Posts from April 2025
Daily Devotions
For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” vs. 5 Psalm 30:1-5 Most folks don’t consider that their unfortunate circumstances have come because of God’s anger. They recognize that in a broken world there is bound to be suffering, tears, and pain, and that those moments aren’t necessarily connected to our behaviors or actions. The psalmist did believe that God could be…
Daily Devotions
He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’” vss. 5-6 Acts 9:3-9 There are some who refer to this experience on the road to Damascus as the conversion of Paul, but that description misses the point. Paul was not converted, but remained a proud and faithful Jew, a man proud of his training and heritage.…
Daily Devotions
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” vss. 1-2 Acts 9:1-2 The number of believers was growing at a rapid rate in Jerusalem. Saul, a young zealous Pharisee, was appalled at what was happening and acted on behalf…
Daily Devotions
But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” vs. 31 John 20:24-31 Those who read the gospel of John are regularly puzzled by his account of Jesus’ ministry and life. Often the details seem exaggerated and many of his stories aren’t even included in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. No wonder some end up identifying with Thomas –…
Daily Devotions
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” vss. 21-22 John 20:19-24 Each of the gospel writers chooses a different way of describing what we call the Great Commission. John tells his readers that it happened immediately after Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem after his resurrection. Two things are involved:…
Daily Devotions
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” vs. 8 Revelation 1:5b-8 We’re used to the language John used to describe God. After all, many of us grew up with the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, and came to love the cadence of the words in the second verse, “Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be.” There’s a poetic quality to that description of God that…
Daily Devotions
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” vss. 4b-5a Revelation 1:4-5a John begins his letter to the seven churches with a greeting of grace and peace from the Eternal God and from Jesus Christ. His threefold description of God…
Daily Devotions
I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.” vs. 17 Psalm 118:17-19 The psalmist had feared that his end was near. We don’t know what kind of crisis he had been caught up in. The context points to a military victory over a longtime enemy, but it could also have been some dread illness, or just one of the many challenges that are faced in the process of aging. At any rate, the prospect…
Daily Devotions
The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.” vs. 14 Psalm 118:14-16 It’s fitting that a psalm of praise and triumph be assigned to this week following Easter, our great festival of life and resurrection. The psalmist, writing in celebration, loudly proclaims his trust in the Lord. Because of that strong faith he has come to see the Lord as his strength and his might, the source of his salvation. Typically we become conscious of that confidence…
Daily Devotions
But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority.’” vs. 29 Acts 5:27-32 After initial disbelief, Luke reports that Peter and the other disciples, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, began to proclaim the resurrection boldly throughout Jerusalem. Unafraid of anything, they even preached in the temple precincts and incurred the wrath of those who had so recently killed Jesus. It was a difficult choice but they were compelled to obey God…
Daily Devotions
Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.” vss. 8-9 Luke 24:8-12 Luke reports that when the women arrived at the tomb of Jesus with their spices for anointing his body, they found it empty, and were baffled. Then in a scene reminiscent of the transfiguration, two men in dazzling garments joined them and announced that Jesus had been raised from the dead. After a moment…
Daily Devotions
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.’” v. 5 Luke 24:1-6 In many cultures when death occurs, it’s the women who seem to know what to do. While men lament the loss, the women take charge of the body and get things ready for burial or cremation. Such was the case when Jesus…