Blog (Page 187)
Daily Devotions: March 16, 2018
Hebrews 5:5-10 “So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’;” vs. 5 In the years before the destruction of the temple by the Romans the office of the high priest, once occupied only by the holiest of men, often went to the highest bidder. Herod the Great and later, the Roman governor would appoint and depose at…
Daily Devotions: March 15, 2018
Psalm 51:7-12 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” vs. 10 There may be some of us who are naturally blessed with pure and holy hearts, but evidence indicates that the numbers are few. Most of us struggle daily with contrary and even ugly thoughts and desires that rise up out of nowhere to plague our serenity and sense of peace. Sometimes all it takes is a glance at a…
Daily Devotions: March 14, 2018
Psalm 51:1-6 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” vs. 1 This particular psalmist was very aware of his own sinfulness and knew that he fell far short of perfection. From the days of his youth he’d regularly sinned against God and neighbor and he believed that he deserved nothing but punishment for his misdeeds. He was ravaged by guilt. As we read his confession of sin…
Daily Devotions: March 13, 2018
Jeremiah 31: 33-34 “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” vs. 34 Jeremiah was writing from the edge of calamity, the total destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, yet he looked toward the future with optimism and deep anticipation. One…
Daily Devotions: March 11, 2018
March 11, 2018 John 3:19-21 … “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” vs. 19 The contrast between light and darkness was an important one in the gospel of John. In his prologue he describes the Word as the light of the world, a light which darkness was not able to overcome. In this section, he tells his readers that even though…
Daily Devotions: March 10, 2018
March 10, 2018 John 3:14-18 …“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” vss. 14-15 We can wonder a lot about the writers of the gospels, who they were and why they were motivated to write. Obviously they never guessed that the simple stories they put together would face the unrelenting scrutiny of Greek scholars around the world. But…
Daily Devotions: March 9, 2018
March 9, 2018 Ephesians 2:6-10 … “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” vs. 10 God hasn’t given us all of these amazing gifts of grace as an exercise in generosity; but—because God is madly in love with us, and there’s a method to God’s madness. In Christ Jesus, specifically in his resurrection, there’s been a new creation in which we were…
Daily Devotions: March 8, 2018
March 8, 2018 Ephesians 2:1-5 … “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” vss. 4-5 All humans are pretty much the same. We all have strong passions, what the writer of Ephesians calls the desires of the flesh. And those passions aren’t intrinsically good or bad, that’s just the way we’re…
Daily Devotions: March 7, 2018
March 7, 2018 Psalm 107:17-22 … “Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.” vss. 17-18 The psalmist was a realist. As he looked at his people’s history and saw the way so many suffered, it was obvious that they were reaping the consequences of their careless decisions. That continues to be the way it is for so many.…
Daily Devotions: March 6, 2018
March 6, 2018 Psalm 107:1-3 …“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” vs. 1 As we move on in the season of Lent, it’s good to see how the psalmist regarded God. We spend so much time in speculation about the Lord’s identity that it’s easy to forget the essential truth that is at the core of God’s being. Not only is God omnipotent, majestic and holy, God is good!…
Daily Devotions: March 5, 2018
March 5, 2018 Numbers 21:4-9 … “Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.” vs. 6 Sometimes the stories that the Israelites told about God reflect a very human understanding of how God operates. In this one from the book of Numbers, the people have been complaining in the wilderness—they even show contempt for the food that God has been daily providing them. So the Lord gets even. We…
Daily Devotions: March 4, 2018
March 4, 2018 John 2:13-22 … “In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.” vs. 14 According to the gospel of John, Jesus cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry and not at the end. We don’t know why John chose to put it first…he undoubtedly had his reasons…but his description matches that in the other gospels. Jesus had gone up to worship but found that…