Daily Devotions by Steve Holm (Page 160)
Daily Devotions: January 8, 2020
January 8, 2020 For full passage click: Psalm 29 … “Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.” vss. 2-3 In our time, God is little more than an impotent fictive being for many people. They use God’s name almost exclusively as an interjection and seldom in a prayer. They often espouse a kind…
Daily Devotions: January 7, 2020
January 7, 2020 For full passage click: Isaiah 42:1-9 … “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” vs. 1 Isaiah wrote these words with respect to Israel, and he presumed that the nation would be the agent of the Lord’s redemptive power. This was the “new-look-Israel” – a country focused not on tribal expansion, but on being the…
Daily Devotions: January 6, 2020
January 6, 2020 For full passage click: Matthew 2:1-12 … “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’” vss. 1-2 Matthew’s little tale of the wise men from the East is a familiar part of most Sunday School…
Daily Devotions: January 5, 2020
January 5, 2020 For full passage click: John 1:15-18 … “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” vs. 18 We are so blessed that the Christ was made fully known in the person of Jesus. Through that incarnation we have come to know that grace is the normative word of God for the universe. Obviously, humans have needed to invent laws of many…
Daily Devotions: January 4, 2020
January 4, 2020 For full passage click: John 1:10-14 … “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” vs. 10 It’s been hard for the world to distinguish the Christ. We’ve imagined that God is totally separate from the universe, off in some place called heaven, and that things on earth have been left up to human discretion. Even though all things came into existence through Christ and…
Daily Devotions: January 3, 2020
January 3, 2020 For full passage click: Ephesians 1:8b-14 … “With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” vss. 8b-10 According to Scripture, all things in the universe have their beginning and their ending in Christ, the one and…
Daily Devotions: January 2, 2020
January 2, 2020 For full passage click: Ephesians 1:3-8 … “just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” vs. 4 In the beginning, the universe came into being through the infusion of the Christ, and through billions of years that Christ has continued to breathe life and light into the continuing creation–and that includes every member of the human race. None have been excluded. None have…
Daily Devotions: January 1, 2020
January 1, 2020 For full passage click: Psalm 147:16-20 … “He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord!” vs. 20 As we begin a new year, some are putting together short lists of their resolutions. A few may even be so bold as to share them. They do seem more credible when they’re put down where others can see your intentions. A resolution kept to oneself will likely be the…
Daily Devotions: December 31, 2019
December 31, 2019 For full passage click: Psalm 147:12-15 … “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.” vss. 12-13 Traditionally, this is a time for recounting the events of the previous year and to celebrate the blessings of our continuing lives. Some of us will be going out to dinner or perhaps inviting friends to share drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Many will make…
Daily Devotions: December 30, 2019
December 30, 2019 For full passage click: Jeremiah 31:7-14 … “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.’” vs. 10 The people of Israel were, and are, remarkably resilient people. Over 2,000 years ago their Prophets showed relentless optimism as they looked into the future. Again and again they proclaim that even though their people…
Daily Devotions: December 29, 2019
December 29, 2019 For full passage click: Matthew 2:13-23 … “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 fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ’Out of Egypt I have called my son.’” vss. 14-15 Matthew was a master proof-texter! It was extremely important to him that the events of Jesus’ life have some basis in the…
Daily Devotions: December 28, 2019
December 28, 2019 For full passage click: Hebrews 2:10-18 … “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” vs. 18 Suffering is one of the realities of life in the world. No matter how much we might want to avoid it, sooner or later it’s going to come to us or someone we love. We might even know that it’s coming, and still find ourselves totally unprepared for the…