Blog (Page 155)
Daily Devotions: April 14, 2019
April 14, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 23:31-49 …“Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.” vs. 36 According to Luke’s sources, Jesus’ last words were, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, the Inspired One expired, and gave up his spirit. Whether or not this is a description of what happens at the point of death is not the…
Daily Devotions: April 13, 2019
April 13, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 23:13-30 …“But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.” vs. 23 In a world where despots are in control, matters of justice are subject to the whim of the ruler. According to Luke, Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and had him crucified anyway. The demands and loud shouts of the crowd were all that mattered. As citizens, we have an interest in…
Daily Devotions: April 12, 2019
April 12, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 23:1-12 …“But they were insistent and said, ‘He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to this place.’” vs. 5 The scribes and the Pharisees were right. Jesus had stirred up the people with his teaching wherever he traveled. He had painted a picture of the kingdom that touched the hearts of the multitudes and made them feel as though they were loved and…
Daily Devotions: April 11, 2019
April 11, 2019 For full passage click: Philippians 2:5-11 …“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” vs. 5 Jesus was the incarnation of the Christ and so are we! In us the very essence of God is pleased to dwell, and through us the world is being transformed. This truth has been around for millennia and it’s about time that we begin to take it seriously. It’s not that we’re called to puff up our…
Daily Devotions: April 10, 2019
April 10, 2019 For full passage click: 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 tough times will often reveal our truest and dearest friends. If we’re involved in a scandal, some sort of obvious misstep, folks will fall all over themselves in establishing distance; there’s no way they’ll want to be tainted…
Daily Devotions: April 9, 2019
April 9, 2019 For full passage click: Isaiah 50:4-9a …“The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” vs. 4 The prophet had a gift and he knew it. God had given him the ability to offer words of encouragement and consolation to hurting people. But he also knew that a…
Daily Devotions: April 8, 2019
April 8, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 19:28-40 …“As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen…” vs. 37 The crowd of disciples that had accompanied Jesus from Galilee could not contain itself as they crested the Mount of Olives and the Holy City came into view. As they…
Daily Devotions: April 7, 2019
April 7, 2019 For full passage click: John 12:5-8 …“Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’” vss. 7-8 Judas’ suggestion wasn’t a bad one. The perfume was very expensive, there were many poor people in Jerusalem, and the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Sometimes it really…
Daily Devotions: April 6, 2019
April 6, 2019 For full passage click: John 12:1-3 …“Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” vs. 3 Both Luke and John tell us that Mary and Martha are friends of Jesus and that they lived in the village of Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. Because they show up regularly in our gospel readings and preachers…
Daily Devotions: April 5, 2019
April 5, 2019 For full passage click: Philippians 3:10-14 …“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” vs. 12 Suffering and death were not obstacles for Paul. In fact, he saw them as the means by which he might identify totally with Christ Jesus, and then experience the power of resurrection. While those things lay in the…
Daily Devotions: April 4, 2019
April 4, 2019 For full passage click: Philippians 3: 4b-9 …“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.” vs. 7 Paul was a proud man! He loved his tribal roots and his religious heritage. He loved his knowledge and his blameless life. Some of us know what that feels like. We’re proud of our ethnic purity and the quality of our education. We hang our advanced degrees on the wall and love…