Danny Panter

Christ in Us

Re:Verse passage – John 3:1-9 (day six)

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:12

Every disciple must eventually reckon with Jesus, just as Nicodemus did. His questions were sincere, but Jesus invited him beyond curiosity to transformation. That conversation raises an important question for us: Isn’t this the heart of disciple-making? We become the kind of people through whom others encounter Christ.

John later writes, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” (1 John 4:12) The invisible God becomes visible as His love is perfected in His people. Others may never sit across from Jesus as Nicodemus did, but they will sit across from us. They will hear our words, observe our lives, and experience our love. What will they discover about Christ? May we so abide in Him that others are drawn to reckon with the same Jesus who transformed Nicodemus.

A Bigger Vision

Re:Verse passage – 1 Corinthians 16:15–18; Acts 18:1–8; 11:22–26 (day six)

The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. Acts 11:22

When news reached Jerusalem that Gentiles were coming to faith in Antioch, the church sent Barnabas to investigate. This was not a small development. For generations, God’s people had understood themselves through the story of Israel. Now, through Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit, the nations were being gathered into God’s covenant family.

When Barnabas arrived, he “saw the grace of God” and rejoiced (Acts 11:23). What he witnessed expanded his vision of what God was doing in the world. Antioch was not the destination; it was the beginning. If God could do this among Gentiles in Antioch, where else might He work? Philippi? Corinth? Rome?

The same Spirit is still at work today. One of the challenges of discipleship is allowing God to enlarge our vision beyond ourselves, our church, and our expectations. Where might God be inviting us to see His grace at work in ways we’ve never imagined?

Out of the Margins and Into Your Life

Re:Verse passage – Luke 14:25-35 (day six)

One of the great temptations of modern Christianity is to keep Jesus on the margins of our lives. We gladly welcome him into certain areas of life, but hesitate to surrender everything to his lordship.

In Luke 14:28–33, Jesus reminds us that discipleship requires more than admiration or occasional participation. Following him means counting the cost and allowing every aspect of life to be reordered around him.

Gerhard Lohfink writes, “Where faith is really faith, it cannot be shoved to the margins of life. Christian faith, just like Jewish faith, subjects all of life to the promise and claim of God.”

The image of the margin is powerful. Margins are for things that are secondary, not central. Yet Jesus refuses to remain on the periphery. He calls us to place him at the center of our lives, where our priorities, relationships, ambitions, and decisions are brought under his loving rule.

A marginalized Jesus is not discipleship. Discipleship is all of life realigned around Christ.

Sent With His Authority

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 28:16-20 (day six)

The Great Commission begins and ends with Jesus.

Before commanding his disciples to go, Jesus declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). After commissioning them, he promises, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

These truths belong together. The authority announced in verse 18 is experienced through the presence that’s promised in verse 20. That means when we go, we go under his authority and with his authority, making his presence empowering rather than just comforting.

The authority of Jesus never leads us to dominate others. It leads us to serve others. The Great Commission is not a mandate to control people but an invitation to love people in the name of the King. We go with his authority, but we exercise that authority the same way Jesus did, through humility, service, and sacrificial love.

God’s Reign

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 93:1-5 (day six)

Tomorrow is Missions Sunday. We will celebrate and exalt the God who reigns over every nation, every people, and every language. Psalm 93 reminds us that the Lord is King, not merely over Israel, but over all creation. His throne is established, His reign is unshakable, and His purposes cannot be thwarted.

This is what makes missions so compelling. We are not inviting the nations to consider a new philosophy or adopt a better way of life. We are announcing a reality: our God reigns. The church has been entrusted with the joyful task of proclaiming the good news of God’s Kingdom to the ends of the earth. From San Antonio to Kenya, from our neighborhoods to Pakistan, we bear witness to the King who is reconciling all things to Himself through Jesus Christ.

As you gather for worship tomorrow, pray that God would enlarge our vision of His Kingdom and deepen our willingness to participate in His mission. The nations belong to Him, and by His grace, we have been invited to join His work. Our God reigns.

Jesus Reigns

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 46:1-11 (day six)

²⁴After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.²⁵For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. ²⁶And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:24-26

Psalm 46 is often read as an individual invitation to inner peace: “Be still, and know that I am God.” We imagine silence, calm waters, and personal serenity. But Psalm 46 is far more dramatic than that.

The Psalm opens with the world collapsing: mountains falling into the sea, waters roaring, kingdoms raging, and nations at war. At the center stands the Lord of Hosts, the Divine Warrior, the greater King, the commander of heaven’s armies. The repeated promise is not “you will feel calm,” but “The Lord of Hosts is with us.” (Like Emmanuel, “God with us.”)

Then comes the command: “Be still,” or “cease striving.” In context, these words are not whispered primarily to anxious individual believers but thundered to rebellious nations. Cease striving. Lay down your weapons. Recognize who truly reigns.

Psalm 46 is not fundamentally about an individual finding inner stillness; it is about God declaring His victory over chaos, war, and every rival kingdom (like 1 Corinthians 15:24-25). The good news is not merely that we can feel peace, but that Jesus Himself is establishing it through His sovereign reign.

Remember

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 77:1-20 (day six)

Few things are more difficult than the silence of God. We pray, ache, wait, and wonder if He sees us at all. Psalm 77 gives language to that experience. Asaph cries out in grief, unable to find comfort, and asks questions many believers are afraid to say aloud. Yet the turning point of the Psalm is striking: Asaph does not find peace through an immediate answer or emotional breakthrough. Instead, he remembers.

He remembers the Exodus. He remembers God’s faithfulness across generations. The Scriptures consistently train us to find stability not in immediate experiences, but in God’s redemptive history.

This is why the church gathers, sings, reads Scripture, and comes to the Lord’s Table together. We remember what God has done. And nowhere is this more important than at the cross, where God seemed absent, yet was accomplishing redemption.

The absence of visible footprints does not mean the absence of God.

Gravity

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 113:1-9 (day six)

Psalm 113 lifts our eyes to a God whose glory (kavod) is His weighty, reality-defining presence. A black hole possesses such immense mass that it bends space, time, and light around itself. In a similar way, the glory of God bends everything around it. When we encounter Him, we don’t simply observe; all of who we are is reshaped by the immense gravity of His glory.

Western culture would lead us to believe that there is nothing to behold beyond ourselves; that we are the architects of our own lives. But God’s glory reintroduces transcendence. It invites us to “stay enchanted,” to seek, see, and receive the weight of His presence, a reality greater than ourselves.

It is the confession of John the Apostle: “We beheld His glory.”

And when we do, everything begins to bend toward Him.

Fall Afresh on Me

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 96:1-13 (day six)

It’s possible to know something deeply… and still need to see it again.

That’s what struck me recently while in Scotland—walking through old church buildings, standing in places where Christians once worshiped centuries ago, and in some places where they still do. Hearing familiar truths in unfamiliar settings. What surprised me wasn’t how old it all felt… but how the good news of God’s Kingdom felt so alive. Not new information, or a new experience, but renewed clarity.

Scripture calls this a “new song.”

Not a new message, but a renewed awareness of what God has done. Again and again, the Psalms call God’s people to sing; not because God has changed, but because His mercies are received afresh. “Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:23).

We are people who forget. We grow dull to what is most wonderful. But the answer is not novelty, but renewal. Seeing again. Receiving again.

And when we do, we begin to realize that salvation is bigger than we thought. Not just forgiveness, but restoration. Not just for us, but for all things.

When grace becomes visible again, the old song… becomes new.

The Bible Received in Community

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 119:1–16 (day six)

Psalm 119 does not present Scripture as mere content to master, but as a life to be walked—“joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.” The psalmist binds knowing and doing, delight and obedience. Yet this life with the Word was never meant to be lived alone. Scripture is most deeply received, loved, and cherished when it is embodied among a people who walk in it together.

We learn its truth not only by reading, but by hearing it lived in one another. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, “God has willed that we should seek and find his living Word in the witness of a brother.” The Word takes on flesh in community: spoken, practiced, and shared.

To store up God’s Word in our hearts is also to place ourselves among God’s people, where that Word is rehearsed, corrected, and lived. Scripture forms us most fully when it is not isolated in us, but embodied between us.