Blog (Page 4)
Daily Devotions
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.” vss. 3-4 Psalm 81:1-5 Each year the Israelites celebrated a number of festivals to mark the passing of the seasons and their special relationship to God. This psalm was likely used at Rosh Hashanah, a new year lunar holiday that included temple worship and that was marked by the blowing of…
Daily Devotions
Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.” vss. 12-13 Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Of all the commandments that made the Top Ten in Israel’s scripture, the one establishing the Sabbath day as holy has arguably received the most attention and caused the most controversy. The commandment itself is direct, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work,” but the problems arose as…
Daily Devotions
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” vs. 16 John 3:13-17 Most people have at least a passing familiarity with this most famous verse from John’s gospel. Even those who don’t know the words can recall having seen the chapter and verse. With that kind of notoriety, it’s unlikely that we’re going to discover anything new in its words. This…
Daily Devotions
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” vs. 12 John 16:8-15 While the situation is certainly different, Jesus sounds very much like a savvy parent as he says good-bye to the disciples and sends them off into the world. He could have said a lot more to them, but they wouldn’t understand until they had lived into a place where their ears would be opened. Some of us have had the same…
Daily Devotions
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” vs. 7 John 15:26-27, 4b-7 This text is from a part of John’s gospel known as the final discourses. Set in the context of the last supper, after the departure of Judas, they are a summary of what Jesus wanted his…
Daily Devotions
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” vs. 26 Romans 8:26-27 Praying can be easy! It doesn’t take much planning or thought to pick a table prayer to use before each meal, and often at other times we have our regular list of people–we pray for them every day, often in the same order. Occasionally we even…
Daily Devotions
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” vs. 25 Romans 8:22-25 Hope is a big part of the believer’s journey! Because life is not like a novel there’s no way we can look ahead to the last page and see how the story is going to end, and some days that just drives us crazy. It’s not that we haven’t been told what the future will be like–all kinds of scenarios…
Daily Devotions
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” vss. 24, 30 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b The psalmist understood the basics! All things have come into existence through the Lord and all things are sustained by the Lord. There is nothing whose source of being is not the Lord! For that reason,…
Daily Devotions
In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” vs. 17 Acts 2:14-21 From the disciples’ perspective what had happened with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was unprecedented. All the old presuppositions about how God works in the world had been turned upside down, and from now…
Daily Devotions
As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” vs. 18 John 17:14-19 Even though the world can be dangerous and is continuously trying to confuse and entrap us with its seductive ways, this is exactly where followers of Jesus have been sent to love and serve. In fact, if it weren’t for the presence of people of faith it’s hard telling what dreadful conditions would exist. Moral corruption would be rampant and…
Daily Devotions
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” vs. 11 John 17:11-13 In this story John pictures Jesus at the end of his ministry, meeting with his disciples for one final moment of communion and instruction. Earlier in the gospel it had been made clear…
Daily Devotions
for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” vs. 8 John 17:6-10 The gospel of John does a masterful job of connecting the Creator of the Universe directly to Jesus of Nazareth. In his familiar prologue, the gospel writer makes the claim that the Word through whom all things came into being is…