invited to the Banquet, Will You R.S.V.P?
Have you ever received an invitation in the mail and, after readingthe complete invitation you saw these small letters at the end—R.S.V.P.? Many in our busy culture do not pay attention to thosesmall letters, but they are v...
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2:10
Week 15: Monday You Have Been Invited to a Banquet—Please R.S.V.P.
A parable is defined by some as “an earthly story with a heavenlymeaning.” This parable should be read along with the accounts byMark, Luke, and John. The other writers differ somewhat, butMatthew’s account is listed during...
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2:08
Week 14: Friday I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy Down in my Heart
What brings you joy? There might be many things that God hasgiven that come to mind. Your spouse, your children, your friends,your job, traveling, working out, coffee, reading, watching andplaying sports, hiking, cooking, g...
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3:26
Week 14: Thursday How Much Is This Field?
What happens when you don’t have enough money to pay for anitem you want? Do you give up and walk away? Or do you find away to pay for it? Our man in Matthew 13:44 found a way to pay forit. He sold everything else that he h...
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3:26
Week 14: Wednesday Don’t Let That Treasure Get Away!
Married people…do you remember when you first started likingyour spouse? That moment when you thought, “This person mightbe the person for me!” Maybe you were not so sure that your crushhad the same feeling for you. Maybe y...
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3:06
Week 14: Tuesay Stumbling Upon the Ultimate Treasure
In February of 2025, a couple of hikers in the Czech Republicstumbled upon an aluminum box that was hidden in a stone wall.Imagine their joyful shock to open it and find several items,including 598 old gold coins and 17 gol...
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3:28
Week 14: Monday Parable of the Hidden Treasure
What do pirates, Indiana Jones, and California miners in 1849 have incommon? They wanted treasure! Name a time in history, and you canname a successful pursuit for treasure. Jesus is going to capitalize on thisuniversal des...
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3:34
Week 13: Friday Lesson Title
“But all my friends are Christians, didn’t James warn aboutfriendship with the world and didn’t Paul tell us about how ‘evilcompanions corrupt?’” (James 4:4; 1 Corinthians 15:33).True, but we must remember God left us here ...
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3:46
Week 13: Thursday First Things First
So in scene one, the Kingdom is a treasure in a field that is wortheverything to the one who finds it. In the second, the Kingdom islike the one who found it and is now seeking great pearls in whichto invest.We sugge...
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3:37
Week 13: Wednesday One or Two
We hinted at it on Monday—today, let’s take it apart.It’s easy to assume these three verses are two illustrations of the sametruth: the value of the Kingdom. In the first, a man finds a treasure, hidesit, then sells everyth...
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3:01
Week 13: Tuesday Get Rich Quick
I imagine most of us have, at some point, dreamed of discovering atreasure—a distant royal relative who leaves us a fortune, an old lotteryticket we find on the ground that turns out to be the big jackpot, a dustypainting i...
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3:51
Week 13: Monday The Parable of the Pearl
In Matthew 13:34-35, we read in part, “All these things Jesus said to thecrowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable…”Consider the strength of that statement! Sometimes preachers are criticizedfor ...
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4:21
Week 12: Friday Be The Leaven
As we conclude our week reflecting on Jesus' short parable in Matthew13:33 and Luke 13:20-21, let us think together briefly about differentelements in this parable: the kingdom of heaven or God, the leaven hidden,the three ...
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3:18
Week 12: Thursday Leaven of the Kingdom
Context! Context!! Context!!!Despite the negative spiritual connotation of leaven—as a symbol of sinand something to be removed from nearly every grain offering and feast—there were a few exceptions. In the very short parab...
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3:19
Week 12: Wednesday Unleaven to Leaven
We have seen how leaven symbolizes corruption and evil, both in the Oldand New Testaments. However, is it not interesting that the onlysacrifices and remembrance celebrations in which God permittedleavened bread were the pe...
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3:27
Week 12: Tuesday Our Unleavened Sacrifice
Bread used in most Old Testament feasts and sacrifices, as well as in theLord’s Supper under the New Testament, is unleavened—that is, madewithout yeast or leaven. When leaven or yeast is used to make bread rise,it ferments...
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3:08
Week 12: Monday The Kingdom of Heaven Like Leaven
This week, we explore one of Jesus’ short parables, one verse in Matthew13:33 and two verses in Luke 13:20-21. Matthew records, “He told themanother parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a womantook and hid in...
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3:03
Week 11: Friday The Parable of the Weeds
“Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I willtell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles tobe burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matthew 13:30,ESV). “No Justice, No P...
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2:52
Week 11: Thursday The Parable of the Weeds
“So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gatherthem?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up thewheat along with them.’” (Matthew 13:28-29, ESV). Jesus Christ is apatient and loving Sa...
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2:54
Week 11: Wednesday The Parable of the Weeds
“But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowedweeds among the wheat” (Matthew 13:25, ESV). Jesus Christ, theOne who sows the seeds of the kingdom, has an enemy. We need toknow a few things about this enemy. Firs...
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2:45
Week 11: Tuesday The Parable of the Weeds
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowedgood seed in his field . . .” (Matthew 13:24). The Parable of theWeeds starts with such promise—a man sowed good seed in hisfield, and since the seed was good, the ha...
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2:43