Posts by Rev. Steve Holm (Page 5)
Daily Devotions
Isaiah 49:5-7… “He says, ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’” vs. 6 As the prophet considered the mission of Israel he had come to believe that the Lord had a larger vision for his Servant. He tells the people…
Daily Devotions
Isaiah 49:1-4… “And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ But I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.’” vss. 3-4 Even as the people of Israel languished in their Babylonian exile, their prophet continued to assure them that collectively, they are still the servant of the Lord. So in…
Daily Devotions
Matthew 3:15-17… “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” vs. 17 Jesus’ baptism was likely quite routine. We don’t know John’s method but it was likely full immersion. That was the tradition in Judaism, and many homes would have had a mikvah or bathtub for use in purification rituals. Since John wouldn’t have had a mikvah handy, he likely just used a pool in the river. But what happened…
Daily Devotions
Matthew 3:13-15… “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” vss. 13-14 All the gospels begin their accounts of Jesus’ ministry with the story of his baptism in the Jordan River at the hands of John the Baptizer. John was already well-known and his baptismal ministry had attracted widespread attention. Even King Herod was…
Daily Devotions
Acts 10:34-43… “Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” vss. 34-35 It’s a new Peter that speaks to Cornelius and his family in Caesarea–he’s been converted to a brand-new way of understanding the salvation of God. He’d grown up as a devout Jew and had an extremely narrow sense of who was included within the…
Daily Devotion
Psalm 29… “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” vss. 2-3 According to Genesis 1 God spoke the universe into existence. Again and again we see the repeated phrase, “And God said…and it was so.” And the gospel writer John, agreeing with Genesis, wrote, “All things came into being through the Word.”…
Daily Devotions
Isaiah 42:1-9… “He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” vss. 2-3 Sometimes we want to cry out in protest against the politicians of our age. We cannot believe that the values of our nation could be completely ignored. We’re baffled by the transfer of power into the hands of…
Daily Devotions
Matthew 2:1-12… “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.” vs. 9 Matthew demonstrates scribal skills in the writing of his gospel. He always looks for connections between the life of Jesus and the promises of the Hebrew scripture. And while sometimes the references he chooses seem unrelated we can’t deny that there are…
Daily Devotions
John 1:14-18… “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” vs. 14 John acknowledges that it’s impossible to see God. We can look at a thousand sunrises and marvel at the wonder of creation, but when it comes down to it, the sheer transcendence of God is too much for our puny minds. The best we can do is catch…
Daily Devotions
John 1:10-13… “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” vs. 10 John didn’t confine his nativity story to the stable in Bethlehem. For him everything about Jesus has a cosmic dimension. All things came into being through the Word and in a real sense, creation itself was the first incarnation. That’s such a powerful image that we can scarcely comprehend its significance. To put it in another…
Daily Devotions
Ephesians 1:7-14… “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.” vss. 7-8a When starting anew there’s no better feeling than knowing that we have a blank slate. None of the pages of our memoir from this day forward have any words on them. The story of our 2026 is yet to be written! But one thing we do know is that our trespasses,…
Daily Devotions
Ephesians 1:3-6… “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” vss. 3-4 What a great thought for New Year’s Day! Praise God! We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. We have been chosen from before time began…