Posts by Rev. Steve Holm
Daily Devotions
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” vs. 2 Isaiah 55:1-5 Many people spend hours every day wishing they had another means of employment. Sometimes the problem is their co-workers, sometimes it’s their compensation, but often it’s just plain lack of satisfaction in what they’re doing. These folks become the target…
Daily Devotions
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” vs. 34 Luke 13:34-35 Like all Jews of his time Jesus had a deep and abiding love for the city of Jerusalem. For centuries it had been the site of the temple, which, during Jesus’ lifetime, had been completely rebuilt…
Daily Devotions
“He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.’” vs. 32 Luke 13:31-33 Luke reports that King Herod had become aware of Jesus’ ministry and saw his work as a threat to his rule. Some Pharisees even reported to Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus wasn’t intimidated. He kept on doing what he had been…
Daily Devotions
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” vss. 11-12 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Most of us are, familiar with these verses from Psalm 91, not because we’ve read them in scripture, but because we’ve heard them sung as one of the verses in “On Eagles’ Wings.” That devotional hymn, dating back to about 1979, has…
Daily Devotions
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” vss. 19-20 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Believers have always been fans of Valentine’s Day. Way back in the third century there was a St. Valentine who performed works of love and service in the area of Rome. As the years passed, stories and myths…
Daily Devotions
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.” vss. 4-6 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a Having presented love as the more excellent way, Paul now proceeds, in one succinct sentence, to define it. We’re familiar with his definition because we’ve heard it read at countless wedding ceremonies as encapsulating…
Daily Devotions
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” vs. 1 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul concluded his lesson on spiritual gifts for the Corinthians by introducing what he called “a more excellent way,” the passage we have come to know as the “Love Chapter” of the bible. He begins with a critique of the practice that had begun to divide the congregation. Some in…
Daily Devotions
And Nehemiah…and Ezra the priest and scribe,… said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.” vs. 9 Nehemiah 8:8-10 When the words of the long-forgotten law were read to the Jews of Jerusalem their initial reaction was one of deep sadness—and they began to weep. We can only guess that their sadness came with the recognition…
Daily Devotions
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” vs. 7 1 Corinthians 11:7-11 From the beginning it has been enormously difficult for humans to recognize that life is communal, particularly when the culture has been taken captive by the curse of individualism. Some actually begin to believe that everything is up to them, and that any talk of the common good is misguided. Our spiritual ancestors would have found such notions ridiculous. For them it…
Daily Devotions
Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.” vs. 4 Isaiah 43:4-7 Even though the people of Israel had regularly engaged in idolatry and their kings had been inept, in their captivity the prophet brought them words of encouragement and hope. In their brokenness he tells them they are precious in the sight of the Lord and that they are loved. That…
Daily Devotions
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” vs. 1 Isaiah 43:1-7 Through the centuries Israelites had come to believe that they had a special relationship with God. They weren’t just a scattered group of people, free to do as they pleased with life, they actually belonged to God. They were God’s own…
Daily Devotions
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.” vss. 9-10 Matthew 2:1-12 In Luke’s gospel an angel appears to shepherds outside of Bethlehem to announce the birth of the Messiah, but in Matthew’ gospel it’s a star that gets central billing.…