By Pastor Stephen Hess –
Over the course of 2024, the Highview family took a year-long devotional journey through the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Many people from the congregation expressed how spiritually enriching this journey was and how much it helped them grow in their understanding of the great doctrines of our faith. Some have asked, “Do we have anything similar in store for 2025?”
We are excited to announce that we have another year-long devotional journey planned for 2025. However, instead of working through one of our historic confessions, this year we will be taking a journey through the entire New Testament!
At Highview, we believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God, and the only foundation for our lives. It is only by reading the Bible that we know who God is and what he requires of us, therefore it is essential for every Christian to be rooted in God’s word. However, it can be hard to remain rooted in God’s word on a daily basis. Sometimes even when we try to start reading the Bible more regularly, we become easily distracted and discouraged if we don’t have a plan. That is why we want to provide you with a tool to help you in your study of Scripture in 2025.
As we prepare to start the new year, we will be making available free copies of the ESV Daily Devotional New Testament. This daily devotional explores Matthew through Revelation in one year. Each day includes a reading from the first half of the New Testament (Matthew through Acts) and a reading from the second half of the New Testament (Romans through Revelation). Each day also includes brief reflections on the passages of the day as well as a prayer prompt to help you pray about what you’ve read. This accessible devotional provides insights into the biblical text and encouragement for godly living.
We hope that these devotionals will serve as a useful tool for individual spiritual growth throughout the course of the year. However, we don’t want this to be merely an individual journey. Therefore, we plan on integrating these Scripture readings into at least two other areas of our church life in 2025.
First, each Sunday during the year, we will include the gospel reading from the devotional in our worship service. This will provide a way for us all to experience the journey together and tie our weekly readings to what we are hearing and meditating on in corporate worship.
Second, each Sunday we will also include a weekly bulletin insert with discussion questions pertaining to the passages for the week ahead. The purpose of these discussion questions will be to help you reflect on the passages and discuss them with others. We encourage families to use these for daily devotions at home. You could also discuss them with a spouse or a friend from church. The questions are simply one more tool for you to engage the Scriptures.
Our prayer is that this devotional journey will bring us all closer to Christ in 2025. Whether you are brand new to the Bible or you have read it many times before, we believe that this devotional will be both accessible and enriching for you, and we encourage you to come join us on the journey!