Blog (Page 2)
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
Isaiah 60:1-6… “For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” vss. 2-3 Even though we’ve heard the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” more times than we really wanted to during Advent, it doesn’t dawn on a lot of folks that there really are twelve days in the season of…
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…
Daily Devotions
Psalm 147:12-20… “He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs—who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.” vss. 16-18 What a year! Who would have expected last January 1 that we would have seen the changes that have taken place in our country! Some of course are thrilled, while many have been deeply distressed. The collusion of…
Jeremiah 31:10-14… “Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.” vs. 13 In spite of his concern for Jerusalem and his contempt for the policies of the king, Jeremiah could scarcely contain himself as he thought about the future the Lord had in mind for the people. His vision is magnificent, and…
Daily Devotions
Jeremiah 31:7-9… “See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labour, together; a great company, they shall return here.” vs. 8 Jeremiah was a hard-nosed prophet, and as we read his book we get an earful of judgment. The Lord was not pleased with the faithlessness of Israel and Judea. They were…
Daily Devotions
Isaiah 63:7-9… “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favour to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” vs. 7 When the people returned from exile in Babylon they found that the land of their dreams had been devastated. The walls of Jerusalem had been…
Daily Devotions
Matthew 2:13-18… “Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’” vss. 14-15 In the gospel of Matthew Jesus is presented as a new Moses, a leader chosen by God to inaugurate a new covenant with Israel. Rescued from King Herod as a…