Blog (Page 199)
Daily Devotions: October 29, 2017
John 8:34-36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” vs. 36 We all yearn for freedom! Early on in our lives, chafing under real and imagined parental oppression, we begin to look forward to the day when we will be free of all restraint and able to do as we please every moment of every day. We’ll do as we please when we want and our lives will be full of pleasure and joy. And…
Daily Devotions: October 28, 2017
John 8:31-33 “Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’” vss. 31-32 There’s much to be said about the faith that connects us to the grace that God so freely gives. It can certainly be described as assent, an “amen” to God’s act of redemption that takes place in Christ Jesus. And it’s…
Daily Devotions: October 27, 2017
Romans 3:25b-28 “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” vs. 28 It’s pretty much agreed among followers of Jesus that all sinners are justified, i.e. made righteous, by grace through faith. But then a sometimes heated conversation can occur. Which of those two words, grace or faith, shall get the emphasis? It can make a difference. Those who emphasize grace tend to focus on God’s initiative in salvation. They happily…
Daily Devotions: October 26, 2017
Romans 3:19-25a “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” vss. 22b-24 Martin Luther had studied Paul’s words in Romans for years and then one day a light went on for him and for the first time he saw them as an offering of grace. He had struggled with his own righteousness for…
Daily Devotions: October 25, 2017
Psalm 46:6-11 “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.” vs. 9 One hundred years ago our country sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Europe to kill Germans in what was called “the war to end all wars.” Since that time scarcely a decade has passed without our involvement in yet another “engagement.” In the process we have become the dominant military power…
Daily Devotions: October 24, 2017
Psalm 46:1-5 “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.” vss. 2-3 Humans have always had a dickens of a time dealing with the environment. We talk about the vagaries of “Mother Nature” and lament the unpredictable “Acts of God” that are a part of life in this world. It’s seems like we’re always cleaning…
Daily Devotions: October 23, 2017
Jeremiah 31:31-34 “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 describes a new covenant that God will make with the house of Israel, one not based on law but grace, and his picture now hangs on the wall of every faithful…
Daily Devotions: October 22, 2017
Matthew 22:15-21 “They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” vs. 21 The relationship between church and state has been debated from the beginning and almost every Christian theologian has spent time sorting out its intricacies. In our country we’ve long maintained that there is a boundary between the two that shall not be violated. Frequently the words of Jesus…
Daily Devotions: October 21, 2017
Matthew 22:15-17 “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” vs. 17 The Pharisees knew that if they could get Jesus to say something about taxes he’d be bound to offend someone. In those days everyone had an opinion…the people thought they were paying too much and the government kept demanding more. And now, even though times have changed, the heated conversations continue. There’s no doubt that taxation can become repressive…and…
Daily Devotions: October 20, 2017
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.” vs. 1 Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is the first of the New Testament “books” to be written and dates from about the year 51, just a little more than twenty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It provides a little window into the lives of early Christians and gives a sense of…
Daily Devotions: October 19, 2017
Psalm 96:5-9 “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” vs. 5 Our ancestors in the faith, whose stories and insights we read in our scriptures, knew that the gods of the peoples around them were no gods at all. Those household, tribal, and national deities were the products of human imagination and had no power. They had no existence beyond their images and outside their temples. The true God, the God worshipped…
Daily Devotions: October 18, 2017
Psalm 96:1-4 “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” vs. 1 We can’t be sure when humans started singing but it had to have been right around the time we started to talk. It’s one of the most natural things that we do and is probably the very best way we have of expressing joy and happiness. We’ve been particularly fond of singing as we look for ways to thank God for…