Posts from 2023 (Page 27)
Daily Devotions
Ash Wednesday Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” vs. 1 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 For some believers, the season of Lent is a time for serious reflection on faith and its implications for daily living. They cherish the opportunity to retreat from some of their usual distracting activities by adopting one or more disciplines. Often thought of as “giving something up for…
Daily Devotions
We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way…” vss. 3-4 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:3-10 Paul had been reconciled to God through Christ Jesus, and now, as Christ’s ambassador, he believed that others might be reconciled to God through his ministry. Because of that important calling, he was now determined not to be an obstacle to anyone’s faith. His behavior…
Daily Devotions
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” vss. 12-13 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 The people of Israel were facing an invasion, not of armies, but of a horde of locusts. Joel likely knew this wasn’t the first time–the devastation wreaked by the regular migratory cloud of insects had been seen before, but he knew the country was facing a crisis. There…
Daily Devotions
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.” vss. 7-8 Matthew 17:5-9 The disciples had been blown away. It had been a spectacular vision, with both visual and aural elements, and it terrified them. But when it was over Jesus was there, not to explain the vision, but to give them comfort. And that’s what they needed, not an explanation, just…
Daily Devotions
And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” vs. 2 Matthew 17:1-9 Many of us don’t quite know what to do with the story of the transfiguration as found in the gospels. It doesn’t fit with the rest of what we read about Jesus’ Galilean ministry, and seems more like a resurrection appearance than anything else. It’s like Peter, James, and John got a glimpse of the risen Jesus…
Daily Devotions
First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” vss. 20-21 2 Peter 1:19-21 When we engage with our scriptures, it’s not unusual to struggle as we try to figure out what the various passages mean. Since we often speak of the bible as God’s Word, some believe that it…
Daily Devotions
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.” vs. 16 2 Peter 1:16-18 When Peter and the other apostles began to proclaim the gospel throughout the Roman Empire, they were regularly accused of just making stuff up about Jesus. The Jews and pagans who were their audience likely thought that these new teachings were an adaptation of…
Daily Devotions
I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’” vss. 7-8 Psalm 2 Many of the psalms in the Hebrew scriptures were “Royal Psalms” and were composed for special occasions like the coronation of a king. This psalmist imagines a dialogue in which the Lord promises that the…
Daily Devotions
Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.” vs. 18 Exodus 24:15-18 Moses had to climb a mountain to get into the cloud, and while he was there, as the story goes, the Lord gave him the two tablets of the Law. Nowadays, he could have done the same thing by typing “decalogue” on his smartphone and launching a Google search. According to some folks, that’s all…
Daily Devotions
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.’” vs. 12 Exodus 24:12-14 The strength of Judaism was not the multitude of precepts and regulations devised by its legal experts through the centuries, but its basic simplicity. Everything rested on just Ten Words or Commandments that had been etched on tablets of…
Daily Devotions
But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” vs. 32 Matthew 5:27-37 As Jesus eliminates the loopholes that were a part of the law of Moses, he doesn’t deal with peripheral items. Instead he tackles the biggies: adultery, divorce, and truth-telling. And if those topics were important in the first century, they are at the core of the…
Daily Devotions
You have heard that it was said…, ‘You shall not murder’; … But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement…” vss. 21a-22a Matthew 5:21-26 Imagine how the religious leaders of Judaism felt as word of Jesus’ teaching ministry traveled through the country. They had spent their lives defending the Law of Moses as God’s blueprint for living, and Jesus in his very first public pronouncements made a…