Daily Devotions by Steve Holm (Page 186)
Daily Devotions: April 30, 2018
April 30, 2018 Acts 10:44-48…“The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles,” vs. 45 From the beginning, followers of Jesus have been plagued by spiritual myopia. We imagine that what we believe and experience is all that matters and that God couldn’t possibly have a larger plan. Initially, believers thought the Spirit could only work through the circumcised and were astounded when Gentiles…
Daily Devotions: April 29, 2018
April 29, 2018 John 15:6-8…“Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” vs. 6 Some verses of our scripture bring amazing comfort and peace. Others are wielded like clubs to manipulate and exclude. Jesus’ words about the vine can be used in both ways. Today’s verse has been used for centuries as a warning. People are told that if they don’t abide in Jesus…
Daily Devotions: April 28, 2018
April 28, 2018 John 15:1-5…“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” vs. 4 While faith is a great gift for followers of Jesus, there is nothing more important in their lives than bearing fruit. Over and over Jesus hammered this home in his teaching. We can have proper theologies and know all the creeds but, if…
Daily Devotions: April 27, 2018
April 27, 2018 John 4:17-21…“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” vs. 20 John sets a high bar for believers! In his estimation, loving God isn’t as easy as it might seem. Not only do we have to figure out how to be generous with what we call possessions, we also…
Daily Devotions: April 26, 2018
April 26, 2018 1 John 4:7-16…“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” vs. 12 Many of us have profound questions about God and do all we can to find satisfactory answers. Inevitably, that search will be frustrated–God is beyond space and time and inaccessible to our mortal minds. As John tells us clearly, no one has ever seen God. But that doesn’t mean we have…
Daily Devotions: April 25, 2018
April 25, 2018 Psalm 22:25-31…“Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.” vss. 30-31 It’s not unusual in these days of rapid technological advancement to read about the future benefits of artificial intelligence, robotics, cancer vaccines, immunotherapy–the list goes on and on. But rarely is there ever any mention of God in such articles. The message seems to be that future…
Daily Devotions: April 24, 2018
April 24, 2018 Acts 8:32-40…“Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.” vs. 35 If we were to share the good news about Jesus with someone, we probably wouldn’t start with a passage from Isaiah. It would be a lot easier to go straight to one of the gospels. But Philip didn’t have a New Testament–the gospels hadn’t been written yet. But he firmly believed that the Hebrew scriptures…
Daily Devotions: April 23, 2018
April 23, 2018 Acts 8:32-40…“He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ 31He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.” vss. 30b-31 Visitors to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, are sometimes surprised to see that there is an Ethiopian Orthodox Chapel and Monastery included in the complex. It’s been easy for mainline Christians to forget that the gospel took root in Ethiopia hundreds of…
Daily Devotions: April 22, 2018
April 22, 2018 John 10:16-18…“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” vs. 16 John knew that Jesus was more than a tribal Christ with negligible interest in people outside of Judaism. Even though his mission had begun among the Jews and was initially directed to them, the divine intention had always been universal. John reports that…
Daily Devotions: April 21, 2018
April 21, 2018 John 10:11-15…“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” vss. 14-15 As John recounted the words of Jesus, he often used the words “I AM” to remind his readers that Jesus was the one in whom the great “I AM” had become incarnate. Jesus was YHWH or I AM in human…
Daily Devotions: April 20, 2018
April 20, 2018 1 John 3:21-24…“All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.” vs. 24 Scripture teaches us that God is…beyond that there is little that we can know. We can assign attributes based on our highest human values, but those assignments usually say more about us than about God. God is inscrutable and unknowable, a frustrating…
Daily Devotions: April 19, 2018
April 19, 2018 1 John 3:16-20…“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” vs. 17 As early Christians began to live together in community, one basic truth became apparent to them, a truth that came directly from the teachings of Jesus. They were convinced that a disciple’s actions and deeds revealed the state of their hearts. They could not believe that God’s love could…