Posts from 2020 (Page 24)
Daily Devotions: April 6, 2020
April 6, 2020 Isaiah 42:1-9 … “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations…” vs. 6 The Prophet believed, against all circumstantial evidence, that Israel had been called by the Lord, not to just occupy land in the Judean mountains, but to be a light to the nations. The “called people” had a…
Daily Devotions: April 5, 2020
April 5, 2020 Matthew 27:45-54 … “And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” vs. 46 Matthew and Mark report that Jesus’ only words from the cross echoed Psalm 22 and reflected his deep distress and sense of alienation. He felt deserted by God, a deep irony given his identification as the Good Shepherd, the one who leads us through the valley of…
Daily Devotions: April 4, 2020
April 4, 2020 Matthew 27:26-34 … “Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’” vss. 29-40 It’s amazing how quickly people abandoned the “Jesus Bandwagon” after he was arrested and sentenced to death by crucifixion. Surely some of those who passed by that Friday afternoon were familiar with his ministry—he’d been…
Daily Devotions: April 3, 2020
April 3, 2020 Matthew 27:11-25 … “Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’” vs. 22 According to Matthew the mood of the crowds reversed in the course of a week. They went from cheering Jesus’ arrival as the Son of David to demanding his death as a common criminal. Some explain this by saying that there were two different crowds, one made up…
Daily Devotions: April 2, 2020
April 2, 2020 Matthew 21:1-11 … “When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’” vss. 10-11 According to Matthew, Jesus didn’t exactly sneak into Jerusalem when he arrived for the Passover. In fact, he did the opposite and staged an eye-catching entry with a palm-festooned procession and a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. As a result, the whole city exploded with curiosity.…
Daily Devotions: April 1, 2020
April 1, 2020 Philippians 2:4-11 … “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” vs. 4 In his poem, The Present Crisis, the anti-slavery poet, James Russell Lowell wrote, “New occasions teach new duties,” a perfect commentary on our current “present crisis.” All citizens of the world, believers and non-believers alike, are being urged to put into practice one of the basic principles of life in Christ. In the interest of saving…
Daily Devotions: March 31, 2020
March 31, 2020 Psalm 31:9-16 … “I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.” vs 11 The Psalmist didn’t know it but his words are a pretty good description of what it’s like to be infected with the Coronavirus. Thankfully that hasn’t happened for many of us but it’s certainly something that we fear. We carefully practice social…
Daily Devotions: March 30, 2020
March 30, 2020 Isaiah 50:4-9a … “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” vs. 6 Those called by God as prophets in Israel weren’t welcomed with open arms. Even though they came teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord, most of the time they were persecuted and sometimes killed. They didn’t come with weapons or armies and…
Daily Devotions: March 29, 2020
March 29, 2020 John 11:32-45 … “Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’” vss. 35-37 The underlying motivation behind the current worldwide shutdown is the fear of death. No matter how much comfort we might find in the certainty of the resurrection, death has never become a friend to us, except in…
Daily Devotions: March 28, 2020
March 28, 2020 John 11:17-31 … “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live…’” vs. 25 Contrary to what we might expect, according to recent polling, most people believe in life after death, even those who self-identify as atheists or agnostics. It’s not surprising then that almost all funerals or memorial services make reference to the continuing life the newly departed now enjoys. For the most…
Daily Devotions: March 27, 2020
March 27, 2020 John 11:1-16 … “But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’” vs. 4 These words of Jesus seem contradictory. Whoever heard of an illness that could bring glory to God, especially one that was deadly in nature? And yet that’s what happened: Lazarus died, but his death provided an opportunity for folks to celebrate…
Daily Devotions: March 26, 2020
March 26, 2020 Romans 8:10-11 … “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” vs. 10 Sometimes when we read words like this in the Scripture, we long for the life which they promise, and we wonder what it might be like if Christ were actually in us. And we wish someone would tell us how we could actually make that happen. Does it take a…